Pulled the head of the B

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xj0hnx

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My buddy who's buying the Civic wanted to start tearing the engine down to see what we are working with, so we pulled the head yesterday. The top end is alright, today, or tomorrow we are taking off the oil pan to see the bottom end.

The red around the cylinder walls is actually the coolant, not rust. Cylinder 1 still had water in it. The busted extension was a Craftsman, busted while taking off the head studs, I thought it was the bolt turning. Had to use a four foot breaker bar to crack the torque on the head bolts.
 

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wow, i'm surprised nobody else posted on this one.

was this engine rebuilt or did the bolts seize up?
 
That motor must be certified in SCUBA
 
wow, i'm surprised nobody else posted on this one.

was this engine rebuilt or did the bolts seize up?

Actually it's the very first time the head has been off it since 1994. I don't think they were seized per say, as they all required about the same amount of negotiating to get off, but they were definitely higher than the spec torque.



That motor must be certified in SCUBA

Lol, yea it is. When we took off the intake tube some real nice crap came out of the little resonator on it.

One thing we noticed is that cylinder 1, the one with standing water, the piston is higher than 4, they should be the same. We are hoping that just the rod busted, and the piston is ok, and that there's no damage to the walls. If the pistons are ok we'll see if the shop can get it, the block, usable, he already has B16 rods, and rings. If it's damaged but can be bored than we need to figure out what pistons to go with, my suggestion was to kick up the compression, but he wants to keep it as close to OEM as possible, and boost his D once this is back to DD status.
 
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whats the back story? i didn't know it was out of comission...
 
whats the back story? i didn't know it was out of comission...

Went to go get some Jack in the Box during a flood, stayed in the left lane, water didn't look deep, but there is a dip that was smack dab in the middle of the "puddle". Water came pretty much to the hood, if I had the snorkel on there it wouldn't have sucked in anything, but everything below the intake box was gone. I've been parting it out to offset the cost of our Maxima, and a friend decided he wanted it, as is so I am selling ti to him.
 
Get some RS Machine OEM copies; $200 for the set with wrist pins and rings. You can go .5 or 1mm oversized too.
 
You will have to have the whole bottom end checked. Hydro locking a motor can bend rods, crack the sleeves or block, damage pistons.... Looks like the head could you a good cleaning and inspection as well. FYI if you hydro lock shut off the car right away, hopefully this will save the motor. Pull all the spark plugs out, unplug injectors and crank the motor, this will spray out all the water.
 
damn looks like alot of work ahead hope it turns out well ull probably want to get new head bolts since they were torqued down that hard the bolts are most likely stretched
 
Get some RS Machine OEM copies; $200 for the set with wrist pins and rings. You can go .5 or 1mm oversized too.

I'll mention those to him once we get into the block. Still haven't gotten into it, no time :(

damn looks like alot of work ahead hope it turns out well ull probably want to get new head bolts since they were torqued down that hard the bolts are most likely stretched

ARP on the head and rods is the plan even if we go all OEM, or as close as we can.
 
It would be cheaper and easier to just get a good motor or bottom end. You may up spending the money to check the block and find out it is no good anyways. OEM head bolts are good to 200whp.
 
It would be cheaper and easier to just get a good motor or bottom end. You may up spending the money to check the block and find out it is no good anyways. OEM head bolts are good to 200whp.
The problem with OEM head bolts is you're can't reuse them. ARP you can reuse over and over.
 
The problem with OEM head bolts is you're can't reuse them. ARP you can reuse over and over.

That and the slim possibility that the B might wind up being the boosted motor. The plan is to keep AC, swap in all the power equipment to the hatch, gut the coupe, which is his current car, with the D, and boost the D to hell, but as they say a plan is only good until the first shot is fired.
 
Finally got into the block, and found the culprit. Looks like the rod snapped under the force of trying to compress water, and when the crank came back around the rod that was still on the crank jammed against the under side of the block in the crankcase. I guess this is the best case scenario since the cylinder walls are still baby butt smooth, and it didn't punch through the bottom of the block.
 

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ouch thats not good.. but good thing it didn't damage the block. I would get the crank checked if it slammed the bottom of the block..
 
ouch thats not good.. but good thing it didn't damage the block. I would get the crank checked if it slammed the bottom of the block..

Yea, once we pull it all out of the car, the head, and block are going to a shop to get checked out and cleaned up, then we're going to rebuild it back to OEM.
 
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