head gasket problems

[14 sec. windstar]

so i was re asembling my head and i thought to use my old head gasket and head bolts and it turns out it didnt seal right... sound about right? and i have new oil so i cant really tell if its mixing with water or not but in my radoritor theres oil over the top.. and on my 1 spark plug theres alot of oil... and it doesnt smoke alot it warms up... but the weird thing is... i have nooo power at all this all sound righht? i just wanna check... thanks

 

[norcalgsr]

You should never reuse a head gasket after it's been installed. As far as head bolts some of them can be reused as long as they aren't the type that stretch, but in general you should also replace them as a precaution.

 

[hatukazi]

you should always use a new head gasket when you remove your head, even if t was only a week old when you took it off. I hate to have you do your whole job over but try again with a new headgasket and it should run a whole lot better.

all those symptoms sound like a blown headgasket, or just bad sealing around your waterjackets( oil in your radiator ). you might want to try a compression check just to make sure but I would bet you just need to replace you headgasket with a new one.

or you could try re-torquing you head bolts.

 

[14 sec. windstar]

oh ya i know i had a new head gasket but they messed up and gave me a wrong one.. and im pretty sure my head bolts were strreching when i first pulled them out.. i was just making sure im right here on all this... plus im a baller on a budget and no honda dealership has head bolts in stock so i tried going with apr and the only place who had them in stock ran out and i cant wait 2 weeks to have them shipped

 

[phat87mazdarx7]

I just did a head gasket to, that was not a bright move a head gasket is only like 20 and the 30min-6hrs you can spend working on it is worth tons more. my problem was worse than yours though, i bought the engine for a dx non vtec civic for $5 and a 6-pack of hineys because a guy my friend knows thought he knew what he was doing so he put a new head gasket on the engine and it still didnt work. so I started messing with it, I pulled the head off and got the gasket off and I was heated. I thought I just pulled the head off for nothing. i look at the gasket and its perfect, not tear or cracks or anything so again I was pissed. the next morning when I could see better I saw the block and head(head was hung up on my cherry picker) and it had old gasket material from the original gasket, the dumb ass didn't clean the head. so I cleaned it up with a cookie disc and put it back together(with a new head gasket) and all is good and it runs like a charm.

Make sure you get all the old gasket off when you take that thing back apart(that is worse than reusing the old gasket) it can warp the head and give you a really nasty oil leak(it was about a quart an hr before I redid everything)

 

[14 sec. windstar]

oh damn that sucks.. ya i got an oem head gasket from honda (112) and just re used my on head bolts... work great just i think my new cams are hittin my timming belt cover that it attacted to my vavle cover everytime i hit vtec... weird huh? but thats all in another post... and yeah i made sure everything was spotless when i put it back together even if it wasnt the mating surface gotta make it look good right?