Soviet

I just recently noticed some oil accumulating on the outside of the head. I can't tell if it is leaking from the corner of the valve cover or from the VTEC solenoid. I opened up the VTEC solenoid and the gaskets look good to me.

S_DosMil

Probably the vtec solenoid. Pretty sure it's a common leak. I replaced my gasket awhile back and have had no issues since then. Looked exactly the same.

Soviet

Hm... But my gaskets look mint. I'm not an expert though.. I read in other threads that the gaskets were actually deteriorated.

S_DosMil

Hard to tell by the picture but it looks a little flat. That's exactly how mine looked.

Soviet

Hard to tell by the picture but it looks a little flat. That's exactly how mine looked.
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OK thanks for the feedback. I have a spare vtec solenoid from another motor I had laying around. Let me pop in those gaskets and see if that helps.

Slowcrash_101

Better think about getting a new gasket(s), although it looks as if it's coming from the valve cover, but that can't be right if IRC you did a valve adjustment not too long ago right? So if you changed the gasket, it shouldn't be leaking unless you have a little piece of something caught between the VC gasket and the mating surface. But yeah those gaskets look really flat, probably what's leaking. Clean the area with some diluted simple green, or break cleaner, you'll clearly see where it's coming from, even more-so if you put a bit of powder.

Soviet

I did do a valve adjustment (good memory!) but I didn't replace the valve cover gasket since the reason I was in there was for a loose adjustment nut making noise. Let me grab my other gaskets..

Soviet

I just did a comparison between my other gaskets and my gaskets DO look flat. Check it out!

The dirtier (unpainted) vetc solenoid is the one that was on the car (150k)
The one with better gaskets came off a motor with 40k.

jkelley

yea that is obviously flat flat flat lol

Unsung_boss

I've got the same leak currently and did a bit of reading here actually >>
There was a whole thread about how you can only get the lower gasket with the sieve at the bottom (goes between solenoid and head) but the gasket between the solenoid cap and the rest of the solenoid itself you can't order or buy on it's own despite being very similar to the K20 solenoid.

I did see on the recent Wheeler dealers S2000 episode that they bought the gaskets on their own and slide them out of what looks like Honda part packets but they hold it upside down so we can't see branding... will maybe send them a mail and ask them .

If anyone has a part number for it please share ? I need one too for my AP1 and i'm all the way in South Africa. lol

I've found one on Ebay but the "manufacturer part number " in the description is BS-VTC-GAS which doesn't look right and I don't think it's an OE part. .