chris_barry

Oil and oil fumes from the PVC valve and crankcase breather enter the inlet system upstream of the valves.

Also, at certain rpms there will be some reversion which carries some of the burnt charge/residue up into the inlet manifold before it is sucked back into the cylinder.

The ports, combustion chambers and pistons have what most would consider an excessive amount of carbon buildup. Its also very oil wet, normally the carbon is relatively dry with a velvet texture to it, not dripping wet with oil.

SPFSkyline

It looks wet in pics, but is hard as a rock. If head comes back with nothing wrong I will be much more concerned with the intake manifold.

marcucci

Nothing obvious, but...

- as mentioned the carbon is normal.
- from your pics you don't look like you have a head issue. It is normal for the coating to come off the HG upon removal.
- before the head comes off is the time to do a proper leakdown and listen for the leakage. Without that info all you can do is disassemble the head and motor to find the source of leakage.
- if the HG had an issue, you should have had some fouling of the coolant or coolant in the oil. I'm guessing the engine no longer has oil in it to check for water, and probably no coolant either.

Unless your 01 happens to have almost no miles on it, I'm guessing there is some slight scoring of the #4 cylinder walls and the valves are all fairly worn. I would put my money on moderate leakage past all the valves, due to age, and some premature wear on #4. Rotate the crank around so that #1 and #4 are at BDC and take some pics of the cylinder walls inside. If it looks just like the others, with no vertical marks, I would check the deck and head for flatness and then check the valve seats. Chances are you can just to a basic valvejob (upgrade to AP2 retainers and newer oil bolts for insurance) and put it back together.

SPFSkyline

Car has 74k miles on it. I still have the coolant and oil in my garage, no noticed mixing at all. If I were to rotate crank to BDC is it a problem getting it back to TDC to put thing together? If I understand correctly, putting the cams back on right rests on the fact that it is at TDC and the marks line up on the gears? Honda "did" leakdown while it was still in 1 piece, they were just not helpful and told me they needed to take the head off to know for sure. Head is going to get checked on Monday. How can the intake manifold be cleaned, or is it even worth it?

lowerlattitudes

I sit corrected....

marcucci

IMHO it won't be the head gasket. After 20 years or so of working on Hondas I've only seen I think 2 HG failures, both from severe overheating of the motor.

Everything you've documented so far indicates that's not the issue, but, still- you need to check the head and block for flatness. If they are OK then I'd say the HG was not the culprit.

What I see, time and time again, though, especially on the F2xC, is that the valves bend slightly at a slight overrev OR age poorly, getting pitted/worn and losing their seal. I also see MANY 00-01 AP1's with the old oil bolts being run slightly low on oil and causing the #4 oiling issue.

Rotating to BDC is a simple matter of turning the 19mm bolt on the crank pulley clockwise 180 degrees (half turn). If the timing chain is still installed then you will need to grab it and pull it up to remove slack, otherwise the slack will jam up the lower (crank) timing gear. Simply pull it up to take off slack and rotate the crank around.

At this point I would say vacuum out any junk in the cylinders as gently as you can, as if the bores look OK you may be able to get away with slapping a rebuilt head back on. It's not ideal but depending on your finances it's a cheap way to get another 100k or so out of the motor. If the bores are OK, that is.

Putting the cams back on, yes, is a simple matter of getting the cams lined up, but if you've not put the rocker towers back in, you will be hating life. Get someone that's done it before to help you. Be VERY careful not to lose or mix any of the rocker (VTEC) pins in the rocker packs.

bpaspi

Yes, I have thought of what I'm saying / writing.
The only way that oil of that amount can cloak the IM is from BlowBy coming from the crankcase.
And the stuff in the IM on these pictures is 100% oil - no carbon. Burnt oil or gasoline has a dark dry surface with a slight grey texture because of containing ashes. Compare it with the combustions chambers in the head.

Here is a picture of my engine. Look at the dry and clean intakes.



I still recommend a check of the rings. I'm sure there is at least one piston with broken or stucked rings. Using the wrong oil with high temperatures may be a cause for stucked rings and heavy oil consumption.

SPFSkyline

Just checked cylinders 1 and 4, don't look scored to me. However, I am not an expert by any means. I added the pics to the Album and posted them here. I am hoping it is just top end with the seats or something. Excuse the ignorance, but what part are the rocker pins, and what is so hard about putting the rocker towers back on?


Cylinder 4 - Intake Side


Cylinder 4 - Exhaust Side


Cylinder 1 - Exhaust Side


Cylinder 1 - Intake Side

bpaspi

I'm still wondering if in this picture the Top Ring is visible



If it is really the ring, the ring-gap should be in the position of the green line. But this is a minor problem. I'm more concerned about the large gap between the piston and the cylinder wall

SPFSkyline

I'd have to look at the cylinders again. It would make more sense for something to be wrong with 2 and 3 since they were the ones losing 25% when tested. Head is getting vac tested today and I will know more tonight, or tomorrow.