yogi

Yea, what I said is what's happened. The part that the bottom of the valve face bangs on is the valve seat. These are pressed into the head and can usually be removed and replaced. When my dad money shifted my s2k, Honda replaced 4 valve guides, but they were all over-reamed (the whole was too big), so I had this issue with 4 valves

Here's two images to show you what it probably looks like:

snowball

Thanks Yogi. I'm getting a good sense of what the problem is now.

I don't know the extent of the damage to the cylinder head since I didn't see the parts. Looking through the Service Manual, it doesn't seem like the valve seat can be removed and replaced. It looks like the valve seat is literally a hole cut to the proper specification in the cylinder head. Since he didn't mention anything about resurfacing or recutting the head, I guess the head is being replaced.

I guess this means I'll have to break-in my engine again?

RACER

Your rings and cams will still be broken in

yogi

Yea, heads don't really need to be broken in. Joe Alaniz told me he could remove/install new valve seats (they're pressed in, that's why it looks like part of the head itself), so I'm sure it's possible, but nobody Honda can send that head to will be as good as Joe, so it's better they're just replacing the whole thing.

Intrepid175

On the break-in stuff with a new cylinder head and/or new valve seats.

1. With a new cylinder head, you've got new valve guides. I'd take it a little easy for the first couple of hundred miles to let the guides wear in. Maybe not the full 600 miles that Honda recommends on a new car but you get the idea.

2. If they do replace the valve seats on an old head, I'd have the valve clearances checked after 600 to 1000 miles. Generally, a competent shop will get the new valve seats pressed in properly but it's still not uncommon for there to be some "settling in" of the parts after the engine has been run for a while. If this happens, the valve clearances will tighten up with mileage and you'll have the subsequent risk of burned valves if it's not corrected.

Just a thought!

Good luck,
Steve R.

yogi

good points. 1000 Miles might be a bit much, from what I know (very little ) valve faces and seats break-in very quickly, like your first drive home. I think there's enough clearance to not have to worry about break-in, but good advice anyway. It's always good to take it easy the first couple of hundred miles after work like this...I'm just being picky .

Intrepid175

Do valve faces and seats actually go through a break-in process? I can understand it with parts that slide next to each other such as piston rings in the cylinder, etc.

I would have thought that if the valves and seats are properly mated to each other (matching angles and such) at assembly to form a proper seal, then that should be that.

Anyone?

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

yogi

There's always very small variances, you never get a perfect fit, but I think the first couple hundred open/shut cycles seats everything up properly. It's really no big deal, like I said, I was being picky

Reading my post again, I see that I forgot a few words! What I meant by having enough clearance was that the inside of the valve guide and the valve itself has enough clearance (I think) to not really need to be broken in. The seats, like I said earlier, the first few hundred cycles should be enough.

B SweepeR B6

hey, i want to do a compression test as well where cna i go to do it and how much will it cost? i have this problem where the car seems to have died down a little bit, a lil slower and doesn't seem as strong as it was before and it only has 8500 miles. before vtec would pull lke a mo fo now its like hardly as noticable. could a compression test help me out to find this problem?

Billman250

Good call...you other guys called a head job, when it's possible all he had was a tight valve.