Should I rebuild the engine in my CRX?

[DaraSue]

The saga continues...

I'm attempting to replace the valve cover gasket, because after some degreasing there appeared to be oil leaking from around it. Has anybody worked on 80s Honda engines and can tell me what I'm looking at? There's what feels like a plastic bit around the rim of the cover, is that the old gasket? If not, the old gasket seems to have just... disappeared? It would explain the leakage.

20180331_103140[1].jpg

The cover also looks warped in the front by the oil filler. I assume I have to replace the whole thing instead of trying to pound it back into shape with a rubber mallet or something?

[Alex Brooks]

The saga continues...

I'm attempting to replace the valve cover gasket, because after some degreasing there appeared to be oil leaking from around it. Has anybody worked on 80s Honda engines and can tell me what I'm looking at? There's what feels like a plastic bit around the rim of the cover, is that the old gasket? If not, the old gasket seems to have just... disappeared? It would explain the leakage.

20180331_103140[1].jpg

The cover also looks warped in the front by the oil filler. I assume I have to replace the whole thing instead of trying to pound it back into shape with a rubber mallet or something?

I would definitely think you need new Valve Cover. the gasket looks to me like it is melted to the cover? did the car over heat ? to melt like that if it is melted I would think the head or block is warped too. I hope someone with more knowledge than I can chime in.

[DaraSue]

The good news is, after further investigation the part I thought was plastic and part of the cover turned out to be the old gasket. One of the little knobbly things had come out of the notch in the cover and gotten warped but the actual cover doesn't look as bad as I thought. I might order another one if I can find one just in case I need it later, though.

20180401_104420.jpg20180401_104428.jpg

The bad news is, my replacement gasket doesn't have the knobbly things so I need to order another one now. RockAuto got the last one here in a couple of days so hopefully I'll have it by the weekend.

The block doesn't look terrible, at least to my admittedly untrained eye. It's gotten toward the top of the temp gauge a couple of times but never boiled over to the point where I had to do more than replace the head gasket.

[dodint]

Plan B, if you need one: https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/...549744438.html

[DaraSue]

Plan B, if you need one: https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/...549744438.html

Nice one! But mine has sentimental value.

[DaraSue]

The saga continues... I replaced the gasket, but it's still leaking a little from the same place where the last gasket had come loose and warped. I tried it without any sealant b/c officially it's not supposed to need any and the new one was a little bent out of shape from being in shrink wrap for however long it was at warehouse so I was afraid of gluing down and then having it turn out it wasn't really in place right, but I guess I'll take it all apart in a couple days and try it again with Ultra Black. And if that still doesn't work I'll continue the search for a new valve cover.

[Lwanmtr]

Duct tape?

[dn010]

If you put the VC cover on a flat surface, you can use a hammer to tap down on the valve cover lip that is warped. Some people use screw drivers to pry up a stuck VC, or a hammer (which could be what happened by the oil filler, hard to tell by the pictures) in order to get them off. Things get damaged when they realize they had forgotten a bolt while prying the thing up. If you are desperate, you can try to coat the gasket and mating surfaces with shellac (you can find it by the RTV in a small brown plastic bottle with white metal cap, Indian Head). It seals well for the most part but may ruin the gasket (upon disassembly) should you need to remove the cover again later down the road.

You can try looking for engines on eBay but shipping can be a killer. Engine rebuild is an option but if you do it yourself there are many errors you can make that will negate all the time and money spent. Tough decisions to make.

[DaraSue]

The actual valve cover isn't in as bad of shape as I thought - if I set it on the ground the edges look pretty even. But when I took it apart to try and seal it with Permatex I managed to snap one of the bolts that holds the cover onto the engine. I'm trying to JB Weld the bolt back together and hope it'll stay together long enough to make it to the shop. I'd been planning on taking it in anyway because it was leaking from the seal between the distributor and the cam shaft and I didn't feel super confident about trying to fix that myself, plus it probably needs at least one new cat so I'm crossing my fingers that the actual engine isn't as close to the end of its life as I'd been led to believe.

[dn010]

You will likely get by with a snapped bolt and not have it leak terribly. You should be fine getting it to the shop.