Hey guys, found out my S is leaking oil at the head/block. It's either got a warped head and/or a blown head gasket (it's twice hit 4 bars on the thermostat -- probably unrelated though, I had air in the coolant lines). Planning on pulling the head soon and getting it checked out by a machine shop just incase it might be warped.

If you have any recommendations for head shops in the Seattle area, please let me know. I'm up in the Northgate area, closer the better.

Thanks!

 

DG Machine is an awesome machine shop, their located in auburn tho. And they are who sspeedfactory has do all their machine work... So there ya go

 

Perhaps Accurate Engines is worth contacting? http://www.ae4rpm.com/

Maybe Highlands East Auto Parts and Machine shop as well.

 

Cool, thanks guys. I also spoke with Honda of Seattle and they said they use http://autosportseattle.com/ I'll give 'em all a call and see what makes sense.

 

In 2010 I had Autosport Seattle build me a race engine. I blew headgaskets left and right on the race car. Turns it out was the fault of the machinist (whomever Autosport Seattle farmed it out to for Machining) did a lousy job, same goes for reassembly as the rear main seal blew that same year (and it was due to improper installation). Finally, on a recommendation of my neighbor who's in the industry I went to Brad @ Xact Machine (in Bothell). He has a proper shop on his own land but did amazing work. When my head was done I could see my reflection in it. It's now done something like 20+ races and still feels as peppy as the day I rolled it off the dyno.

I remember walking into Brad's shop holding my cylinder head and without even knowing why I needed work the first words out of his mouth were; "blown headgasket?" I was a little shocked and asked how he guessed that. He said machine work like will only end in 1 result... headgaskets.

I'm going to have Brad @ Xact Machine build my next race engine, block and head. Brad's #: Four-Two-Five 487-4325


p.s. other then the crappy machine work and blown seal, the bottom end of my engine built by autosport seattle has held together, FWTW. Just make sure anything you have machined you can see your reflection in, seriously.


Look at the surface of this cyl head: This is what you don't want. Not the glassy surface it should be (but I didn't know any better) Click image to enlarge.

 

Also, MLS head gaskets need to be re-torqued, regardless of what the instructions say.

 

Not sure what work youd have done all at once, but if you are doing more than just having them deck the head/block for "flatness" then you might wanna consider this.

Phil at Highlands East is good, but as i recall he isnt setup to do FRM sleeves. I had a prelude that had FRM and he couldnt machine it to spec for some reason. Its a fairly labor intensive process and i had a few guys in the renton area tell me they COULD but werent WILLING to do it or that the cost would be too high.

Again, if just a head/block decking, no problem-o.



Since we are talking about this, is there any value to using an MLS gasket or something other than the stock one?

 

It think there will be several opinions regarding this but my experience is this:

Many OEM gaskets that were originally not MLS are being replaced by MLS OEM parts. himike would know this for sure I imagine but I believe some Honda head gaskets went through this "update" such as the D16a6. Also, one nice thing about MLS is that you can order them in different bore diameters (for over-bored cylinders) and in various thicknesses (3-layer, 5 layer etc).

 

I think I need to get my valve seats machined down... any recommendations? This seems straight forward, so I'm assuming a shop like D&G or Xact could do it no problem?


https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/108...d-valve-seats/ if you want the gory details.

 

Yes i hate to be the guy like use my machine shop! but i have been going to DG Machine for over 10 years. i have taken Big Block Chevy, Old crap Mopar, Nissan KA, Ca, and SR motors or heads. An old b16A head and gsr block, Which after re_ringing and P&P on head made 40+ hp (Base was 171hp,142tq>After was 213hp/170tq) no changes to parts just a hone, re-ring, and head P&P/valve grind.

MY f22C Head coincidentally had a very similar situation to yours pitting on valves, the seats looked rough. I also had him throw in an Ap1 exhaust cam, new retainers/springs, and turn/zero my flywheel and clean up the inner ring where there was minor damage due to loosening flywheel bolts.. and i want to say my total was under $600.