snitm

(But you do realize that I've now jinxed myself and in time this hondata gasket _will_ fail on me.. damnit!)

dc2-2-ap1

it is not a jinx. Jinx implies it would have been fine, but now it won't. Failure is not an "if", it is a "when" with the hondata gasket. I ran one many years ago. After hearing horror story after horror story I pulled mine off. I am so glad I did, mine had developed the crack/warping/discoloration on the section between the upper radiator hose and #4 intake runner. The damage was about 80-90% through the section. Couple thousand more miles and I would have had to get a new motor. That section tends to warp and crack, which leaks coolant into the #4 cylinder and causes the motor to overheat. Also, the gasket runner cutouts were horrible. Created gaps or left intrusions between the intake manifold runner and head. Air flow was not smooth at all.

Car Analogy

My understanding was they become loose as the gasket deteriorates and compresses. So loctite wouldn't address that.

s2000Junky

In this thread its sounding like I'm in the minority. Ive used a Hondata and currently on a less expensive Blox gasket. Mind you on both I did some port shaving to get the gasket to properly fit without any obstruction into the port, but that was pretty easy. Ive got a lot of trouble free years out of these, never had a problem. That's not to say you couldn't eventually, but I ran the same Hondata gasket on two separate motors when supercharged for maybe an accumulative of 80k miles and the current Blox NA for 17k now.

s2000Junky

Ive heard this too. But I never had a problem with it. I sometimes wonder if this has actually happened to people, or if its just a fear that gets propagated without actual incident.

S2KiChad

funny seeing this thread as my balladesport bored out intake manifold was really dirty as well, I emailed them about it and their response was that it was service that is why their were no cleaning involve. was a little disappointed on company that pride themselves on s2000 to send out a dirty intake manifold with their name on it. in all it was minor, I was going to clean it anyway for a piece of mind. I would recommend using a degreaser/water and a couple of brake clean should do the trick.

also on the thermal gasket I just had to replace one due to crack near the coolant inlet due to age (brittle?). also bolts/nut was finger tight after 40k miles. I thought about using exteneded intake studs (speedfactory or arp) and Loctite to compensate for the thickness but not worth it for the long run. but for all you interested in the thermal gasket just make sure you don't overtighten and check bolt torque every once awhile and you should be fine.

Car Analogy

More detail please on the porting you mention. Some detail about what you did, what tools you used. Etc.

Do you think its possible that the fit issues you addressed, could cause the bolts being loose issues that others, who presumably didn't do such machining to fit, have experienced?

Like maybe over time gasket deforms itself to better fit the unported areas, hence bolts now loose? So that by making it fit right the first time, you avoided these issues?

s2000Junky

The gasket holes weren't 100% aligned with the head and manifold ports, meaning there was up to 1-2mm of material in places I had to remove with a dremel (as my choice of tools) to make sure no obstruction in flow. I don't see this having any bearing on mounting/bolts coming loose etc, just flow/performance. The fit was otherwise perfectly fine on both brands.

Car Analogy

Thanks. Rereading your previous post its clear now. When you said 'get the gasket to fit properly without any obstruction into the port' I thought you meant obstruction of the gasket itself fitting into the port, as if it had some sort of protrusion that fit into the ports. Which in retrospect would be a really silly design. Of course its really just a flat, thick gasket.

What I should have understood is you meant obstruction of airflow into the port. My bad.

panda25

i figure any horror stories is from improper iinstall. my mechanic actually suggested i get it done if doing intake manifold swap.