Leaks
 

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MY06 ~147000mi
valve cover gasket?
vtech solenoid gasket?
head cover bolts?
head gasket?
just bought last week. was low on coolant in reservoir when I went to check it out. topped it off on the spot. oil looked good no milkiness on dipstick. drove 4 hours back home and around town. a few days later the coolant reservoir was back to low. topped off again and now two days later coolant is still at max. put some cardboard down last night and its still clean right now. doesn't overheat. heat blows hot. got an oil change on the fly at a local service station 4 or 5 days ago as I didn't have the tools to do it at home; didn't get a look at the old oil. checked the oil cap it is clean. dipstick is clean. radiator is full of nice blue coolant. tried running the engine with the radiator cap off to check for bubbles and I didn't see any but the coolant started to overflow from the radiator after a few seconds so I shut off the engine. the exhaust is blowing a little bit of smoke; its not pale white or copious amounts but I have an untrained eye so I wouldn't be confident to say either way. I'm not wanting to drive it right now lest I cause more severe damage.
Can someone please help me out on what to do from here or point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance.

Seems that your coolant was quite a bit low. Took two refills (to minimum?) to get to the point the engine is holding constant coolant.

I'd get those gasket sets (except for head gasket and valve cover grommets, not head) --- and see how well that stops the oil leaks. Then, go from there, in terms of other places the oil maybe leaking.

Good luck! :)

BTW... is the valve cover damaged? Or is this a minor injury to the paint? (Photo in link)


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hey buddy thanks for the tips. Two refills over the period of two or three days. Its holding coolant now but I haven't driven for more than ~30 miles since I filled the reservoir the second time. I will take your advice and order those parts. That is not damage to the cover just the paint crackling about. I wanted to show a view of the stain by the (hose?) right there. Thanks again

looks like someone took off the valvecover and did not reinstall it properly. Most likely the cover bolts were not torqued to spec as a number of areas are leaking. PCV valve also appears to have a small leak, probably not torqued down properly when installed last.

If it was me I'd get a new valvecover gasket kit from Honda, replace all gaskets that come in the kit including the spark plug wells. Key part of the installation is torqueing the nuts to spec. You are likely getting leaks under the spark plug cover too as they probably didn't do anything correctly.

The pcv valve looks old, I'd probably replace that as well and torque it to spec. If you don't want to replace it then try to tighten up the old one.

Can't tell if the vtec solenoid is leaking, but chances are it's the valvecover and the oil is dripping down in the same area as the vtec solenoid so I'd try the valvecover fix first.

Just ordered the valve cover gasket kit. should take a couple days. Considering replacing the pcv valve but its a whopping $25+shipping so ill clean it and replace unless its bad. Currently waiting on my torque wrench to arrive in the mail. I'll keep watching DIY videos and searching the threads until then. Thanks for the help 0.0

All of these are fairly easy DIY -- follow some of the DIYGuys YouTUbe videos from one of our forum locals:

I would do everything zeroptzero and windhund116 said:

• Valve cover gasket git
• Spark plug tube seals

But since you're also going to be in there, and I find doing duplicate work to be a PITA, I'd do the following as well:

• Compression test (so you can have peace of mind and a baseline)
• Valve adjustment *AND* inspect the retainers for overrev damage per Billman250's instructions posted throughout s2ki
• VTEC gasket kit:
  Amazon
  Amazon
• PCV Valve
• New spark plugs (proper torque at ~24-25 ft-lbs)

After driving with the above for 3k miles, whilst carefully monitoring oil and coolant usage each gas fillup (or more), I'd also do the following:

• Oil and filter change (and send that oil to Blackstone to be tested $25)
• Coolant change and bleed (with the proper Billman250 bleed technique)

But that's me -- I believe in getting a clean, healthy baseline when purchasing a new used car. Other stuff like brake bleeds, clutch bleeds, tranny and diff fluids can be done at a later time.

Oil Cap and TDC O-Rings, vtec oil pressure switch O-Ring, TCT Peep Crush Washer, and PCV Crush washer, and oil dipstick or orings should all be in the list too

yup first I am going to do a combustion leak test with the test kit I ordered from amazon. Then the "new owner, what to do first" checklist along with replacing the gaskets. going to add all the things Deckoz mentioned to the priority list as well. Thanks Harry and Deckoz. This forum is cool. So much wisdom it boosts my confidence to work on my baby myself. Thanks again everybody now I feel like I have a good idea of where to start.

I'd change the valve cover gasket...

valve cover gasket just came in the mail today. will post an update once I switch it out. thanks jyeung.