Preparing for HLA, FGS, and VC gasket service

[MrMazda92]

I'm tired of the tap tap tapping every time I go for a spin, so I'm saving money and planning a weekend to replace my Friction Gear Springs(The washer on your camshafts), clean and port my HLAs, and replace my leaky forward VC gasket.

I just figured I would post my plans here, since I'm bored and online for once.

Time is a bit of an issue, since I work 5-6 days a week and need my car for every single one of those days... This is going to be hell. I'm losing about 1/2 a quart of oil a month through the front VC, it's a terrible shame I haven't had the time to fix it yet.

[Mi|<E]

Try replacing the oil with some auto tranny fluid to help with the lifters ticking.
Do this prior to an oil change and presumably your valve cover gasktet change.

[wytbishop]

...or...you could use HD motor oil and not sacrifice viscosity to get the high detergent properties. I usually do this when I install an engine that's beensitting around a while. Run it for about 100km and then change the oil back to whatever you normally use. The HD oil will come out black after a few hours of running time.

ATF in the engine is kind of ghetto man.

[PATDIESEL]

I bet the friction gear lowers the noise enough to satisfy you. If not just save some more for solid HLAs and be done with it.
Make sure you ONLY use gasket maker where the manual says to and make sure you use the proper torque order. If you can get some, use HondaBond. It is THE best gasket maker in the industry IMO and I know a bunch of race car guys that use it on their cars. Any Honda dealer will sell you a tube for 15-20 bucks, but it is worth it. You might be able to even get a partial tube for cheap to free.

[Mi|<E]

sacrifice viscosity to get the high detergent properties

Your talking about a ~0.8 cSt difference at 100 Celcius, thats not going to make
a real world difference.

ATF in the engine is kind of ghetto man.

Let me rephrase, add some ATF to the already existing oil to top it off before an
oil change, do not replace all your oil with ATF. Use about half a liter max. Seafoam
also works really well for the lifters ticking when added before an oil change.

[MrMazda92]

I appreciate the replies, and there are some good tips there(some I've tried before, to brief success)

My reasoning for the HLA porting is that I'll already have the VCs off, and I really don't like the idea of tearing it down again in a few months. Seafoam worked well enough for the lifter tap before, but it came back about 3,000 miles later. It's not cost effective for me to keep doing it, so I'd really rather just find a more permanent fix.

SLAs are definitely going in my 2.5 build, but I'm not planning to keep the K8 in the car forever, so taking the time to shim them is out of the question for me.

I remember seeing a thread before about porting out the HLAs, I just don't remember if it was on here or ProbeTalk. Searching here yielded nothing, and PT search is a joke at best. Any chance the author is a regular anymore?

Thanks guys.

[hgallegos915]

Why is this car burning oil? Isnt it more expensive to fix the ticking? Are you doing it or someone else? Why dont you source out a junk yard klde and ecu instead?

[PATDIESEL]

Don't forget to take the new friction gears ove to your Kl when you change the motor. Don't blame you on waiting for a Kl to get SLAs... I should really get SLAs in my ZE, but it is more work and I would rather mess with something that makes it faster. GL.

[Daninski]

Keep us up to date on your progress. Let me know if you still want the ZE pistons. If the compression test isn't satisfactory I'll be tearing down the ZE in about 2 weeks. If the pistons are good I believe you had first dibs. I will of course make sure the pistons are good first (right Ryan ) Cheers.

[MrMazda92]

Hector,
My front VC is leaking oil onto the exhaust manifold, it's not truly burning the oil(until it falls on the mani).

Pat,
Believe me I'll be doing just that, the SLAs seem to be a worthwhile mod, especially since you can get them fairly cheap.
Thanks for the reminder though

Dan,
Sorry I didn't mention it, I assumed you'd sold them to Ryan already :S I actually found a set a while back, have them sitting in the pile with the rest of my KL build haha. I'm short a G4 mani, SLAs, gasket/bearing kit, and a good machine shop. Well... aside from the money bit, of course!