89 CRX Head rebuild - what to do?

[Richy Gonzalez]

Unfortunately, I overheated at my last race and blew a head gasket. Given that the head is aluminum and that the motor has over 120k miles, I'm thinking is time to send the head out. So my question is this, what should I have done the to the head? Also, what would be a fair price for a machine shop charge?

...and if anyone have horsepower/torque gains given the head work, it would be most appreciated. If you don't want to disclose the info, email me privately at [email protected].

Thanks!

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Richy Gonzalez
#21 ITA CRX

[plank]

Richy,

I am of the belief you can't do much. We just rebuilt a 91 with about 110K on it totally. What we did to the head was do a good 3 angle valve job, had them press in new bronze value guides, those are free so we upgraded those, and we bought new stock springs as well as new valves, again stock. The reason for the new springs is with the new ECU tuning you spin higher RPM's and need to make sure your springs are up to it. We put in stock springs as our interpretation of the rules was they had to be stock. We port matched everything ourselves. As to what it all cost I could not tell you as we had the bottom end done and some very close balancing done with the entire bill being about $900. We believe the engine if pretty well bulletproof we ran it last week and will break it in this week. Time will tell.

D Plank

[racer-025]

You can't do much more to the head then what Plank said. But you can replace the cam, for a 90-91 cam. It is slightly better. Also, have it plained .025, for a little better compression.

[Phat-S]

Probably asking the obvious but have you spoken to Tom at OPM (http://www.opmmotorsports.com)?

Sorry to hear about your motor Richy. Best of luck with it.

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Adam in Charlotte
#42 CRX Si
ECHC H4/SCCA ITA

[bobpink]

You will be hard-pressed to talk to Tom for a while. The team is leaving for Mosport with their World Challenge Proteges Tuesday morning and will be on the road for the next couple of weeks. You can talk to Blake and he should be able to provide you with most of the info you need.

Bob Pinkowski
Atlanta Region SCCA
OPM Motorsports
ITS Honda Prelude
(when we find the time to race it)

[This message has been edited by bobpink (edited May 14, 2002).]

[Richy Gonzalez]

Thanks for the replies. I did send a email to Tom at OPM and he replied back. He basically said the same things everyone has said here, deck, springs, 3 angle valve job, etc. However, I was not thinking about 90-91 cam. Actually, is a 90-91 head the same as an 89 except for the cam?

Again, thanks everyone!

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Richy Gonzalez
#21 ITA CRX

[racer-025]

88-91 Si heads are all the same and it is legal to swap the cams.

[HiRcc#19]

hey rick how is the racing going . this juan from miami. escort 19. iam running a integra this year. so you oeverheated . that means you running hard.

[Richy Gonzalez]

Juan,
Great to hear from you! Yeah, we had the car up to 3rd in class before the car started to get hot and had to back off. Well, my codriver had it up to 3rd before he pit'ed So how's the Integra doing? Did you sell the Escort yet? My wife and I are expecting our second child now in June so I probably won't race again until Daytona in August. This way, I'll have so time to fix the car and possibly have it painted too.

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Richy Gonzalez
#21 ITA CRX

[HiRcc#19]

wow""""" that is a very nice. boy or girl. well the integra is recently done still not use to it. i need to tunned it .but overall it good. i still have the escort for sale . some guy is coming to take a look at it today. any way keep in touch
p.s nice pic of your car. hope we can meet soon.

[Chris Wire]

Originally posted by Richy Gonzalez:
Yeah, we had the car up to 3rd in class before the car started to get hot and had to back off. Well, my codriver had it up to 3rd before he pit'ed

Ummm....Richy? After the on-the-track, off-the-track, on-the-track-again first lap, the mighty yellow CRX was running in second place! Between the exit of the chicane and T1, I passed the #73 CRX, #57 CRX, and the (cough,cough) ITA Mercedes w/ the custom headlight job! Check the video.

No one was gonna catch Wilding, though. That boy was GONE!



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Chris Wire
Team Wire Racing
ITS Mazda RX7 #35
[email protected]

[Richy Gonzalez]

Chris,
Now that you mention it, I do recall you getting the car into 2nd place. woooohoooo .....and the video confirms it! Yeah baby!

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Richy Gonzalez
#21 ITA CRX

[This message has been edited by Richy Gonzalez (edited May 16, 2002).]