How do I fix Cydia's problem with refreshing?

How do I figure out what the problem is, how do I fix it, and how do i change a head gasket.?

• I have a 1996 acura integra gsr and one of the valves is sticking and i dont want to pay $600 to fix it. I would love to do it myself. Is it best to have a mechanic fix it or is there a way to fix it with me and a friend. Please tell me what the problem most likley would be.

• Answer:

  If I take your problem literally, you have one valve sticking in its bore which is called a valve guide. The valve guide is pressed into the head of which I will assume you have a four banger as I don't know of any 6 cylinder Integras. Problems of this nature generally start with people neglecting the oil and driving the car hard... hey it's a GSR right? Loads of fun hitting that VTEC at 5500 rpm! So now you've got a rough engine and maybe some tapping noises... life sucks in the fast lane sometimes doesn't it? But... what do you do about it? You must have a quote for $600 to state that amount and hopefully, your lesson would be learned... the head would be fixed and you can hit that VTEC with fresh oil this time. Answered... done deal. Or... You can see if you can unstick the valve by cleaning up the inside of that engine. I've heard of racers draining the oil from the engine and refilling it with KEROSENE which is an oil based product. They add one quart more than the system calls for and they DON'T CHANGE THE OIL FILTER. Your engine will have enough oil coating the parts and in the oil filter to supplement the oil based kerosene to protect it from damage while merely idling. Of course you can opt for any number of store bought motor flushes and follow the instructions on the can as well. At least you won't feel like you are hurting anything since some firm is dictating what to do and not some stranger on yahoo answers. When you are confident the motor is clean, change the oil and filter add some Kreen to the oil (www.kanolabs.com) and run it. You will have to hope and pray that a good internal cleaning will free up your stuck valve and your problem become a thing of the past. Otherwise, you are into some head work. One of the simplest answers for head work is to bring the head in and swap it for another that has already been rebuilt. You'll have to investigate a source on your own... I just don't have the time right now. The timing belt will have to come off to do it so you might as well replace that as well. disassembling the head to get the valve out is not hard but requires some specialized tools to compress valve springs etc. Changing the head gasket is one of the easier things to do once the head is off but you must make absolutely sure the block surface and the head surface are flat and clean. Otherwise, you will simply blow the head gasket not long after finishing such a project. Resurfacing the block or the head takes a machine shop... good luck getting the engine block to the machine shop with the head off. If you do decide to fix it yourself, you will need to buy the service manual from www.helminc.com before you start and you will need to know which valve is causing your problem. For that, you will need to do a compression check... the problem cylinder should show up with lower compression than the others. If it were me, I would do the cleaning routine and start saving my money for $600 to let a pro handle the job... a cheap alternative in the long or even in the short run. Good luck!