That's a good idea about air pressure into the oil pressure switch. I'll try something to pressurize itat the opening at the deck.

At this point I'm putting it back together with the new headgasket, so I'll see whether the problem goes away. I'll have my fingers crossed, but maybe I'll be looking for a shortblock.

I noticed that center rear bolt, too. The area around that bolt head is up higher than the others - so the longer bolt is needed to achieve the same thread engagement in the block. My head bolts were pretty tight, but they came out with some muscle with my 18"breaker bar. I'll run the bolts themselves into the holes just to check.

 

"I wasted a good chunk of today with the crank pulley, &I never got it off. I gave up,slacked the tensioner & took off the camshaft sprocket. I'll put the new timing belt on later."

This aspect of Accords has caused more grief thanany other for DIY and probably pros as well. Only solution I'vefound is theHonda Harmonic Balancer Restraint Tool (available from many sources on ebay, etc), good quality breaker bars (1/2"x 18" or 24" length), and a cheater pipe (~1" ID x 3ft) to slip snugly over one breaker bar and increase effective length. Brace one breaker bar w/ restraint tool against the ground or body to lock the crankshaft from turning, and use 2nd breaker bar to turn the bolt using a 19mm deep socket and extensions to bring the swing plane of the breaker bar outside the wheel well. The cheater pipeis usually necessary to generate enough torque to break the bolt loose. My break-out torque estimate based on previous jobs is 700-900 ft-lbs of torque to break some bolts. Some will be looser and release w/ substantially less.

good luck

 

One further warning. Be sure to align the crankshaft and cylinder head valve assy w/ TDC before installation of head so you don't have the turn them independently to align after installation. Remember they interfere!

good luck

 

Yea, those work great!!! But if you do a lot of em, a good 3/4" impact gun is much quicker and easier.

 

True, but how do you re-install w/ a specific torque w/o the restraint tool? Surely, you don't use an impact wrench to install[:-]

For DIY'rs using an air impact may not be an option, and installation still requires the restraint tool.

regards

 

I've got a Milwaukee electric impact gun, that's done it before (but not the same car). Then I tried restraining the crank with a crowbar in the starter opening. Idon't have 3/4" drive stuff,soI usedmy 1/2" breaker bar with extensions beyond the fender & a support underneath the outboard end of the extensions. There's a substantial amount of flex in the extensions, but with a pipe Iprobably got over 400 lb*ft. Also tried heat on the bolt with ice on the pulley...

Anyway, the other thing I have to admit is I don't have a compressor. I found a stopper & hose for the pressurized oil passage to the head, & used a tire pump. Duct tape over the oil drainback holes was the weak point. I could only get about 10 psi before the tape opened up somewhere.

But the water jacket was filled with water, and I was watching for bubbles around that same area. Since I didn't have to see an actual rise in the radiator water level, I hope this was a reasonable test. No bubbles at all. So I'm still in the same boat not knowing.

I work out of town, so I'm not home to finish until Friday night. Fortunately we can share some cars around here...

 

Here's the type of restraint tool I have.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Honda...spagenameZWDVW

This and a couple of good breaker bars w/ cheater pipe will get the job done.

good luck.