Hey guys,
Hoping maybe other fellow B series owners who track their B's can chime in with their experiences, but also looking for any other general advice!
Ever since I moved from D series architecture to the B series in my track day Civic, I've had repeated VTEC solenoid gasket failures after every track weekend since this engine has been in the car.
The failure pattern is fully observed at this point:
- Install new VTEC solenoid gasket to repair the previous broken/leaking one.
- Attend a one or two-day HPDE event, thrash the car as normal. No leaks or issues all weekend.
- Trailer it home. Let it sit on the trailer for another day out of laziness after the event.
- Crank the engine up to back it off the trailer to put it in the garage, observe the gusher of an oil leak from the VTEC solenoid mounting surface between the solenoid body and the cylinder head.
- Remove the solenoid to inspect, find the gasket cracked/fractured along the top area where the metal screen is.
And repeat the cycle.
Here's what the failure looks like:
Things I've done so far:
- Inspect the solenoid body and cylinder head for burrs, sharp protrusions, etc. - none.
- Monitor for high oil pressure - normal, nothing crazy during cold/warm/hot/on track operation (85lbs cold idle, 35lbs warm idle, 25lbs hot idle, 78lbs hot/WOT on track at 8500RPM)
- Try other gasket manufacturers/resellers - 5 different sources tried, everything from eBay cheap, Dorman aftermarket, and dealership Honda.
- Different ranges of fastener torque - OEM service manual fastener torque with a calibrated 1/4" torque wrench, to german "gutentite" torque.
I'm at a loss so far on the exact reason this is happening, although I have some thoughts:
What seems to be happening is the gasket and surrounding aluminum is expanding and forcing the gasket into its metal screen. There is a metal screen "tucked" into the gasket to prevent debris from entering the VTEC system, and it is this area around the gasket precisely where these breaks/fractures are occurring.
I have a feeling the gasket is being forced into the screen metal edging during expansion due to extended heat exposure, and it is this which is cutting/slicing the gasket, causing a hairline crack to begin forming, where it slowly begins to grow over the rest of the weekend.
At which point the crack has propagated enough on cool down, that when I crank the car up once its fully cooled off for a couple days, the oil pressure hits it and finishes ripping the gasket enough to cause a leak.
There is nothing else that I can see mechanically that might cause this. As explained, the only thing I'm thinking of now is heat; expanding the VTEC solenoid, the head material, and the rubber enough, that the metal screen is the hard sharp place it cannot slide past to safely deform away from.
All speculation of course. But my next approach is to try running it without the screen on the next event to see what happens. I'm not worried about running it without the screen just to see what happens. I meticulously build and maintain my engines, and this engine is well broken in by now, so if stuff is making its way into the VTEC system, there are much bigger problems.
Thoughts from the group?
Thanks,
Talon.
