Originally Posted By: Trav
The oil pan is removed so i put a catch pan under the car with another very large square tranny pan on top of that to catch all the junk.
I scraped all the hard chunks out by hand then used gunk carb and parts cleaner in the 3qt (white)can,the one that comes with a parts basket.
I brushed the parts carefully avoiding the valve springs at first so as not to get any on the valve stem seals.
I continued to brush for about 2 hrs keeping the parts wet.
I then finished the whole head with kerosene including the valve springs.
I used regular heavy duty parts cleaning brushes as well as some bottle brushes.
Finally i poured some cheap motor oil over everything and let it wash the chemicals and kerosene down into the pan.
Tonight i will do the rear head and blast the covers inside with walnut shells.
More pics to come as the project continues,valve adjustment and bottom end cleaning still need to be done before putting it back together.
All in all i think its going to be pretty clean,i will run Kreen in it for 1K just to clean up anything i couldn't get then 5K oil changes with a GP IV/V synthetic.
The problem with this engine and cleaning chemicals is any junk or even small particles that find their way don into the pan are going straight into those small filters and will clog them.
Then the VSA and CEL will come on and the engine will only run on 3 cyl.Manual cleaning is the only real option.
IMHO the iVTEC is one of those engines you just don't want to experiment on doing longer OCI intervals.
Nice. Thanks for the sharing your experience. I hope the high grade synthetics at 5k will work for you. Personally, I'd also consider NOT using an OEM Honda filter again, but rather something like a PureONE or even NapaGold for your 5k interval.
I use NapaGold/Wix on my 92 Civic. The 5/1334 filter is bigger in capacity than the PureONE for my car. Either will filter better than the OEM Honda. Anything to prevent a repeat, right? Though, I'm sure the PureONE may have the best filtration ratings of the mid-grade oil filters, if you are worried about any oil filter getting clogged perhaps with 1 more cleaning to go, I'd get the NapaGold/Wix for your car for the most media with better than or as good as OEM filtration.
My local AutoZone has Formula Shell on sell for $2.49 per Quart, an oil like that is a good price for a quality conventional, if you are going to use conventional during the 1k mile run of Kreen. Otherwise, PYB is always a good choice for conventional...but you may opt for the cheapest thing you have. Either way, props again to you for the job!
