I forgot to put my dowels in the first time I popped my head back on and blew a cheap head gasket 200 miles later. DON'T FORGET THEM!

By bruce (4.252.133.183) on Tuesday, April 05, 2005 - 07:40 pm:

I am a 1500 guy, (building an ek) but still, every head I have pulled, from ford to toyota to honda, those sleeves have only been for helping align the head and not around bolts, they are on the tranny too, to help align it up as you try helplessly to put it together.

By Aryl (Aryl) (198.245.131.62) on Tuesday, April 05, 2005 - 04:14 pm:

thank you bruce. i'm fairly sure that the sleeves(dowels) went around two headbolts. are you a 1200 or an EK guy. it may be different for the 1200's.
i didn't mean to be pushy. i hope it didn't come off like that. i'm sure other people have been and will be confused on the dowel thing.

By bruce (63.26.140.118) on Monday, April 04, 2005 - 02:10 pm:

"ok, so the only thing close to dowels i had were the sleeves that go around the two head bolts to the front, far right and far left"
those sleeves are what they are calling dowels, they do not go around any bolts, there is a seperate hole on each side for them, they align the head, no sleeves for the rocker assembly.

By Aryl (Aryl) (216.99.219.40) on Monday, April 04, 2005 - 10:53 am:

i don't do this often, but i need to know...


.............bump.

By Aryl (Aryl) (216.99.201.240) on Thursday, March 31, 2005 - 05:43 pm:

ok, so the only thing close to dowels i had were the sleeves that go around the two head bolts to the front, far right and far left. these sleeves seemed like they would serve the purpose of aligning the head up right and there didn't seem to be any slots for dowels(solid cylindrical peice of metal or wood)
well, the head is on, so i guess i will see.

on the rocker assembly, are there sopposed to be sleeves for all the bolts? i've got one and the two that the oil gear cover use.
the cylinder head shop must of lost quite a few peices. i was also missing the rings that go inside the exhaust port on the head. my other head had them, though.

any help would be great.

thank you.

By Adrian (Evocivic) (203.42.97.141) on Sunday, February 27, 2005 - 10:17 pm:

Yes, the dowels are crucial as they position the head correctly on the block. In the EB and EN engines there are two dowels (small pins) at the back of the block, one by cylinder 1 and one by cylinder 4, not sure about the positions on the iron block engines.

By Aryl (Aryl) (216.99.194.250) on Sunday, February 27, 2005 - 09:56 pm:

was reading one of my honda books today and it mentioned how the dowels in the head or block are crucial in the alignment of the head to the block. i never saw any dowels on either head i have. should i get some from honda?
also, head gasket sealant. bad idea?

thanks.