Metal rings in Head Gasket set?

xxValiumxx

New Member
tl;dr-- What are the metal rings in the second picture for?

First post here;
I bought a clean 96 civic DX 5 speed about 2 weeks ago, with about 250k miles on the clock, and have been fixing what needs to be fixed, and doing some light modding to her.
  • New halfshafts because who's got the time to rebuild a cv joint these days.
  • Short shifter, because it's cheap, and the stock shifter just feels sloppy. Kept the stock boot and knob.
  • Indiglo gauges not because of the rice factor, but because the $8 for the indiglo kit was far cheaper than replacing all the burnt out bulbs. I think it looks nice.
  • eBay front/back/upper/lower strut brace and tie bar kit. (I know they don't do much, but the car feels slightly stiffer, to me) also, the one in the boot/trunk gives me a nice place to store coolant and oil jugs.
The next thing I need to work on is the leaking. I have a new oil pan gasket, and a full head gasket set with valve seals, valve cover seat, cam seal, many o-rings, all that.


My question, for those who might know, is what the devil are those metal rings for?

I can't seem to find any reference to them in the service manual. is this even a part I'm going to need on the D16Y7?



Oh, and the gauge kit looks like this BTW, not relevant to the thread, but I alluded to it earlier. Yes, temp gauge needle is broken, I'm fixing that.
 

HeX

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Look up the part number of the kit you purchased thst included the rings then read the included parts list and you should have your answer.
 


xxValiumxx

New Member
Look up the part number of the kit you purchased thst included the rings then read the included parts list and you should have your answer.
Yeah, I tried that. It didn't really specify a parts listing, other than having all the common parts. I believe I've sorted it out though; they appear to be the gaskets that go between the exhaust header and the exhaust pipe. I may be wrong.
 

HeX

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That sounds plausible. Measure them to see if they coincide with the exhaust diameter.
 


MotorMo

Respected
Those should be the rings that seal the exhaust manifold to the 'B' pipe. Or the two rings that seal the two halves of your exhaust manifold if you had a 4-2-1 manifold that came with the EX model. So only one out of the three may fit since it might be a 'universal' kit for the 96-2000 Civics.
Be weary of short sifters- they can damage the internal of your transmission due to the different geometry and angles. I've seen it many times. But all new bushings on your sifter may give that 'like new' feeling. Congrats on your car, and good luck.
 

xxValiumxx

New Member
Those should be the rings that seal the exhaust manifold to the 'B' pipe. Or the two rings that seal the two halves of your exhaust manifold if you had a 4-2-1 manifold that came with the EX model. So only one out of the three may fit since it might be a 'universal' kit for the 96-2000 Civics.
Be weary of short sifters- they can damage the internal of your transmission due to the different geometry and angles. I've seen it many times. But all new bushings on your sifter may give that 'like new' feeling. Congrats on your car, and good luck.
Yeah, I went through and read some other parts of the service manual and this seems to be the case. There are quite a few more gaskets in the set than I would normally use if I was JUST doing a head gasket swap. It's more like a re-gasketing the entire head and everything you had to remove to get the head off (assuming you're following the service manual to the letter), though, I've never removed the header from the B pipe, or removed the throttle body from the intake plenum just to do a head gasket. Might do that this time, just because. fresh seals/gaskets and I have them, so why not:what:?

Regarding the damage a short shifter can cause; I'm familiar with how they can contribute to transmission damage. That said, this is my putt around town car. I'm not out there street racing, or even going to the tracks. I was taught early on that slamming the stick around can wreck your synchros something fierce. It's not that I'm shifting any faster, or that the stock civic has a particularly long throw, it's just longer than what I'm used to.

Your concern and warning are noted and appreciated.:D
 


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