[notfarnow]

A friend of mine blew the HG in his 94 Honda Civic. It's been a great little car for him and he'd really like to get a couple more years out of it.

This guy has come through for me a couple times in the last year when I was mid-project and really needed help, so I'm going to do his HG for him. I've been reading up a bit, but thought I'd check in here to see if there are any "gotchas".

I've read that the HG does tend to go on the 1.5s, and need to be replaced with a special gasket & new headstuds. Ordered them.

Now, here's what threw me off: I called a local shop that does a lot of work on these, and they said to just throw in the improved HG & studs, without having the head planed or pressure tested. They said the heads are rarely tweaked enough to justify planing, and seldom crack.

The shop has never steered me wrong before, and it would mean I could take the head off & button it back down over the weekend.

Still, it strikes me as odd. Anyone have experience with these Honda 1.5s?