actually the first time he accidentally put the head gasket on upside down hah. so when he was cranking it to see if we had oil pressure we noticed it leaking oil out. so we tore it down and flipped it over. so thats probably what the smoke is a result of. he did use a manual for the whole thing and double checked everything on there.
When i drove it i was really easy on it. but when i did ease it up to the spot where vtec used to kick in at like 3,500 i noticed nothing happened. So could this all be a result of the motor not being broken in yet or the gasket problem?

thanks again for the help man

 

i did some searching, is it probable the vtec solenoid is bad?

 

It's possible..

Vtec shouldn't change over until after 5k rpm's. I forget what it is exactally, I think its 5700 from low -> high and 6000 from high -> low. I'd get the coolant issue sorted out before you worry about vtec. There are checks in the manual to see if the solenoid is functioning properly.

 

There is your problem.

You cannot reuse the headgasket after torquing it down. Since it was put on upside down and torqued, it is now garbage.

Get an OEM headgasket, put it on right side up and go from there.

 

ok well we will try it and ill post back... thanks guys

 

well i did the CEL check, it was the coolant temp. sensor. I just put that in and it started up right away and ran perfect. Now the vtec is also working but only kicking in around 6k. Any ideas why the 1st stage isnt kicking in? thanks for the help guys

 

one other thing it just started flashing that the the vtec solenoid is bad , thats probably the problem. But i thought if it was broken the vtec wouldnt work at all?

 

a b18c5 would have vtec at ~5800

 

okay. well then i guess im right where its supposed to be. Also the solenoid isnt bad, i had forgotten to reset the ecu. After i reset it, it went away. But theres a new code flashing now. IT is 15 the Ignition Output Signal, could anyone tell me if this is important to fix?

thank you!

 

Very important.