Civic EG

so heres the story i bought a d16z6 block and head.. is there a way i could any of of telling if it is in good conditions or problem with the block or head?

take it to a machine shop and have them do some test

start with a compression test you can do that yourself if you have a compression tester.

teal_dx wrote:start with a compression test you can do that yourself if you have a compression tester.

x2,

And you could try getting a leak down tester and and leak test it. but that will also require an air compressor

And even with these tests, you're still not 100% sure... But you can be sure that if the tests come out bad, the motor is at an end...

just let the shop do it

You can pull off the valvecover, see what color is on the hardware underneath.
If it's clean like there has been just water in it in stead of oil... then it's almost like a brand new engine.
The darker it get's, the lesser it is.
Brown would be an acceptable color, darkish brown or black... that's bad.
If you can, take a look at the valveseals, they should be in good condition and not dried out or loose... it'll cause a lot of oil burning wich is fairly easy to fix.

Also, look at the sparkplugs... if they're white (to lean) or black (to rich), not good either.
In the end; white means detonation, black means burning oil.

Also take a look into the exhaust ports... if they're all clogged up with coal, it means it could have that crap on the inside as well...
Wich causes exhaustvalves to close improperly, and maybe there is something on the inside.
Coal will heat up and glow, causing detonation.

As with most things, it's not always saying everything, and not always the thing I said it was, but it does give you an indication of what you may have there when they add up.

When I'd go out to buy an engine, I look at the outside (is it clean without being cleaned, color and state of sparkplugs, color of everything under the valvecover, and the amount of soot in the exhaustports.

You can always just assume its a bad motor and build it any ways. For turbo or.....all motor if thats your thing..

inspect the valves to be sure they are not bent in any way. if they're good, replace they valve seals regardless of whether you think they are good or not. Clean the entire head and look for nicks or dings in the domes.
For the block, bring all the pistons to BDC and inspect they cylinder walls for nicks. Anything you can catch a fingernail on is considered bad and should be at the minimum re-honed. Note the smoothness of the rotating assy as you turn the crank, it should be smooth and have no play in it. replace both crank end seals. pull the oilpan and look for metal shavings or broken components.
have the head and block resurfaced. use a new head gasket when assembling the motor. clean every head bolt hole and leave no debris or oil/coolant residue. use correct torque specs when assembling the motor...
OR
slap the motor together, run it and hope for the best.

That's step 2, after you bought it you can really take it apart... but that's kinda hard to do when you're out buying one

Well he already bought the motor.

Best way to tell if a motor is any good (assuming it's up and running) is to take it for a smog test. Any good Honda motor will pass easily. If the piston rings are bad, valves are burnt, if the motor has a lot of carbon build up, it will show.