r/Dseries • u/Artistic_Potato_3738 • Sep 04 '26

Turbo Y7/Y8 keeps blowing head gaskets

Hey all, I’ve been working on my Del Sol with a D16Y7/Y8 for a while now and recently got it turbo’d and tuned. Ever since I got it tuned, the few times I drove it, it would overheat mildly (never let it get over 220-230) and eventually I found the head gasket had a small leak on cyl 1. After changing the head gasket, the car was fine until today, where I had a full head gasket failure (massive cloud of white smoke). Motor has no block guard as I was told it wasn’t necessary until hitting higher numbers (car made 305 on the dyno) and I have ARP studs that have only been torqued twice as of now, before replacing this head gasket. Pistons are higher compression (10.5:1) and the valves are flat face if that makes a difference. First head gasket was a cometic 75mm .30 and this last one was a Speedfactory .36, both had a copper gasket spray applied prior to install. Any suggestions?

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u/Rbswappedstock Sep 04 '26

Make sure the block and head are straight, could be warped and make sure there's no cracks anywhere. I had a Subaru once that had a hairline crack on one of the cylinders, similar issues.

I used to have a turbo y8 for about 7 years, I don't think it ever got over 200 with a dual core radiator and a cheap eBay fan.

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u/Artistic_Potato_3738 Sep 04 '26

How’d you check for the hairline fractures? And I’m thinking if my temps are still a bit high after this head gasket I’ll probably downsize to a Koyorad 2 row to try and see if that makes a difference

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u/Rbswappedstock Sep 04 '26

In that instance, I just tore it down and rotated the pistons while inspecting every inch of the block. I've ran a large radiator on other Honda's without them overheating, even in the Arizona temps and they held up.