Duarte wrote:
>
> Thanks guys for your responses. I meant if I could push them up from
> the bottom.
>
> Long story short as to why I took the head out is because I was leaking
> coolant into the engine (somewhere) as I was burning it. In addition
> when I'm driving and stop at a light, for instance, when I try to get
> going is like it has no power to get going. I accelerate and it just
> goes very, very slow. I thought I had a blown head gasket, but now that
> I took the head out the head the gasket actually looks OK, so now I'm
> thinking I may have a broken ring or something like that which is
> making me lose compression thus the slow power. Since I already went
> through the trouble of taking the head out I thought if I could do it
> without taking the whole engine out I might as well take out the
> pistons and inspect/replace the rings.



Pistons with broken rings will move from side to side with pressure
applied on the top. Broken rings can be the result of detonation
(pinging) and/or excessive ring land wear.

Another note... If a head is removed on a high mileage car (150K + on a
Honda), oil consumption can be expected to increase (assuming that rings
are not replaced) due to block distortion when re-torquing the head.
This is a result of the old rings losing their seating characteristics.
Don't ask me why I know this (G).

JT