Yes- the HF is the only one that used the black plastic valve cover- but you can put the HF plastic valve cover on a non HF head and vice versa.
The 8 valve head was also used on the 1.3 liter engine(which came in the Civic Standard), but the 1.3 has regular (high tension) valve springs and normal non roller rocker arms. The Civic DX had the 12 valve 1.5 liter engine.
The best way to tell that you have an HF head is 8 main valves (a total of 12 valves since the miniature auxiliary intake valves on the exhaust side of the head aren't counted) and the roller tipped rocker arms. You may also notice how easy the valves can be opened by hand when you push on them.
There is no special engine code for the HF engine (it is likely a D15a2 as is the non HF 1.5 liter for that year). The block and heads and transmissions are interchangeable with all 84-87 cvcc carbed 1.3 and 1.5 liter engines.
The HF has a slightly higher compression- which may be due to flat top pistons (the pistons in my original 1.5 liter civic dx engine were slightly dished, but the 10:1 compression ratio 1.3 liter pistons were flat topped). I haven't ever seen my 1.5 HF pistons, so I can't verify this.
After rebuilding the 1.3, I can give you a few pointers.
1. Honda bearings are meant to be precisely matched to the individual crank journals and block tolerances. There will be code letters and numbers stamped onto the crank and the block that correspond to exact measurements of each. The aftermarket bearings that are sold are sort of a middle road of these measurements.
See:
http://www.team-integra.net/sections...?ArticleID=405
and
www.hondaautomotiveparts.com
After I put mine in and used the plastigauge, I found that a couple of them had too much clearance so I had to order a few main bearing shells from Honda that were a little tighter- at a cost of $16 per journal!! I just wished that I would have reused my old bearings- which were in pretty good shape. These bottom ends seldom go bad so maybe you will get lucky and all of the bearings might still be OK (depending on how long they ran it without oil).
2. Rings- I bought a set of Hastings chrome rings for my 1.3. The 1.3 engine (like the HF) also has only 1 compression ring. The original 1.3 compression ring is cut so that it overlaps. The aftermarket rings were straight cut- so I am losing a bit of compression leaking through that tiny gap. I wish I would have searched a little more and gotten the piston rings with overlap.
A full gasket set for the 1.3 was about $120, The machine shop work was about $130 (valves ground, head milled, and block milled -the block deck was 3 thousandths warped- right at the service limit), $100 for all the bearings, and about $50 for the piston rings. Roughly $100 for timing belt, water pump and tensioner. I guess it was about $500 for the rebuild.
Since your timing belt had broken- you probably will need to replace some bent valves...
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