frankenscuzz

Hello, new to the forums hoping I could find some help on an issue I'm having. I have a 1994 Civic EX, ~167,xxxish miles which I've owned for about 2 years now. I've had less than a handful of overheating incidents throughout the 2 years and they'd always be resolved after cooling down for a few minutes. This last week it's been becoming an issue though.

I drove on the freeway for about 20 minutes and within about 3 minutes of coming off the ramp and driving through town my temp gauge started to shoot up. I pulled over and let it cool off some, went to the grocery store then got back on the freeway to go back home. Another 20 minute drive back and everything seems fine on the freeway, get off and right as I'm pulling into my driveway a couple miles from the offramp the temp gauge starts to shoot up again.

I had flushed my radiator since my old coolant was a gunky tannish/brown with chunks floating around then a second time a couple days later with some cleaner since I didn't drain the block (wasn't positive of the drain bolt) hoping I'd get the majority of it clean. The other day I drove locally at town speeds for nearly an hour and never seemed to overheat up until I pulled into my driveway again (my road and driveway are up a little bit of an incline) so I used this as an opportunity to check if my fan was coming on, being that I suspected that may have been the problem. Sure enough when my temp gauge got a little past 60% it kicked on.

Now today I decided to do the 20 mile drive up to town again.. 15-20 mile drive on the freeway and everything's fine, come off the freeway and in nearly the same exact spot as last time I started to overheat. It goes maybe 75% of the way up (normally my civic runs at ~40% year round all conditions)and would just sit there, barely fluctuating as I'd move. I blasted the heater which made a negligible difference. Then it slowly started creeping higher and higher till I had to pull over and park to cool off, though never hit the red. Sat maybe ten minutes, got back in went to the grocery store, within a few miles after leaving it starting going up again right as I was about to get on the freeway. I pulled over and popped the hood, my top radiator hose was bulging and really firm and there was a slight tear in the outer rubber where there wasn't one before. I felt I was fucked so went for a walk around the city for about 40 minutes to let it cool down a lot (r.i.p. bacon sitting in my trunk).

When I got back I opened the rad cap and the fluid was low although the reservoir was pretty full (above the max mark). I topped off the radiator which took more than I was expecting (especially with little visible leaks (I've been noticing light puddles around the reservoir cap)). I burped it by massaging the top rad hose after topping off then took off home. Drove fine on the freeway right up until I pulled into my driveway again.

I previously had noticed my reservoir cap was expelling slight amounts of coolant and my reservoir would always be really full. THinking this was maybe a faulty radiator cap I replaced it with a NAPA cap which leaked and only helped in spewing more coolant all over. Put back on my old one and visual leaks were only from the coolant cap (that I could make out). Knowing my fan is coming on and there aren't substantial visible leaks for the amount of coolant I've lost I'm thinking a headgasket gone bad or cracked cylinder. When I got home today I wafted the exhaust and there was an odor sort of sweet but my novice experience couldn't pinpoint this being that I've never really smelt an exhaust directly before but I read an internal leak would cause a sweet exhaust smell so I figured it wouldn't hurt to test.

This post ended up much longer than I thought but I figured for those who want to help that the details can only aid in figuring out the issue. I just don't get why the cooling system runs fine on the freeway but a few minutes in town and it can't cool down even with the fan working, but driving around town starting with a cool temp is fine. Could it just be the radiator's bad? Some of the fins are slightly bent in spots and I had to clean off a good layer of bugs when I pulled it out. Water seems to flow fine through it when I did the flush.. perhaps the thermo's getting stuck? Any advice is appreciated, I won't be able to get it into a shop for a while so if it's a simple fix I can do it myself but if it's the head gasket I might as well start looking for a new vehicle or motor right now.