McGruber

Well I have a 98 accord lx with an F23, I did the manual swap about a year and a half ago. Mods are I/H/E and some minor things. A couple weeks ago I was driving on the highway in bumper to bumper traffic and my temp gauge climbed all the way hot. I pulled over and took a look, it was steaming under the hood and I noticed that the top radiator hose was boiling hot and had built up so much pressure it almost came off the radiator, the lower hose was cold. I tighten'd down the upper hose and let everything cool for about 25 min. I then had no further problems. I went home to diagnose the issue, which I thought was my thermostat due to the lower hose staying cold, but after running the car to normal operating temperature the termo opened and no more problems. Fast forward to a couple days ago, I'm driving on the highway and my temp gauge went way hot so I pull over again same thing happened so once again I'm thinking thermostat. I let it cool for about 4 hours and then proceed home (bad idea). I start overheating and loosing power, my foot is all the way to the floor and I'm barely accelerating. I pull over again, have someone bring me a gallon over water, let it cool, pour in the whole gallon! Since I guess it got burned off, and make it home fine. I buy a new thermostat and install it with new coolant, notice that my radiator cap was completly destroyed, install new cap, start it up and here a terrible noise that sounds like knocking, not metallic, like knocking on a door. I track the noise coming from my timing cover, so I take a look and notice that there is some slack in the t-belt. I tighten the belt and still same noise. It sounds like it's coming from the water pump so I'm like "hey that would make sense". I have now removed the timing covers and belt to check stuff out. Since the weep holes aren't leaking coolant I figure it must be the bearings in the water pump, but when I check the pump there is no play in the gear which is a sign of the bearings failing. So now I'm stumped, I don't want to spend 80 bucks on a waterpump/t-belt kit if I don't have to. My biggest fear is that I f-ed up my block and warped it or the head or fried my pistons although there is no smoke coming from the exhaust. Let me know what you guys think, I'm stumped. Sorry this is so long I just wanted to be thorough Thanks everyone

hondatyperlove

McGruber

Sweet...

HonBeer

Thats a winner!

GhostAccord

When was the last time you had your belts (timing & balance shaft) and water pump changed? Could be time for a change!

Bwill9886

Gee, never would have thought of using an O-face to solve this problem... Do anything for you OP? (sarcasm)

Definitely want to know this. The noise is just coming from the cover area? Or did it sound like the block/head?

Also check out some tips from this other H-tech thread about a similar problem with overheating (look more towards the posts after #8). It should help you check out some things you might not have thought to if you still end up having problems with your cooling system.

McGruber

[QUOTE=Bwill9886;43044959]Gee, never would have thought of using an O-face to solve this problem... Do anything for you OP? (sarcasm)QUOTE]

Seriously dude, after I saw the O-face everything just magically worked! Lol. My t-belt was changed three years ago, so it should be fine. Not sure about the water pump or balance shaft belt since I wasn't the owner when the t-belt was replaced. The noise is coming exclusively from the side of the engine where the pump is, not from the head or anywhere else. I went ahead and ordered a water pump kit which includes everything I need, I figured what the heck it can't hurt to replace it all anyway. Thanks for the useful imput guys.

Bwill9886

No problem. Btw, just saw that I somehow forgot to attach the link at the end of my last post. My bad.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/acura-integra-6/overheating-top-hose-hot-bottom-cold-2474703/

McGruber

Ya, that link wasn't quite the same issues as I've been, having that dude was dealing with exteme cold but thanks for the help I'll get my parts shipped to me on Tuesday so I'll pull the water pump and see if it's the culprit then. -Shipoopi!

McGruber

Well I just finished installing the new water pump, t-belt, both pullies, and balance shaft belt. Walah! My problem is now fixed Part of me thinks that the t-belt was the issue or the idler pulley cause the old water pump looked brand new. But whatever, I'm happy that it's fixed now and running cool. I guess I'll figure out down the road if any of my internals got messed up lol.

GhostAccord

Should be good for another 5 years eh!

Bwill9886

Glad you got it resolved! Hopefully nothing was hurt!

McGruber

You know it man

Thanks Bwill, ya I hope so too. One thing that kinda scared me was that when I tried to remove my sparkplug wires to take out my plugs I couldn't because the wires had melted onto the plugs, which means it got very hot (ouch!). It took me about two hours to get them out becaues one of the wire tubes broke off inside the tube so I had to get extrememly creative to remove it and the spark plug, lets just say I had a little help from JB weld lol. Thanks again for all your help guys.

Bwill9886

WOW guess you should be feeling lucky that's all you had to deal with. Still, bet that was a bit of a nail-biter!