johnnyboi4o1

hello everyone i spent about 2 weeks searching and reading up on similar topics but most of them were either unanswer or Ive already tried and still no luck, so im asking you guys for some help maybe some of u have more experience with this issue or had gone through it first hand.

So my problem is "over heat" upper radiator hose hot bottom cold im leaning twords water pump or and head gasket but i want your guys opinion before i buy.

so i just had recently did a gsr swap in my civic cx everything is fine except over heat i went ahead and replace the Tstat burped it bleed it, same issue thought it was a faulty Tstat since it was from auto zone went ahead and trade it in got another one, same problem so now i went to Acura and bought an oem one from them, same problem i notice when i turn on the heat temp goes normal and heat is blowing hot i also tried runing it with out the Tstat car runs normal temp stays at half fan kicks on.

i would run it like that but since living in new England, and winter time, also working second shift driving home on a cold night the temp stays at C i replaced both upper and lower hose also took my radiator out ran water from my garden hose same amount of water comes out as going in, took it to a local shop and they tried this funnel thing with a radiator cap on the bottom and filled the funnel with radiator fluid and waited until bubbles was out then the funnel started filling up with coolant?? i triple checked coolant lines off a diagram posted on team integra everything looks good both upper and lower hose have pressure now im just so stump please help if u can thanks

Former User

Did the local shop tell you that the head gasket may be blown?

johnnyboi4o1

no they had no idea but do u think its the head gasket??

HondaPartsHero

They have no idea? I hope you didn't pay them.

johnnyboi4o1

no i did not lol also searched for head gasket symptom and it seem i am not experiencing any of the symptoms, No oil in the coolant, no grey sludge oil, theres no white smoke coming out of the tail pipe, and i read one of the water pump symptoms on a 96-00 civic is to turn on the heat wile engine is warm and feel the two heater hose, they both feel hot??

EG FTW

iTrader: (4)

if the bottom hose is cold wouldn't that mean the water pump isn't functioning properly? i mean if its not pushing the hot coolant through its route through the motor and the raidiator then the bottom hose would be cold and your car would overheat. im not totally sure on that though, but seems like its the water pump.

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

When you did the swap did you replace the water pump and timing belt?
Its a common practice but not everyone does it thinking it would save them money.

94CivicSi

iTrader: (1)

That's my question too. Where did the motor come from?

Is this the same radiator you used with the D series motor? No problems with it before?

johnnyboi4o1

no i did not but now im thinking i should have

johnnyboi4o1

the motor came out of my buddies ek hatch he had no issue with it, and the radiator is the same one i used from my D series, just for the hell of it im going to replace the water pump, if that wont work, then new radiator, if that dont work head gasket, if that dont work? idk burn the car lol i will keep you guys posted so this will be a useful thread to others with the same problem

johnnyboi4o1

found this old thread about bad b series water pump making me wonder now lol https://honda-tech.com/forums/acura-integra-6/bad-water-pump-1367329/

johnnyboi4o1

okay guys this morning i tried burping the system once more and when i reved up the engine im noticing alot of clear water shooting out the exhaust pipe cant be that much condenshation?

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

None of these are 100% positive signs of a blown headgasket. DO a compression test and stop guessing like everyone else.

LarryMartin830

theres also another way of testing you may have a head gasket leak is to go to a shop and use there exhaust sniffer put it in the over flow tank don't put in in the coolant just let it go right about the fluid. if it picks up exhaust there a head gasket leak

johnnyboi4o1

alright i will do the compression test first since i already have the tool

hwyix

iTrader: (1)

That is a great place to start.

I would also add to your list of things todo/check:

Burp the coolant system with a funel from lisle, and watch to see your radiator fans turn on.
Maybe you forget to plug in the fans, or relay, fuse, temp sender is unpluged, etc...

pressure coolant system to find leaks
repalce radiator cap ( it is cheap, they ware out, etc.. )

DumpdEJ6

Wow I'm really surprised no one has said this already. Upper hose hot, lower hose cold (IME) has ALWAYS been a bad thermostat. This has held true on 5-6 different cars. Easy to fix, and cheap as well, give that a shot before you do anything expensive.

howangseg

OP changed it several times.

johnnyboi4o1

alright guys just did a compression test and here are the results

Cylinder #1_190psi
Cylinder #2_205psi
Cylinder #3_205psi
Cylinder #4_between 205-210psi

@HWYIX id tried burping the system using that funnel watch all the bubbles come out i had the funnel about half way full then as temp gets hot, coolant started backing out into the funnel and then gushing out like its boiling everytime temp gauge reach pass half, fan dose not kick on at this point, but when k ran it with out the Tstat coolant was flowing top and bottom hose was hot(felt normal) the fan came on when engine was at operating temp heat was blowing hot too, it just sucks driving it at knight because my car never warms up lol

johnnyboi4o1

I**

johnnyboi4o1

i found this thread where Mrviet is having the same symtoms upper rad hose hot lower rad cold he said he changed the battery and it got fix lower rad hose got warm? my question is wat would a new battery would have anything to do with moving the coolant besides and i quote "fixed all the sensor" as he had stated?

https://honda-tech.com/forums/acura-integra-6/overheat-top-hose-hot-lower-hose-cold-2376021/

EG FTW

iTrader: (4)

Read the other thread and the fix for that was the ground wire on the valve cover. Not the battery....

hwyix

iTrader: (1)

It can be nothing else if it works without a T-stat. Take out your tstat put it in boiling water with a temp guage and see when it opens. Normally I would just replace the tstat because it is waste of time and tstats or so cheap, but since you already did that a bunch of times, test it. Make sure the little jiggle think is at the 12 oclock postion. If your tstat works, I would just drill one or two little holes in it. That should be enough to let it flow
water/restrictive enough for your heater to work.


I would still replace the radiator cap. Very cheap and they wear out all the time.

johnnyboi4o1

cool ill double check my ground wires first thing tomorrow lol but im just curiouse as to why a bad electrical/ground would effect coolent flow, im not doubting it im just wondering

johnnyboi4o1

coolant**