krisfnbs

Stock 92 civic w/ 94k original miles....

I have changed the thermo, radiator, fan, cap, and have changed the coolant. Ive had a compression test that came 180 160 160 180, which is fine.

Before I changed everything but the radiator, and the car overheated alot more. After changing the radiator with an aftermarket aluminum one, it overheats ALOT LESS, and doesnt go as high, but now it ONLY overheats in idle, or while driving in traffic, and as always it has never overheated on the highway.

what the hell is this problem!!

delsolcharli

bump for question..mine does the same thing...i would like to know

i have gotten alot of ppl telling me it was my water pump..but i highly doubt that...my water pump isnt leaking...also ppl told me blown head gasket or clogged water ports...i dont have any mixing of oil and coolants..and i did a super flush to clean the block and still dont work

Pothole987

sounds like your fan isn't cutting in. theres a brown plug with 2 wires on the thermo housing, run a cotter pin ( or wire) across the 2 connections and see if your fan comes on ( key on the on position ) if it does, the sensor is gone, if nothing happens, possible broken wire or fan is no good.

krisfnbs

the fan does come on, and BTW I changed the waterpump when I did my timing belt job.

Can someone show me a pic of the thermo housing? and where do I run the wires?

Relic1

what temps are you seeing?
are you using the factory cluster's temp gauge? I've seen a lot of sending units show hot temps when the engine was normal temps.

Your ECU should switch on the fan at ~205 and the temp switch should turn it on around that temp as well.
(the temp switch is what Pothole987 is referring to)

mitchell_2kSiR

if your fan does turn on there is another seonsor that is a gauge sensor, on b series motors ints under the dizzy, it could just be giving you a wrong gauge reading

krisfnbs

Everything in the car is prettymuch stock. D15B7. I dont think the cars temp gauge is reading wrong, the car has had a history of overheating for a while, and thats when I started doing the small things, that didnt work so I did the bigger things, radiator and waterpump. The car definately does not over heat like it did in the past.

I was a dumbass and I kept adding water to the radiator, and shortly learned that is only a short fix.(to get your car home if overheating).

All in all I have changed the radiator, thermostat, coolant, waterpump, pretty much everything on the cooling system except for what pothole 987 is saying to check.

Again the problem only happens in idle, and doesnt happen that much.

AMeg6

maybe your thermostat is in backwards? or possibly bad not opening soon enough and thats why it overheats at idle. possibility of headgasket being bad? does it blow white smoke? air buble in the cooling system?

krisfnbs

I have bled the coolant to get out the bubbles, I didnt know the thermostat could be in backwards? it doesnt blow white smoke... and I dontknow if it could be the head gasket, I mean my compression numbers all came back good

gizzerhatch

run the car and let it idle and see if the fan cycles on and off.

kuja396

I can't believe no one has really said this (although it has been mentioned), your problem is you have a blown headgasket. If you've changed all of that stuff thats the only thing that is left. The good thing is you have a SOHC, those are really easy to pull and you don't have to pull the cam.

My boosted ls used to overheat after it was boosted, couldnt fugure it out, so fristrating, it would ONLY overheat when i just let off the gas or if i was in traffic. My guess is the gas would cool the cylinder down, being a richer mixture, and when it was at idle it would be running much leaner, making the car hotter. (thats my guess anyways)

Point is, after changing the thermostat and making sure the coolant mixture was correct (i already had a fluidyne radiator and good *** fan) I changed the headgasket and it was fixed.

Edit: oh and another thing, compression tests suck badly IMO, I will only use a leakdown test to determine anything, and my engine had plenty of compression, but when i used a leakdown tester after about 2-3 mins there would be air bubbles coming form the radiatior.

94EG8

I'm really leaning towards blown headgasket on this, pull the plugs out, see if there are white deposits from burning coolant. If you do determine that the headgasket is bad, don't waste your money on a new headgasket just get a new engine. Most of the time the headgasket will blow repeatedly after its blown once on these particular d-series engines and they tend to suffer from oil consumption problems after a headgasket replacement as well.

gizzerhatch

are you loosing coolant? if so jack up your car and start to unscrew your oil plug coolant will come out before the oil if your head gasket is blown due to the oil being lighter the coolant

revlimitx04

Two other ways to verify besides a leakdown test would be change the oil, make sure you save the old oil and check it out, if it looks milky or watery theres your sign. Also pull all the plugs and the fuel pump fuse, have a friend spin the engine over and see if you can see any moisture/mist/water coming out, sometimes this isnt 100% accurate but on my previous vehicles, almost always i can put my hand near the sparkplug holes while cranking it over, and my hand gets wet, then i smell it and its antifreeze. Compression tests arent 100% when it comes with minor headgasket failures, ive had cars read good compression and have had water spraying out of the spark plugs.

Thermostats can be installed incorrectly, you wouldnt believe how many times ive seen someone put them in wrong, not only does the spring need to face inward to the block, but there is a bypass hole in the thermostat, usually that bypass needs to sit at the highest point to allow trapped air and what not thru the thermostat. If your car is at operating temperature, and the thermostat is open, with the radiator cap off, you shouldnt see any air bubbles, if there are air bubbles or water magically disapearing, it would be a headgasket.

skateboard_ej8

iTrader: (4)

check your coolant temperature sensor. Suonds like your fan isin't kicking in.

ILcrxsi1

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by krisfnbs &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I have changed the thermo, radiator, fan, cap, and have changed the coolant. Ive had a compression test that came 180 160 160 180, which is fine.
</TD></TR></TABLE>Nope. A lower reading in between two cylinders that are next to each other points to head gasket. Also I don't trust your compression test readings or anyone else on this site for that matter because most people don't do it properly. You said you overheated it a bunch of times before? I would guess that your head gasket is bad and your head is now warped.

kuja396

When i had a blown headgasket I didn't have any discoloration of the oil or anything like that, so I wouldnt count on that, I'm guessing there was a tiny TINY hole that let a little water in the cylinder.

And I dont know about switching out the whole engines, i mean, unless you warped the head you'll be fine. Plus a d series headgasket doesnt take that long at all.

ILcrxsi1

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kuja396 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

And I dont know about switching out the whole engines, i mean, unless you warped the head you'll be fine. Plus a d series headgasket doesnt take that long at all.</TD></TR></TABLE>When you repeatedly overheat an engine it usually warps aluminum cylinder heads. I don't understand why people don't realize that if their car is overheating they need to fix the problem now before they drive it again even if the gauge is only going a little above normal and not pegging the big "H" on the temp gauge.

Hatchy-Ownzjo0

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ILcrxsi1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">When you repeatedly overheat an engine it usually warps aluminum cylinder heads. I don't understand why people don't realize that if their car is overheating they need to fix the problem now before they drive it again even if the gauge is only going a little above normal and not pegging the big "H" on the temp gauge.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Wait.. you can warp your head and/or blow your headgasket by constantly over heating your engine!???

Dc4iNtEgRa

Check your engine grounds... I had the same problem, and my transmission ground was loose, tightened it down and it solved the problem.

kuja396

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ILcrxsi1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">When you repeatedly overheat an engine it usually warps aluminum cylinder heads. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I think there is a good chance nothing is warped if the engine wasnt overheated for long periods of time, and not that often. Mine probably overheated a good 10 times before I finally figured out what why it was happening, but it was never allowed to overheat for very long, couple of seconds at the most.

Anyways.. i think that as long as he didnt do an hour drive with it overheating the entire time it may be worth a shot putting another head gasket on. But thats just me, im willing to risk a couple hours of my time and a $30 headgasket from Oriley's instead of finding an engine for a few hundred that I don't know for sure if it works or not and doing all of the work swapping it.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Dc4iNtEgRa &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Check your engine grounds... I had the same problem, and my transmission ground was loose, tightened it down and it solved the problem.</TD></TR></TABLE>
That will just fix your problem if the fan isnt turning on, i think his is working properly.

krisfnbs

Guys,

I want to personally thank everyone for their responses, this is the most responses I have ever received on this forum.

I would really hate to believe that it would be a blown headgasket.. but I have tried everything else.(except cheking the thermo sensor and or fan. I mean it kicks on and everything but maybe its coming on late?) I guess with my engine only having a little more than 93k miles original car is completely original, I just couldnt see that happening. everytime the car overheats it only does it by a little, and once I put my foot on the gas it goes back to normal, and it never does it on the highway. I think it would definately be worth it to put on a new head gasket...(if in fact it is).

I would not know the first step to doing a headgasket job, but I know they are WAY expesive considering its just a $40 gasket.(I have been quoted almost 2k with my older camaro years ago) What price do you think I could get someone to do it on the side for?..


BTW my compression numbers were taken at a honda dealership.

And BTW what is the most accurate way to determine that in fact it is a head gasket?

krisfnbs

Also after I put the new radiator on, I let it idle for 30 minutes so I could get the air bubbles out and the fan kicked on like 10 times or something and it didnt overheat once. it has been about 3 weeks since then and now just recently its started to overheat a bit more often(ONLY because i drive in traffic), and it was a pretty hot *** day outside today.

ILcrxsi1

Well first thing is first, are you loosing coolant at all or is the coolant level staying the same?

krisfnbs

whats the best way to check to see if i am losing coolant? check the reservoir on a cold start?