ylfotevoli

My friend bought a hatch from a shady used car dealership. Not 30 minutes after buying it, the engine seemed to overheat, melting the timing belt cover. A little later, after cranking for 15 seconds, the engine would run, but any load put on it and the engine cut off. There was a mixture of oil and coolant in the overflow bottle.

We just got the head off and saw a whole different thing than what we expected. All four cylinders were flooded to the top with coolant, and the coolant jackets had a healthy mixture of oil and coolant. We inspected the block, pistons, valves and head...they all look fine no cracks or anything. There are also no coolant jacket cracks in the head.

The head gasket looks like ***. It has worn holes around the metal pieces that go around the cylinder and the coolant jackets. Do you think the head gasket could do all this? Just wanted to see before we decide what to do.

Also, the head we pulled off is 8 valve, but the pistons each have 4 valve cuts in them. Is this normal or is this not the original setup?

Thanks!
Jake

hatchling37

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wildcarditr102 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Do you think the head gasket could do all this?

Also, the head we pulled off is 8 valve, but the pistons each have 4 valve cuts in them. Is this normal or is this not the original setup?

Thanks!
Jake</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yes, and it sounds like they took a junker head lying around and slapped it onto the block. Wrong gasket with wrong head = huge f'n mess. What is the engine code?

ylfotevoli

Bastards. The engine code is D15b8 and the head that was on it is a PM8-2. We picked up a PM3-8 head (16 valve) at a junkyard. Do you think just having that old head on there would cause failure, or was it simply a bad gasket/overheat?

ylfotevoli

From what I see, the head that was on there is the correct one. Any problem running 16 valve pistons? I dont see any strike damage from the setup.

Also, how long will a honda engine run without coolant before the timing chain cover melts and head gasket blows? I am trying to make sure an overheat was the original problem so we dont melt **** again. They drove for about an hour before the engine died.

Thanks


















Modified by wildcarditr102 at 5:27 PM 4/27/2007

sitinthehall

Holy Expletive! I have never seen anything of that severity!

slomofo

iTrader: (1)

The stock D15B8 engine in my civic had four valve reliefs even though it only had eight valves. I bought the car from the original owner at 90k miles and the original owner was my roommate who had never done anything to it except a distributor warranty at the dealer and one spark plug wire he changed on his own.

ylfotevoli

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

That's exactly what I said when I saw that ****.

Thanks for all the info. We're gonna slap a new gasket on there, bolt the head down and give it a crank. *crossing fingers*

Jake

sitinthehall

You might want to check to see if anything got warped in the process.

ylfotevoli

What should be looked at closely? Head mating surface, ....

We already have the head on, it seemed to fit perfectly. I guess we'll find out

Looking at the gasket, could that do all this? We're thinking the radiator was empty when they bought it, then over an hour it destroyed the gasket and melted the cover. I guess when they discovered it didnt have coolant and added some, it flooded the cylinders.

Thanks again

non-VTEC

deffinatly looks like the headgasket took a major crap on you.......replace the gasket. send the head to a machine shop and have them check it for warpage/cracks then have it re-surfaced.

ylfotevoli

Well finished up just now and went to crank it up. The compression test was ok, with medium ring leaks in 2 & 3. Started it up and it blew a large cloud of white smoke out the exhaust, with minor leaks of white smoke from the headers/cat hookup. It continued to run, but the white smoke kept coming...thick.

Considering the temp the engine reached after stopping from running without coolant, is anything worth salvaging? Could there be any damage to the short block that could cause the cylinders to be flooded with coolant...or would it definitely only be the head?

Thanks again

non-VTEC

the block deck surface could be warped which will cause coolant to get into the cylinders.

inspyral

Stupid question, but why didn't your friend just take it back to the dealer if it crapped out 30 minutes after buying it? Don't you guys have some sort of a lemon law in your state? Did he test drive it first? It just seems like a whole lot of trouble to go through to get a car you just bought into drivable condition.


Modified by inspyral at 4:00 PM 4/28/2007

ylfotevoli

It's a shady dealership. Lemon laws in Virginia are very precise (a car is a lemon if it has been salvaged 3 times or some **** like that). He did call and try to get him to take it back, but the guy is a total *******. He did take some money off what he owes, but we'll see if that covers the repair cost. Virginia laws allow this guy to do shady work on cars and try to turn a profit. The only choice he has now is a civil lawsuit to sue him for repair costs. They sold him a car without coolant. When the car broke down, there was no white smoke. The smoke started when they tried to fill it with coolant after it stopped, suggesting the head gasket was blown while dry on coolant. Am I wrong on that???

He did test drive it, but only for 20 minutes. Amazingly, the engine failed after a whole hour of running without coolant. The weird part is the temp guage stayed in the middle the whole time (after warming up).




Modified by wildcarditr102 at 12:41 PM 4/29/2007

Flashmn

If you knew it didnt have coolant in it when you were looking at it, why did you buy it? I mean hondas arent exactly gonna run out of this world.

Anyways, maybe an engine swap would be cheaper at this point, if theres that much coolant inside the cylinders, who knows what condition the bottom end bearings are.

ylfotevoli

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Flashmn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Anyways, maybe an engine swap would be cheaper at this point, if theres that much coolant inside the cylinders, who knows what condition the bottom end bearings are.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Good point. I guess he (I didn't buy) figured (being a dealership and all) these guys would be good enough to have their cars filled with coolant. It wasn't checked before he bought it, and he didn't find out until it was too late.

I still don't understand why the temp gauge didn't show an overheat...


Modified by wildcarditr102 at 12:55 PM 5/3/2007

Flashmn

Because the sensors dont work at all if theres no coolant. It'll show normal temp, till its almost meltdown.

ylfotevoli

Oh, right. That sucks. Thanks for all the help guys, we'll see what happens with this guy

Throwdown

iTrader: (2)

ylfotevoli

Well, after getting the timing set, my friend decided to drive it to his house for the engine swap. It actually survived the 100+ mile trip! When we finished Saturday, it was still burning a lot of coolant, he said after driving a while today, it stopped smoking altogether and didn't loose any coolant!

So after getting so hot it melted the timing cover and stopped, we simply replaced the head gasket and it was able to still run. Hondas are sick