crazyhouse2011

I have a b18b1, and it takes awhile to get the car to fully warm up. I can drive almost 5 miles to work, and the temp gauge is just finally getting close to half way (normal). Today I drove to work, temp gauge was almost half way, then i parked and left the car running since it was cold outside. I was a few minutes early so i sat in the car for about 5 minutes with the engine running and the heat on low setting. The coolant temperature gauge read barely over 1/4 after those 5 minutes, as if the water temp went DOWN. Why is this?

Also note, if i start and run the engine, in most temperatures below 80 degrees, the temp gauge will never read above about 35-40% unless and until i start driving. Most of the time it hangs around 25-30% in colder weather, but won't go higher, leaving my heat at luke warm temperature.

This summer I serviced my cooling system. Brand new hoses/clamps, tightened to spec, flushed distilled water through the system 3 times to pump out the garbage, REPLACED THE THERMOSTAT, let me repeat that, YES I REPLACED THE THERMOSTAT, and refilled with the proper mixture of antifreeze/distilled water.

What is going on?

Former User

Try a thorough bleed.

crazyhouse2011

that's kinda what i was thinking. what do you define as a "thorough" bleed though? and also, where is the bleeder valve on ye olde b18b1

Former User

What year B18B1?

crazyhouse2011

1994

HondaPartsHero

92ehatch

Could be a bad new thermostat. While rare its possible.

Went to a car meet and a girl had an overheating teg. Said she changed the thermostat and when i checked it, bad thermostat.

Don't rule it out completely.

Is your fan running too often? All the time? Could be the fan switch kicking over too early.

asinclado

Last winter I ha d the same problem with my stock 98 cx. If let idle and heat was on, temp needle would drop. I installed a higher temp thermostat and problem solved. I didn't even have to replace the thermostat during the hottest months this past summer. I think the problem is due to the radiator being so small.

TheRealTegger

The thermostat is an aftermarket one that is of the wrong rating or is defective. Put a new OEM one in there.

crazyhouse2011

fan rarely ever runs

crazyhouse2011

thank you

crazyhouse2011

Maybe it's just too ******* cold outside, but i let the engine cool down to where the temp gauge needle barely moved when i flipped the key to ON II position. I popped the radiator cap as the manual instructs, with it partially closed, and ran the engine for almost 20 minutes, but the temp gauge wouldn't go above 1/4. I sealed her up, took her on a short (minute and a half) drive, and the gauge was right below half way where it should be. idk what to do.

TheRealTegger

The thermostat is an aftermarket one that is of the wrong rating or is defective. Put a new OEM one in there.

crazyhouse2011

you already said that.

tony_2018

If you didn't get the point than I suggest you sell that integra.

crazyhouse2011

I WILL LOOK INTO PURCHASING A HOTTER THERMOSTAT. I think the issue is although the 1.8 in the integra is slightly bigger (and therefore would heat up faster) than the 1.6 in the civic, the civic has a half size radiator, which radiates a lot less heat, and the integra has a full size, which allows a LOT of surface area for 20 degree air to blanket it, hindering the engines ability to warm up, especially if the thermostat is stuck open

TheRealTegger

Which is exactly what I suspect. That's what you get when you use aftermarket thermostats.

A dealer thermostat is the correct rating for the engine and is not defective.

crazyhouse2011

I used the AutoZone performance-enhancing thermostat, so IDK why it would have failed already.

TheRealTegger

Well, they never said what kind of performance they were going to "enhance", did they?

B_Swapped93

wow you're not smart...that's like the Mishimoto one I have it opens at a lower temp to promote "better cooling" and is referred to as a "racing" t-stat. using that in the cold weather is beyond dumb I had a hard time just getting the car to temp with my full rad and that style of t-stat last year with my old DC.


also thanks HondaPartHero I actually never knew that's how you bled it...I always ramped the front up and opened the rad cap and squished the hoses. granted on my b18cR the housing is tucked back towards the firewall, so maybe the R's don't have that my gsr did tho.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Lol...performance thermostat. I wonder why it's not warming up.

It sho does perform doe.

crazyhouse2011

I doubt its the thermostat. It probably has more to do with what I said earlier, about the full size radiator allowing too much cooling/surface area for the engine to reach operating temp at idle in extreme cold weather.

TheRealTegger

Do you have any idea what the thermostat does and how it does it?

m4xwellmurd3r

Clearly he doesnt.

An engine will reach operating temp in the same time regardless of radiator size. I could have a heater core hooked up as a radiator. Itll hit 180 just as fast as if I hooked a pool up to the radiator lines.

The difference is a heater core sized radiator doesnt have the capacity to cool an entire engine, where as the pool does.

This is assuming your tstat works. It takes my car maybe 5 minutes to hit close to 180f. Thats when its 40f outside at night. Im also running a vw scirocco radiator thats miles better than the stock integra radiator (dual pass, thicker core, etc.)


Go to honda/acura. Get a real oem tstat and none of this "performance" vatozone ****

B serious

iTrader: (1)

The thermostat has the job of getting the INITIAL coolant in the block up to temp. Once that happens, if the radiator is over-cooling the coolant, the thermostat will have to keep opening and closing to maintain temp. Depending on how much the radiator is cooling the coolant off...the temp needle will come up to operating temp...and then drop again under low load.

This happens to integras during cold winters. All of mine did it. All of them with good Honda OEM thermostats. Integras are a bit over-cooled via the bigass radiator. It takes FOREVER for all of the coolant to come up to temp enough so that you get consistently hot heat. FOR-EV-ERRR.

The OP's problem is, however, FOR SURE his thermostat. I think he either knows that already...or he posted a thread to troll yall. No matter what you say, he will disagree. This will throw you into a state of quarreling. This is exactly the goal of the troll. To make you pay the toll.

But...for people that are wondering about why the car takes so long to get up to temp during the cold winter:

1. It's cold. You serious?
2. Most people turn on the car and turn the heater to full blast at the exact same moment. Now you're constantly cooling the coolant that's trapped in the block/heater core circuit.
3. Most people let the car idle while this is happening. Why would it warm up? You're killing off the small amount of heat that the engine is producing.

The car is going to take some driving under load to fully warm all of the coolant in the system so that you get consistent heat as the thermostat opens and closes. The bigger your radiator...the longer this entire heating process takes.

Read what I'm saying before you disagree. If what I'm saying is wrong...every single car on the planet would have the same sized radiator and coolant capacity...and everything would be controlled by the t-stat.

The most efficient way to make the car warm up quickly:

1. Turn it on and put the fan speed to 0. Put the blend to full cold.
2. Drive the car slowly until it starts to come up to temp
3. Once up to temp, open the blend door to hot and set the fan as you would.