shannnn

2000 Honda civic I know the head gasket has a slight leak, was going to get repaired this coming week...today my temp gauge went way up in the red quickly and loads of white smoke from under the hood. The first time in the weather we could not really tell where it was coming from exactly, after it cooled, no power..got a boost short trip to my daughters, (closest place) halfway there temp gauge went way up again. The position I could park the car there we were able to locate where the smoke was coming from. Looking at diagrams it's coming from where the ect sensor is located, is it simply the etc sensor is my motor basically pooched?

CandyRedRC46

Man this is a bad post.
1.) Why is it in the integra section?
2.) Could be anything....
3) Thermostat could be stuck closed.
4.) Fan could be not coming on.
5.) Fan Thermoswitch may have failed.
6.) Head gasket may be bad.
7.) May have a leak in radiator or hose
8.) Maybe a failed water pump.

Of all these, the engine temperature coolant sensor leaking and/or causing this doesn't seem likely, but it would be incredibly easy to check....

shannnn

CandyRedRC46 Sorry if the post is bad, never done this before. Thank you for the reply though. I will look up all you suggested. My main concern is, how to figure out if I cracked the head near the sensor since that is the general location of the white smoke. I'm hesitant to put a bunch of money into changing all these and still having to fix the head gasket which I had planned to do, if in fact I have cracked the motor with this sudden overheating.

CandyRedRC46

I think a pressure test or UV dye test could help you here.
Or wash everything down good, let it dry, top off your coolant, start the car and carefully watch for the leak to find the exact location.
You will have to be careful to not cause further damage and have a friend closely watching the temperature gauge, to shut the engine off when it passes the halfway point.
Watch for the fan to come on before your temp gauge makes it to the halfway point.
Hopefully you just need to replace the T-stat and the coolant was just spewing out of your over flow bottle.

CandyRedRC46

How long was the engine running in the red for?

shannnn

Less then 5 minutes, but thank you for your help. I have just received news on the car. It will take too much money to fix everything for what the car is worth. The mechanic I was going to get to do the head gasket no longer wants to do the job, saying it's better to get a new car. What sucks is that one I just got maybe 6 months ago. Oh well car hunting again. Thanks for all your help