intekragsr

Ok, I used to overheat at idle. I swapped in a fluidyne radiator, oem thermostat and thermoswitch and cometic headgasket. This fixed the idle overheating issues.

BUT.............

Now I am having overheating problems when driving The needle seems to jump real high really fast, then right when i turn the heater on full blast, it drops a tiny bit and then rises back up for a while.

After driving like this for 10 minutes on the highway, i finally got home, idled and the temperatre didnt move Could it possibly be a bad temp gauge? How would I check that and do those go bad often?

I checked the coolant and notcied a tiny bit of flaky white stuff sitting at the top of the radiator. What is it? junk from the new radiator?

I just found a bunch of crusty white mushy crap under my new radiator cap..........wtf is this?


just did compression check:
1 - 190
2 - 181
3 - 190
4 - 195

SOUNDEFFECTS

headgasket problem or....cracked sleeves at the bottom and the coolant and oil are mixing some how. Its not going to go away.

intekragsr

how come my compression came out fine if its the headgasket or sleeve?

gritsak

do a leakdown test done instead of compression...that will give you a better idea of whats actually going on

Hybrid

Yup the best way is to do a leak down. And if you caused any heat damage to your head when you had your previous over heating problem and diden't notice it then that is probably causing you issues now.

I went through that, some minor pitting on the head caused me to blow my new HG almost immediatly, I had to get the head milled. The jumping in your temp is likely very hot compressed air blowing over your thermostat.

Open your rad and start your car, if you see bubbles, tiny bubbles (you know how the song goes), and maybe some oil sheening in there as well then you have a HG problem, or even shittier, a cracked sleeve.

intekragsr

update:

I let the car idle with the cap off for 45 minutes, watching lots of bubbles come out. No over heating until around 30 minutes into the idle. The fans kicked on normally.

HERES THE TRICKY PART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The way it overheats..........the needle shoots up really fast not hitting the red.........and I turned on the heater full blast for maybe 5 seconds and it shot down to normal......turned the heater off real quick, shot back up, and went down.
I did not turn the motor off.....and it idles at perfect temp for another 10 minutes.

WTF? if it overheats, shouldt it overheat....like continuously?





[Modified by intekragsr, 2:22 AM 3/27/2003]

Hybrid

leak down test will give you the answers.

Too_Smooth

The mushy stuff is oil. You probably blew your headgasket.

Is steam constantly coming out of your exhaust?

intekragsr

nothing comes out of my exhaust

BoostingSnail

yeah I was going to ask you if you bleed the air out of the system...air pockets in some engines can be a SOB to get out...some Ive spent 15 minutes bleeding air out....Im not sure if honda has a bleeder valve on their thermostat housings or not but if you use it to bleed the system it's similiar to bleeding brakes...just crack it a little bit and wait til fluid comes out and close it off...if air pockets are small enough they will work themselves out...but big ones can cause overheating and even worse a cracked block or head


[Modified by BoostingSnail, 9:37 PM 3/26/2003]

intekragsr

can someone answer this please?

Flamenco-T

there is a bleeder valve on top of the T-stat housing.

this is my suggestions,
- drain all the coolant
- change the thermostat
- if fans comes on normally, leave it alone
- put water, ONLY WATER in the radiator
- start it up with the caps off, let it idle, see if it does it again

if it does still, do the following

- start the motor, leave it running
- get a long garden hose
- run the water thru the upper radiator inlet
- undo the bottom drain stop of the radiator, let it drain
- sit and watch, make sure the water is constantly running to the radiator, at the same rate or faster than it drains out

see what happens, what you are doing is basically flushing the whole system while the motor is circulating the coolant thru the water jacket.

if it still overheating, VERIFY that the fan switch is working, thermostat is working, you have no leakage. if all those checks out good, do a leakdown test to see if you blew the headgasket.

stan

RedHB

Does it only heat up when you have the temperature switch on cold? You should try to do a coolant pressure test--it's a pretty simple task.


[Modified by RedHB, 11:05 PM 3/26/2003]

intekragsr

i dont think i need a pressure test......its a brand new fluidyne radiator....thermostat and thermoswitch

SOUNDEFFECTS

again, cracked sleeves or headgasket failure....But if your getting good compression and idle its probably the sleevs at the bottom. Everything you explain points to sleeves. Thats normal if you turn on the heat then the temp will go back down for a bit. Idle doesn't put that much stress on the motor so it should take longer for it to overheat if the sleeves were leaking.

bottlefedb18c1

that used to happen to my 89 Mustang GT and it had a air pocket in the water jaket and maybe in buy the water pump just give it a try to bleed it or try the good old hose trick thats what fixed the dam V8

RedHB

It doesn't matter if you got all that new stuff. When you do a coolant pressure test, you're applying pressure--usually around 20psi--into your coolant system. There's this little guage that lets you know what pressure you're at. If the pressure holds, you don't have any leaks; if it starts to drop, you have a leak. If your pressure does start to fall, find out from where it is leaking with a visual inspection of all your hoses. Since you say that it is unlikely a head gasket failure, it could be a hose clamp that is not doing its job.


[Modified by RedHB, 11:38 AM 3/27/2003]

JRSCCivic98

BLEED THE DAMN SYSTEM!

You're getting hot air pockets that hit your temp sensor in the thermostat housing and then you get water that hits it and it cools off. Your temp guage cannot just JUMP up from normal to cold. If it is a rapid jump, then it's imediate gain in temp which is the hot *** air hitting the sensor. Water takes a bit to build up temp. The reason you're seeing things fluctuate when you set your heater to on all the way is because now you're letting the coolant in your heater element mix in and probably move some of those bubbles away. Basically, put your heater slider to all the way hot so you open the element valve and let coolant/water (from the engine) flow through it also and then fill the radiator and overflow tank up and BLEED the system.

If it's a SOHC you won't find a bleeder valve... Basically, you fill it up and start it with the cap off and let the temp come up to where the thermostat cracks open. Then you watch the level and fill if neccesary. If it's a DOHC then look at the top radiator hose where it goes onto the engine. See that thing on that connection that looks like a nipple (or a break bleeder valve)? That's the bleeder valve for the coolant. Fill the radiator up and the overflow tank and put the cap back on the radiator. Start the car and wait for the termostat to crack open. Bleed the system until you get a steady stream of water/coolant comming out. Fill as needed.



[Modified by JRSCCivic98, 7:00 PM 3/27/2003]

intekragsr

Thanks guys..I really appreciate all the posts.