pre-posterous

Hello,
I recently purchased a 1997 Civic from a family friend. I knew it had problems but I figured I could take them on. I installed new dash lights, a short shifter, changed the oil, and replaced the rusted out down pipe. I though all was fine and dandy until several days after replacing the exhaust. I noticed that the car was starting to smell like exhaust fumes again. So, I got under there and liquid gasketed the crap out of it. It still leaks bad when I am sitting so my question is, do I just need to do the whole exhaust. I also have a gas problem. Whenever I fill my tank about 3/4 of a tank, gas leaks bad. Over this last night I had 1/4 of a tank of gas leak out all over the road! My second question is, does this have something to do with the seal between the filler nozzle and the tank. I don't know if this Honda has a plastic tank or not so I don't know if the tank is rusted out? My final issue is that I lose coolant at a very drastic rate, I have to fill it every other day. I placed a piece of cardboard under the radiator and that wasn't leaking so I suspect I am burning it. I am wondering if I have a blown head gasket? Thanks for any help and sorry for the long post I wanted to make sure I cover everything.

cbaber

If you don't have any audible exhaust leaks, the smell of exhaust is most likely due to worn out or missing exhaust gaskets. These include the head-manifold gasket, manifold-downpipe gasket, and also the gasket for the muffler section. If you smell exhaust in the car while its running at a stop, it's most likely from where you replaced the downpipe.

If you have a 97 HX/LX/DX/CX, then you probably need #11 and #20 in the diagram below. For EX you need #10 and #20. That liquid gasket isn't going to cut it, just get the real deal for a few bucks.



As far as the gas leak, where is is leaking from? Rear of the car? Your going to have to check and see where it's coming from to have an idea of what you need to replace. I probably wouldn't drive it if it leaked fuel that bad.

For the coolant issue you should notice signs of a headgasket failure for losses that quick. The oil will become milky, the coolant will look dirty, you would have exhaust smoke, it would run bad. Are you 100% sure it isn't leaking from a hose when driving? Take it for a spin until it warms up, pull over, and check all coolant hoses for leaks. Clean up the bay so you can spot leaks easier. Some of the hoses are only leak when they are pressurized with coolant when the motor is running so you might not have a leak overnight with the car stopped, but it would leak quickly while driving.

pre-posterous

The oil did seem a bit milky when I changed it. I read that another way to check for blown head gasket is to look for a layer of white goo in the oil cap. Mine definitely had this so I decided to go ahead and replace the head gasket. I picked one up yesterday and got everything apart and almost put back together. I did noticed when I removed the heads, there was some oil in the channel between the cylinder and the block that was mixing with coolant. I sucked it out to be safe. I need to replace my timing belt and all the other belts. My car has 230000 miles and I doubt the belt has ever been replaced. I have the wheel off and the splash guard but where do I go from there? As for the exhaust, my catalytic converter has a stripped bolt from someone else so I couldn't bolt down one side. I know this is where it's leaking now, so I'll just need a new catalytic converter. The fuel leak was caused by a hose clamp in the fuel line breaking.