civistyleny

Hi everyone, I'm a car enthusiast, not much of a tuner, looking for some advice on my stock civic, so forgive me if this is the wrong section or im asking noob questions.

I bought a civic a few weeks ago for cheap with 160k miles which was a little rough outside but seemed to be ok mechanically. It hadn't really been driven for a while and I didn't check the coolant level, might have been low. After about 15 min of driving i notice temp gauge goes up and whitish smoke comes from under hood. I happened to be passing a garage so i brought it in they told me the coolant blew and melted the radiator cap, they replaced that and refilled coolant, and told me I needed to change the thermostat,

gasket, and fan sensor, which i had done a week later. Mechanic told me cat converter might be bad but was ok for now, after cruising home maybe 13 miles from garage at 70 mph with heater on, when i reversed into my driveway, i noticed a little white smoke from exhaust and a lot from under the hood. Coolant had blown again but new rad. cap stayed on and temp gauge stayed in middle. Does anyone think the bad cat. caused crack in head gasket? Not too mechanically inclined myself and am wary of going all

out with repairs on such an old car, honda or not. It drives well and seems to have a bunch of a new parts from the last owner, but it may have been sitting for a while. Any feedback would be much appreciated

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

How in Hades does a catalytic converter have anything to do with the head gasket? Your head is probably warped from your overheating and possibly that of the previous owner.

jbpnoman

Sounds like the last owner took you for a ride.

Dioxine

Does sound like you have a warped head or a bad head gasket. The converter would not cause these symptoms.

jbpnoman

On the other hand, and for what it's worth, your cat could have been shot by the blown head gasket. Unburnt/partially burned oil and coolant traveling through your catalyst could do some very unfriendly things to it.

There are a couple of basic tests you can do for a diagnosis. Start off with a compression test. You can find a how-to in the FAQs sticky. You can rent the tool you'll need from your local parts store, or buy it - they're fairly cheap. The second test would be an exhaust gas test on the coolant. The kit itself can be rented, but the actual testing material will cost you ~$20. These two tests combined are usually fairly good at diagnosing blown head gaskets.

I would personally replace the compression test with a leakdown test, but that is a bit more tools-intensive. You can find a write-up for that in the FAQs sticky as well.

Dioxine

Clogged cats will cause lack of power and will eventually cause damage but not overheating and such unless it was 100 percent clogged

jbpnoman

Never said it would, but the inverse isn't true. A damaged head gasket can easily fry a cat, if it isn't dealt with in a timely fashion.