grim619

*sorry its so long but i figured it be best to tell the whole story* Ok so I just got a civic on Sunday, its a 99 with 102632 miles on it. The previous owner said he didn't drive it much anymore so his wife made him sell. N any event I took it for a test drive and everything was fine, temp stayed pretty low and it didn't jump around when it was idling or anything. So I decided to buy it. However before I got it he asked if it was cool if he put eagle rod pistons in to replace the old ones and then raise the price a bit for the installation and parts. So I figured sure why not. My boat pulled out for 2 weeks and when I got back I went to pick up the car. Test drove it again before I paid him and it was doing fine. On the way home I stopped by the mall and when I got back to restart it the temp gauge jumped and a bit of white smoke came from the exhahst then the needle went back down again, my first thought was that since it was an old car it was just a random spike because it was idleing the same way it was when I first drove it. I got on the highway and the needle started to rise and fall a bit but never over the half way point. Then I got stuck in stop and go traffic the needle rose about 3/4 of the way up and it just died. No noise, no cloud, it just wouldn't start. I waited for it to cool down and I opened the radiator cap and there was a cloud of antifreeze so I left it be for about an hour. I checked the coolant level and it was a little below the max line so I put the cap back and tried to start it again but it still wouldn't start. You could hear the engine turning over but it wouldn't keep going it'd just cut off. I had it towed to a honda dealership and they spent the last 3 days running tests on it and they couldn't get it to start either and were suggesting I drop $900 for them to open the engine and check out the head gasket. So in order to try to save some money I decided to just pay the initial fee for them looking at it, they wouldn't tell me what they did and didn't try and the diagnostics report is blank since they couldn't start it either. Any suggestions on where to go from here? I saw other threads talking about draining the coolant and replacing radiator fans and or fuse relays but none of the threads actually end with saying what the problem turned out to be or how it was fixed. Any input would be much appreciatted, thanks.

EJ8_Man

So the story basically comes down to the previous owner put in eagle rods and unknown pistons. What motor does your 99 Civic have, and why did he swap out the rods? Not that it matters, it sounds like your head gasket was improperly installed, or he reused the old gasket and/or head studs. Just a guess...

The over heating may have caused the head/block to warp exacerbating your head gasket problems. Do a leak down test and a compression test and let us know what you find.

grim619

Ok new update my friend came over and messed with the wiring under the dash on the passengers side and now the check engine light blinks 8 times then stops then it'll do it again, so we think its shpposed to be error code 8. Also there's a little oil in the top of the intake so it looks like the issue is the head.