shm91

Car overheated. A Head Gasket job with milled/pressure tested head. Block is fine. New Timing belt, water pump, and spark plugs. Could new Head gasket cause that? I haven't reached the operating temp once yet. All are between 155-165 PSI.
P.S. I did HG job twice over two months. After first HG job compression was 185-185-171-185. Now after the second job, 155-165.
(First one failed, because I installed the head bolts with oil filled in the holes.)

TomCat39

You are supposed to oil the threads of the head bolts when installing.

Sounds to me like you need to calibrate your torque wrench and that it's not torquing the head bolts to spec.

Also did you replace the head bolts, they are stretch bolts and is not recommended to reuse them.

If you get ARP head bolt kit they are stronger and can be reused.

And did you do the head gasket in 3 stages of torquing? What was the final footpounds you used?

shm91

I didn't lubricate the threads. I thought it was okay to reuse it (oem) for being bought new couple months ago. It got to operating temp only once meanwhile. My wrench was bought new last week. The calibration chart says Sep/13 for test date.I torqued it to 49 ft lbs. Four steps were 14-36-49-49 ft lbs.
Is it okay to remove only the head bolts for lubricating for less than five minutes - better to buy a new head bolts?

TomCat39

You always lubricate the threads or your torque is inaccurate. Just dip the threads into clean oil before dropping them in to hand tighten.

People do reuse, it's just not recommended by Honda. If you don't see any stretching in the threads you are probably okay.

The reason you clean out the bolt holes is the old oil, or coolant can have contaminates that can also throw the torque out.

Other than not oiling the threads it looks like you followed the torque steps of the manual.

You've tested the head and new head gaskets.... If it refueses to seal now it sounds like a crack in the block somewhere.

Do you have a loss of power or coolant loss or is it lots of steam when it starts warming up? Basically asking, what is making you sure it's leaking?

shm91

With newly charged battery, and with fast turn-over, I got 185-178-182-189. There was a little gap on the deck on #2 cylinder. This might have lost that couple PSI.
It was 185-185-171-184 before at the time of the first HG job.
-I don't know if I lost coolant, because I just turned off the engine right away after seeing white smoke again. This was the first engine operation after the second HG job. The filler neck is up to level (no chance for bleeding yet. Half gal filled for now). It's a lot of steam that surrounds the whole car in 30 seconds.

TomCat39

The radiator should still be full being the thermostat never opened to cycle the coolant.

I think I would drop your catalytic converter and see if it is blowing steam out the header. Just to rule out the idea that there is a significant amount of coolant sitting in the cat that hasn't gotten burned off yet.

If it's blowing steam, don't know what to tell you man, cept maybe a cracked or warped block, which would suck.

Former User

After topping off the radiator and reservoir with coolant, maybe you should try running the engine longer to see whether the smoke dissipates.

94EG8

That would be my suggestion as well, you might just have smoke from residual coolant being burned in the exhaust system.

shm91

I just tend to go extreme for worrying. I'm worried at the thought of running it longer than ten seconds, like it's gonna blow up. At the same time, I'm willing to do it..
So, even at cold start, the residual coolant in the cat could be vaporized to make steam?
I'll try cat-less if running longer doesn't correct it.

TomCat39

Catless just gives you faster readings (not a whole lot of places for water to stick around in the header). The exhaust gases are reallllly hot and the cat will start to heat up right away, enough to steam water vapor trapped in there pretty quickly, then after that resonators will start to warm up, then eventually the muffler. It can take some time to burn all the water out of the whole system.

Dropping the cat idea was just to give you piece of mind to run it long enough to burn through everything in the exhaust system so you don't have a heart attack while all this steam is pumping out of your car. Then again if you get plumes of steam out the header for more than 2 minutes, you know not to bother clearing the exhaust system.

Former User

As long as the engine does not overheat and there's no other evident concerning issue, I'd let the engine idle until it is fully warmed up.

TomCat39

Yeah, just occurred to me, the Cat on the Y7 is intergrated into the header on the front of the motor..... Not really the easiest to take off unlike the old D15's where it's on the bottom of the setup with spring bolts.

OP, disregard the idea of Cat removal, was picturing the wrong system in my head. On that car you'd seperate under the cat. But that would also mean a new gasket for the exhaust. Just best let the car warm up while you watch the temp guage like RonJ susggested.

shm91

A lot less smoke. Almost reached operating temp. The rpm went back and forth weirdly, throwing code 'fourteen'. As the rpm acting up got faster with code, I turned the engine off. The IACV gasket was changed, IACV was soaked in carb cleaner for ten minutes for cleaning a month ago. Maybe I contaminated the coolant while cleaning the deck. Will clean again.
The coolant leveled up on the filler neck as the engine revved up, and down as revved down. Though bubbles didn't come up all the time. I stopped at about 0.7 gallon, the car didn't let me fill up. Also, the engine oil mark wasn't distinct. The oil was spread through the length of the dipstick, even before engine operation. Yesterday, it was distinct before I turned the engine on for ten seconds. The oil wasis in a lot lighter milk color. I guess just the residue.

TomCat39

Oil is milky???? That's not a good sign. Was the oil not milky after you did the head gasket job before you ran it today?

By milky, I mean looks like coffee with cream stirred in thoroughly.

shm91

Just white milk in clear color form. I replaced the oil with engine cold.
By the way, I heard also tapping sound from engine. Not sure if I heard after engine warmed up.

TomCat39

I don't know what you mean by this. Oil is brown and translucent (see through). Milk is white and not translucent (not see through). The mix of water and oil ends up not translucent and looks like coffee with milk mixed in it.

As for checking the oil, you wait 5-10 minutes after running, pull the dipstick, wipe it off, put it all the way back in, then pull it out and get your oil level reading. Do this on level ground.

Can you explain what yopu mean by white milk in clear color?

Former User

The surging idle is probably air still trapped in the cooling system.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/showth...1#post39830585

shm91

It was white color. After the engine stopped, it went back to new oil color (like gold color.). Probably the water has sunken to the bottom rather quick for the amount being little.
I saw oil leaking past on the four corners through valve cover gasket. It's new gasket. The torque on the rocker arm, and valve cover itself were up to spec. Will check oil level again. The car's parked the rear being high a little. Will jack up front of the car and start.
So, I'll try another engine operation again when the sun comes up tomorrow. East coast already having sunset now..

TomCat39

If your oil looks like oil then it should be fine. The water won't sink, it would sit on top of the oil being there is more oil than water in this instance. But the pump would have mixed them together and it would not seperate that fast for the amount of time you idled. It sounds like you did a good job on your head gasket, just follow the Link RonJ provided to burp the cooling system and you should see your car settle out fine and be a dependable little beast again.

Also it's common for older hondas to knock a little when cold and will go away as it warms up, especially motors with high mileage. It's when a knock is loud and persistant (doesn't go away) that you have to worry.

shm91

Thank you very much!

shm91

I'm bleeding the coolant right now. But it fluctuated 1000-2000. Then 1900-2000 very fast.
The car is tilted upward in the front for bleeding. The operating temperature is close, but fan haven't turned on yet. Are those behaviors normal when civic relearn idle?

Is this also applied to D16Y7?

Former User

Complete the bleed procedure exactly as described at the link I posted. Is the heater hose valve on the firewall fully opened? Sounds like there may still be air in the system. The idle speed should drop below 1K rpm after the engine is fully warmed up. If the idle speed remains very high, there may be a vacuum or intake air leak.

You'll find a diagram for idle adjustment for you car in the FAQs sticky.

shm91

I'm going to bleed again now.

Is firewall this? Or the green panel side as a whole?http://www.hondatuningmagazine.com/f...photo_20.html#
Is heater hose the one connecting cylinder head with ECT next to it? I don't know where the valve is, still.

Former User

Carefully read the bleed instructions I posted. If your heater works, then you don't need to touch the valve. Just turn on heater to max heat setting. The blower doesn't have to be on.

shm91

Sorry.
I just did bleeding, but it keeps consuming coolant at fan turn-on. The fan turning 7 times over 40 minutes. One gallon bottle used up. At the seventh fan cycle, the filler neck level dropped when the fan turned on, another coolant bottle used to fill. I turned the engine off.
The idle stays at 1600-1700 fluctuation, still. The bubbles only come up at fan on. The oil looks fine. Little but consistent white smoke - smells exhaust. It's snowing a little and 32 degrees now. The temp guage stays at middle. I put some water on the intake gasket portion, and it didn't affect.