nonstophero0079

Alright guys, here's the deal. I HAVE SEARCHED. I HAVE IN FACT BEEN LOOKING FOR HOURS and can't find a clear answer. Okay, I just swapped in a B18C into my 1999 Civic CX. Me and my friend bled the system as best we could; I believe we got it, but we may not have.

Anyways, while the car is running, if I do NOT have the heat on, when I turn it on it blows out hot air,then this hot air cools down to cool-ish air. This cool-ish air is NOT as cold as the "cold" setting; fyi, there is currently no A/C hooked up because I could not find a CRV or Del Sol VTEC compressor mount.

The fan does not seem to be kicking on; I've let this thing Idle for like a half hour and no fan. The car DOES reach proper operating temperature and does NOT over heat.

Last thing is the lower radiator hose isn't hot; the top one is.

I live in Indiana; it's been unseasonably warm, but temps have still been in the 30's and 40's. I need this fixed ASAP so that when we do freeze, I can defrost my car properly lol. I have NOT pulled trouble codes yet; it's an obd1 engine and obd1 computer, and I haven't jumped the service connector yet. Please offer your suggestions. Thank you.

stormpulse

mine did that after i put a bi6 in it i just flipped the valve on the heater core hose by hamd a couple times and it worked fine after

nonstophero0079

Weird man. I've messed with mine a few times too. It's almost like the valvr won't open far enough or something. I don't know, i'll flip it by had a few times and see what happens. Also, did you put the little metal "arm" back on? Mine won't stay on if i keep playing with the hot/cold switch back and forth. Also is there a bleeder valve on these? Mine lopes so hardcore at idle after it warms up that it will spit coolant out where the rad cap is at (with the cap off) because of how it shakes the chassis.

HondaPartsHero

Thermostat stuck open

nonstophero0079

I guess in the next few days I'll replace my thermostat; thanks for the responses guys.

Geo4k

That's what worked for me....

ej1bmx

This

nonstophero0079

Wait a minute though. If my thermostat was stuck open, my car wouldnt ever get up to operating temperature, or take a really long time right? The warm up time is normal, and once it warms up, it NEVER over heats.

HondaPartsHero

Are your heater hoses getting hot?

nonstophero0079

One was and one wasn't. I decided to backflush the heater core. The EM1 radiator I had had sat out of a car for quite a while with no coolant in it. What tends to happen is that stuff dries. So, ya put fresh coolant in it and those particles get somewhat hydrated but don't turn back into fluid so to speak. They are small enough to flow through the big radiator hoses, but once they hit the small orifices in the heater core, they can clog it. That's what my issue was. Remember if you ever get a used radiator for an engine swap or whatever, FLUSH IT OUT. Everything is cool now guys, thanks SO much for you guys' responses.

mach3lude

seen as his questions were answered i'd thought i'd jack this thread instead of making another one with the same topic. i have a 94 civic dx. live in wisconsin and its 0 degrees out right now. my heat sucks, has been for a long time and cant figure out why. driving around i have to have my heat on full blast the whole time just to get it above sub zero lol. its like warmish air that comes out and by the time it hits you in the face it feels cold. i flushed the whole system, heater core is good no clogs, new thermostat in and everything. both hoses get really hot. my old car use to get super hot heat, my prelude gets super hot and my girls teg gets super hot. this civic is pissing me off

Former User

Does the temp gauge reading in the cluster indicate that the engine is hot when the air is only warm?

Have you tried bleeding the cooling system?

Bleeding the cooling system may take 20-30 minutes.

1) Park the car on an inclined driveway with the front end higher than the rear.

2) Push the dash heater lever/**** to MAX heat.

3) Follow the directions in the diagram below (hint: the bleed bolt is located where the upper radiator hose connects to the engine):

mach3lude

ya the gauge is always at normal operating temp. and i bled it like a bunch of times cuz no matter how many times i would do it every time i would take off from a light you can hear the coolant rushing into the heater core, sounded like a fish tank. got it unclogged and bled it a bunch of times and the fish tank sound is fixed but heat still sucks. OH and that brings me to another issue. in the summer time the car is always over heating, temp gauge goes into the red starts smoking, whether i have the a/c on or not, and yes the fan works properly as it should. idk if the two would be related somehow.

ofthesun94

sounds like its just your thermostat change it and let us know what it is still doing

NotAJDMFanBoy

You keep bleeding it, hearing a "fish tank" sound, and in the summer it keeps overheating. If you're purging the system right, it won't do that. Top off the coolant, squeeze the upper and lower radiator hose to get it to flow in everywhere, ad more until it's full and repeat, and then run the car and ad more. You can get a tester to test for exhaust gas in your cooling system, or rent one and buy the special fluid at Autozone. It's like a $50 deposit plus like $8 for the fluid.

I think you have a blown head gasket. Being cold out, it may be cooling it well enough still to keep from overheating.

mach3lude

i know its purged right. i've done it a million times on cars. and i know the head gasket isnt blown. that actually blew out on me when i hit 90,000 miles last year and i replaced it right away. it actually blew out on my while pulling into the driveway so i caught it right away and the car only ran for like 20 seconds with that blown before i shut it off. is it possible that the ignitor is weak? its pretty frustrating cuz i've never had a problem like this on any of my other hondas, wasnt sure if this is just a civic thing or what.

apexi_rsx

surely not a civic thing i get plenty of heat but im also running coolant lines off my BB turbo maybe that helps. but my acura blows hella hot heat. it may be slowly leaking around the O-ring on the thermostat i had this problem before but it got bad to where when i reved the motor or took off from a light the gauge would go cold until i sat at a light again. water pump was pushing it past

ChristianL

I'll +1 this in a heartbeat.

But since I don't know your mechanical abilities, I'll trust that you're bleeding the system correctly. If so, that noise means that there's coolant escaping the system at some point, and introducing air into it. This, of course, means there's a leak in your cooling system somewhere.

You said the head gasket blew, and it was replaced. Have you checked the oil for signs of coolant mixing in? What was the car doing prior to the previous head gasket failing?

Start looking for leaks. If you don't see any on the hoses, heater core, water pump, or radiator, I'll bet it's either the new head gasket, or the block/head got warped from whatever it was doing abnormally that blew the head gasket.

MonkeyBoy668

When you replaced your head gasket did you replace the studs, or are the studs aftermarket like the ones from ARP?

OEM studs are only good for one installation. When you remove a head that uses OEM studs you have to replace the studs. They stretch when you torque the head down the first time, and will keep stretching on the 2nd installation, though not uniformly. It's in the Helm manual that studs must be replaced.

Did you have the heck decked to take care of any warpage?

Is the head gasket you installed an OEM piece or an aftermarket piece?

I know it seems like everyone's questioning your technical abilities, but there are a lot of possibilities for what's happening, and most (well, all the reasons I know) are along the lines everyone's talking about in this thread.

NewtoCivics

Concerning the summertime overheating....does the temp kick back down after it gets really hot? If so does it do it randomly or are there certain things that help(i.e. it overheats in town and is okay on the highway)? The reason I ask is it could be a water pump issue. I'm not sure if that would affect the heat. I know it did on my truck when my water pump went out. As soon as the car started to overheat the air would go from hot to cold. It may not(and probably isn't) the problem. But food for thought.

mach3lude

ok i see everyone is questioning my mechanical abilities. im very mechanical. i do all my own stuff, never go to a shop unless theres some kind of tool i dont have like a press. my prelude for instance i pulled my motor twice by myself to do a bunch of different things like a balance shaft removal kit, h23 manual tensioner conversion, took the tranny apart and put in a quaife lsd and mfactory final drive with carbon coated synchros, suspension, interior and so on......

my civic is a stock dx....not even an intake on it and just hit 90k last summer, all original miles.

as far as when the gasket blew the car was acting and driving completely normal, just went through the car wash and was heading home and when i put it in park white smoke started coming out of the exhaust. i smelled it and it smelled sweet and i knew it was the coolant and that i blew my gasket. shut the car off and immediatly replaced the gasket with an oem one and put new studs in (not arp) didnt think i'd need arp since im not doing anything to this car. i replaced the plugs and wires and changed the oil afterwards.

my little fish tank sound i was having would keep on happening no matter how many times i bled the system. i eventually figured there was something in the heater core clogging it (since thats where the sound was coming from) and i took that out and cleaned it. put it back together, bled the system and havent had that sound like there is air trapped in it somewhere ever since, but yet the heat still sucks in it. im out of guesses as to why is sucks *** thats why i thought maybe its just a civic thing.

as far as in the summer time with it over heating, it only over heats when at a stop and go light for awhile or going through a drive through. once i start moving again the temp drops. at first i thought it was my fan not working but i looked into that and it works just fine. it'll kick on but the car still over heats. i havent found coolant leaking anywhere whats so ever. hell my car doesnt even drip oil or burn it. its a really nice car but this heat issue for winter and over heating issue for summer is bugging the crap out me and i cant figure out whats wrong with it. im out of ideas so i thought maybe u guys would have something im over looking.

sorry about all this long crap but thanks for trying to help me out!!