project93civic

Hey i just bought this 93 honda civic dx. My problem is that the car was overheating alot and smoke would come up from under the hood so we popped it and there we saw smoke coming from the radiator cap and the overflow tank was full and spitting anti-freeze everywhere. I just got all the gaskets replaced(head,intake,exhaust), a new water pump, and a new timing belt. Well here there problem is again. It doesnt over heat right away and go right into the red on the temp gauge. I need some ideas on what it might be. We were thinking that it might be the radiator i dont think the fans are kicking in either. Another thing sometimes the idle goes up and down from 1 grand to 2 and sometimes it dont anybody know what the might be. Thanks

DBLAZE

Sounds like head gasket went on you again! Same thing happened to me and the fluid in the radiator was kicking back up and spitting anti-freeze everywhere in the engine bay!!! Doesn't look good for you dog!!!

ham

sounds like you have a large amount of air in your cooling system. keep the cap off and let it run and very slowly keep fililng it with coolant.

i had the same problem. i ended up smoking my waterpump because it was dry from a big air pocket! i ended up taking the upper hose off the radiator, tipping it up like a funnel, and the motor took another 1/2 gallon of antifreeze.

project93civic

alright im kinda confused so it could be the gaskets again or a large amount of air in the cooling system. im kinda thinking it might be a hose dont you think not cooling the motor enough, a buddy of mine has a grand am that just needed a different radiator hose. because i drove it maybe 20 miles after the new head gasket got put on. it all started happening today.

ham

you could have a hose switched.... like the heater hoses backwards, etc... that could possibly do that. Possibilites may be endless based on the information you gave us.

DBLAZE

I would take the bottom hose off and inspect it along with the top hose (that are connected to the radiator). If these are not it only other things it could be is water pump and head gasket. Hope that helps...

siregcivic

how is the radiator cap?? if the springs are bad it wont hold any pressure in the system to keep it cool it will just spew everything out of the overflow. i have had that problem a lot, but it was the radiator itself had a bunch of deposits and rust and i went and bought a 2 row.

ham

Even if the spring is bad, it still shouldnt boil.

project93civic

I looked under the radiator cap and there is no spring on it. If that helps, today im going to do that trick or w/e where you take the cap off and keep pouring it down there, i just got the water pump and gaskets replaced yesterday and i drove about 20 miles, hopefully its just the cap thats what we were thinking if not today i might get a pressure test on the radiator.

Slow93egg

My car is having the same problem so I have all the gaskets to replace it, but i'm also having the head machined to make sure that it's not the problem. I've removed the thermostat completely and it helped slightly but not enough. I'm also getting water in the oil now, so the headgasket is definately getting replaced.

Good Luck
-Mark-

sicky

Take the smart route, check the compression and if it's good then you know it's not your head gasket, check the water pump wheep hole and see if coolant is coming out of there, if not, it's not your water pump; then it can really only be your radiator. My car was starting to run hot and I changed the thermostat and that didn't change anything, checked out all the above mentioned things, and it was my radiator. I am assuming that's your problem.

project93civic

Well i checked all those things its not coming from the water pump its leaking out on the right side, from the over flow tank. Im thinking that it might be a lower hose going down from the radiator. Im going to check the pressure, the gaskets are brand new and i got the head milled, so it shouldnt be any of those. Im getting a new cap today.

sicky

You might as well cut to the chase and just replace the radiator.

ham

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sicky &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You might as well cut to the chase and just replace the radiator.</TD></TR></TABLE>

you KNOW when a honda radiator is bad, if it looks fine, its fine. dont waste your money.

sicky

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ham &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you KNOW when a honda radiator is bad, if it looks fine, its fine. dont waste your money. </TD></TR></TABLE>
My radiator looked perfectly fine but that was the problem. The shop that did the work was surprised because it looked fine but it ended up being bad. I'm just speaking from what I just went through like 3 weeks ago.

project93civic

Well sicky was right, it was the radiator. We took it off and there was shitty *** antifreeze in there, and the radiator was all coroted. It didnt look good, and there was antifreeze on the coolant fan wires so that didnt work. So tomorrow im going to go get a new one, thanks for all your help guys.

sicky

What can I say? The fact that I dealt with all the same problems around 3 weeks ago, pretty easy to figure it out. Now, get that bitch running nice and cold