scaleone

i have a 95 honda civic ex. so i just got this car a was looking over everything and notice that my coolant is usually empty but can never find a leak and when i do top it off its usually a milky color to it. anyone know whats going on with it? something major or minor. do i need to be worried?

pogeeboy27

iTrader: (3)

Your headgasket is blown and yes you should be worried. Your oil is mixing with your coolant which causes it to look milky brown/green. If you're new to cars this is a major fix. If you have prior experience, it's not too bad, sorta.

B2Bomber

^^ head gasket

fcm

Ditto both the above^^^ 94

B20VtecVillain

Yes this is considered a major problem because you are getting water in where only oil is supposed to be and vice Versa. If you weren't aware, water inside your combustion chamber is a bad thing, so this should be fixed immediately. If you can do it yourself or with some friends; figure on about $90 for an OEM head gasket, $10-12 for a tube of HondaBond rtv, $5 for a can of copper spray gasket, $50 for a couple bottles of coolant, and $80-150 for head bolts or studs depending on which you choose. Head bolts can/should only be used one time, so if you make a mistake you need a new set, whereas head studs can be reused many times and also offer better sealing in general. You will also want to invest the $30 or so into a factory service manual like Haynes, Climbers etc or purchase an online subscription to something like AllData to get step by step instructions, torque specs for all the bolts etc. All in all plan on spending a few hundred bucks and a day or two of your time to get it done, but the alternative to this is paying close to $1000 to have a shop do this for you.
Also, a good straight edge will be needed to make sure your block/head has not been warped at all, and you will probably need a new set of spark plugs since yours have been getting sprayed with water/coolant for a while it sounds like. I would also stop driving the car immediately until fixing it or you are just asking to do damage to your block, head, or both. Good luck.