I'm sorry to clog the RR section with a question like this, but I trust the collective opinion of this forum on HT, not so much over on the civic section. I just want to get some advice before I start throwing money at it.

I had my car out on buttonwillow for 3 laps, and temp came up. (3/4 on the gauge) I parked it, let it cool, bleed the system, and the temp didnt move during the 110 mile drive, and still doesn't.

The radiator is a integra GSR raditor, however it has two small holes ghetto patched with jbweld. it has not been an issue during use, and was meant to be temporary, but I havent gotten around to buying a new radiator.

The car is a 95 cx hatch, sohc, mild build making only 144 whp.

Another thing to note is that a couple weeks ago, i slide the climate control to hot for the first time in a couple weeks and turned the fan on, however no heat came out for a while. I stopped to check if the heater valve linkage clip broke, but it was intact. During that time, the car was on idling (it took a while, it was at night with a cell phone for my light) When i got back in, temp had creeped up, so i started driving it immediately and fed it some revs. Once I did that, heat started coming out of the vents, and temp fell.

I suspect a very slow leak in either the heater core or radiator, something thats allowing some air to get into the system, and cause it to heat up (not overheat though) I don't think it is the headgasket, its new, along with the rest of the motor, though I am getting coolent being pushed into the overflow tank.

The questions are as follows:
Has anyone had a headgasket fail in this manner? Daily driving, the temp doesn't move at all.
I am considering this radiator: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW
Does anyone have experience with cheap ebay alum radiators? Should I look elsewhere?
If this doesn't fix anything, then I will replace the heater core (anyone have one btw?) and run a compression test.

Any advice appreciated.

 

Do you have a temp guage?? If you are using the stock one, they are very innacurate. I have actualy had a brand new headgasket seem fine, until i put a real temp guage in, and realized daily driving i was actualy at 210. Personaly, any time i was pushing coolant into the resivoir, it was a headgasket. You can try a radiator cap, since they are cheap. I always use stock headgaskets, and copper spray. Held 15 psi fine, with stock head studs, and holds my new whimpy sohc na build. That radiator should be more then good enough, other then the holes Good luck.

 

Thanks man. I should also mention the following two things. The hg is a 2 layer OEM y8 gasket with copper spray. Also, i have arp head studs in there, but never re-torqued them.

The rad cap is new, a lot of stuff is new under the hood, haha.

The radiator should be replaced anyway, the plugged holes were meant to be temporary. The past 2 days, everything has been normal. The level in the overflow tank is at the max line, and hasn't changed, and no heating issues, even during prolonged idling. Fan works btw.

Oh, no I don't have any gauges.