I'm repairng a freinds cars that was over heating. There it was shy 1 gallon of water. I replaced the thermo and filled it up with distilled water. After heating up, there is white foam and coolant being presured out of the upper radiator hose and ton of white foam on the radiator cap and hole.

I ran a compression test before leak down and after. Here are the results:

Before 90W was added:
180 180 170 180

After 90W was added:
210 190 190 190

I'm suspecting a head gasket, but I'm unsure what to think about the leak down results. The oil looks just fine. The white foam doesn't feel that oily. Any suggestions? And no, I did not add Mr. Bubbles to the coolant.

 

I'm having the exact same problem now on my prelude!! Have you found the problem and solution on this?

And does any of you other guys know what's causing this? Really frustraiting this..

 

I had a similar problem on my VW, it led to the "foam" blowing out all the seals on my water pump and the stealership told me when i got it back that "some idiot at jiffy lube" put the cheap coolant in your car that used a different coolant ( I found out later that it was green coolant VS the red coolant that VW's use when mixed it foams.) Not sure if that helps or is kinda what happened to you but it sure pissed me off when i got the repair bill.

 

Is the coolant still bright green or is it kinda gross lookin?

 

Definitely kinda gross, and dark rusty when i drained it.

Chuckles99SH, thanks for your story. i just have to hope it was the coolant. Tho i've had the car for over a year now.

It also seem to heat up even when the temp index on the dashboard doesn't show that it's hot.

I've drain the radiator a few times now, but as it's a leak on it i have to fix that as well now before i can do further testing on it. must have come from high pressure i guess.

 

Sorry to say, but it sounds exactly what happened when I blew my head. Yes, that's right - blew the HEAD, not the head gasket. Mine was still running good, but would overheat as soon as I went under 55mph. Took off the rad cap and a nice yellow-mud mixture spewed out of it. Turns out the head had cracked all the way across cylinder #1 (only thing I can figure is the jack hole at Pro Care can't install a thermostat, it didn't open = my head ouch)

That was the one time I didn't do my own work, and I paid out the *** for it.

I would have to say it's time to tear the head off, and hopefully your headgasket is f-cked. If it isn't, well that just hurts the heart (and wallet).

 

I thinkin the old radiator with the leak in it may have something to do with the rusty color. Usually when you blow the head gasket its grey/black looking, but i wouldnt take that outa the picture.

Let us know what happens when you get a new radiator/fix the old one.