Ever since my h22a swap into the 92lude si4ws, i have had intermittent and strange cooling problems. Tonights story really sums it all up. After being out of town for a week and pondering the problem i thought to change the coolant in case the mixture was too heavy on the antifreeze side, so today i did that. After doing so i sat with the car on for 30 minutes and let it idle and warm up. It never once overheated and the fans kicked on 4 or 5 times to keep it at the nice middle bar. So i decided after dinner to take it out for a spin to make sure. the car was still warm and took only about a mile or so to reach operating temps. i drove normally for 5 minutes or so to give it a chance, then when i gunned it and kept it at speeds from 80 to 100mph for a few miles. no overheating. I stopped and parked l;etting the engine idle. No problems. then i decide to enjoy my new found cooling. I took off and hit 7k in every gear to reach 100, then let off and slowed down to 45 or so for 2 miles before it went up that one bar then after a mile another. the more i slowed the higher the temps got. I finally stopped and in seconds the temp gauge was red. i turned off the engine and sat there for 5 minutes. Then seeing the temps not go down, i decided to drive and instantly the bars started declining all the way to normal. the rest of the drive home it went back and forth between one bar above or normal. someone please help me im desperate.
i have replaced thermostat and water pump as well.
Radiator is from the h23a but is only 2 years old, it does however seem slightly corroded.
Both fans kick on when i turn the AC on.
please help me

 

Couple things concern me.

1. There is a difference between the H22 and H23 radiators at least physically. It might just be the mounting points, but I think the H22 is also deeper.

2. Are you leaking any fluids? Are the hoses on good and were they replaced with the radiator etc. Is your radiator fluid staying at the same level?

3. Check the system for air bubbles as that would cause a intermitent spike in the temp guage. When refilling it make sure to massage the hoses to get fluid fully thru them. There is a process you can go thru around here somewhere to make sure there's no air in there if you do yourself. I can dig that up for ya if you like.

 

i think only difference is the fan shroud mounts, but may be mistaken

Hoses were replaced with the radiator, the radiator did sit in the corner of a barn for 2 months while i was doing the engine swap in my garage. As far as i can tell coolant is not leaking anywhere.

bleeding the system is an easy task i have done, but i do have ceratin specific questions about it. I.E. whether to bleed the system with the engine running and also whether or not to have the cap on the radiator

 

sounds like a bubble, whenever i bleed the coolant i just take off the rad cap, turn on the heater full blast, let it get up to operating temp, then when the rad cap opening stops bubbling, ill let the fans cycle about 3 ttimes while revving the engine up and down, once theres no bubbling at all even when revving, put the cap back on and am done with it

h23 vs h22 radiator isnt the problem, many people run the tiny *** civic radiators which are like half the size of lude/accord radiators with no cooling problems whatsoever

also, since your car has overheated since the thermo was replaced, it most likely has been damaged and should be replaced, once a thermo overheats it tends to stick

 

so i should bleed it with the rad cap off, and the engine on?
doesnt that allow air in through the rad cap area tho?
i have bled it before with the rad cap off and the engine on but no coolant at all came out

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by soccmid1587 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so i should bleed it with the rad cap off, and the engine on?
doesnt that allow air in through the rad cap area tho?
i have bled it before with the rad cap off and the engine on but no coolant at all came out</TD></TR></TABLE>

it wont let air in, as it bubbles the level of coolant may go down, you'll want to keep adding coolant so that it is basically always just below the rim of the cap hole

 

Will try it again tomorrow but i swear i tried that before and all i got was air coming out, that may be the problem lol.
side question.
IS there any other way to drain the coolant from heater and block besides the coolant drain bolt in the back, because i spent the whole day putting that damn thing back, and truthfully i would rather do something ridiculous like pull out the entire radiator than have to deal with that again.
obviously i dont have a lift lol

 

today i did almost every combination possible. I bled valve with the radiator cap off, and the engine on. nothing really came out, anyone explain this?
when i bled the valve with the radiator cap on, it came out in a stream with some bubbles,
and when then i decided to let the engine warm up on its on with the radiator cap off. I actually started to overflow from the cap, which is weird. when it got halfway and the fans still hadnt turned on, i decided to rev it a lil. as soo as i stopped the ECT gauge decided to go up then and the fans kicked on, but then they went off after it got past the one bar up. so for the lil bit of time it was only one bar above norm, the fans were on, but then they kicked off again and it continued to heat up. I personally dont see how it will spike from norm to 3 bars above norm in bout 30 seconds differnce when it sat at norm for 10 minutes.
can someone please tell me the correct way to bleed my system.
The helms manual i have is on my computer and isnt very descriptive.
please help people. If i need to get a new radiator then fine but i want to make sure its not something small before i buy a new one.


Modified by soccmid1587 at 3:05 PM 6/22/2006


Modified by soccmid1587 at 3:06 PM 6/22/2006

 

bump

 

the way that i bleed is just to top it off and leave the cap open and the engine running, you'll see a few bubble come up to the top, check to make sure that your lower rad hose is getting warm, once it starts getting warm you'll know that the fluid is being moved...i'll let the car idle for about 15 minutes or until the fan kicks on a few times, just squeeze the hoses and a few bubbles will rise up.

 

so tonight it overheated even more, i spent the better part of the afternoon driving around a congested town area, without any overheating, but i did have the heater on just in case, and then i went and chilled for about 4 hours. i come out cars cold, i head for home. about 5 miles in im overheating and i do the rest of the way home. I stop each time it gets 2 bars up and turn off the car. I check the engine and its not even that hot. the rad hoses and radiator itself were much hotter. so do i need a new radiator or is some sensor??

 

I believe you should be running a H22 radiator... I've read from a few people that have done H22 swaps from the H23 have overheating problems due to their H23 radiator... I would try replacing the radiator for a Koyo one...

 

really? Because ive never heard that. Would make sense but does anyone else know of this problem ?

 

I'm no expert at this stuff. I would replace the thermostat first as already suggested. I might also try replacing the water temperature unit as well. How old is the water pump in that motor? Sometimes headgaskets can cause strange overheating problems. Also, when you're doing 100 plus you're essentially air-cooling the motor. Just my opinion.

 

thermo has been replaced and water pump nd timing belt are new, replaced when put in the engine.
and its not the headgasket. Oil isnt milky and did head gasket test already.

I am going to buy a new radiator.
Now question is do i buy the h22 or h23a radiator?
If i get the h22a radiator am i going to need new fans?

 

when i bleed.. i always have the rad cap on... i'm not saying that's the correct way (; i'm just saying that's how i do it.. i usually run the car first for a long while, with rad cap off, heater cranked - while adding fluid - to continually top it off - until it doesn't require it anymore and bubbling is ceasing.. then i chuck the cap on (while car is still running).. then i grab my 12 inch stubby.. and rock my bleed valve open, usually a bunch of bubbles come out, then when it gets solid streamed - i turn it back tight... finally i'll go back to the rad cap and check if i have to add more fluid (you got to be careful here, if the car has been running a while, my cap has a pressure release on it.. but you could get burnt if you don't do this when the car is cool)- usually i don't have to add more - it's right at the neck.. but if i did - i would add more, and rebleed.
i dunno - just doesn't make much sense to bleed a system that's open in two places? but perhaps that's just me, and the silly way i look at things (;

 

ok so today was disturbing. I decided to rebleed(had time on my hands) and i sat and watched my engine overheat. The thermostat is now stuck again (which sucks because its already been replaced) and the whole time the fans didnt get kick on once. Now obviously i could not bleed the system if the thermo was not open, so all i got was air when i tried to bleed it. fyi thermo is infront of the bleed so i could not get any moving coolant. What troubles me is why did the fans not turn on when it hit that 1 bar over? Any ideas? I am getting a new radiator and now a new thermo asap but i think i may buy the 2 sensors as well just to overhaul the whole thing. Ideas about the fans?

 

the fans (or there related switches) are not related to the ect temp gauge sensor!, they are related to ect temp however - but sensed individually. (i'm sure you know all that, but just expect that before your car overrides the halfway mark for temp the fans should save you)

however this could also mean perhaps your ect temp is reading incorrectly high - while your switches are reading normal and that's why the fans are not switching on. in my swapped jdm h22a (w/ stock si rad mind you) it takes a long while for the fans to turn on... usually the thermo has opened for atleast a while, before they kick on. (mind you my temps don't exceed the halfway either...)

if your system is not bled properly (or with a stuck thermo) it could also mean you have an air bubble/(steam) near the ect probe that heats more readily then the (proposed) coolant near the fan switches - causing a higher reading at the ect gauge sensor - then what the (fan) switches are detecting immersed in coolant. you dig?


I believe the helms has a method of testing the fan switches (the resistance, as you heat them in water) - i'd definetley test them out before you buy new ones because i'm sure that's a costly indeavor... (atleast 50 bucks a sensor? probably..)

i'm not sure if this is helping you or not.. if you are really worried that your fans don't work at all.. you can jump the connectors to the switches - there is a switch A, and a switch B..(no switch B on jdm engines) the one on the thermostat housing works only when the car is on (not necessarily running, but on if i remember correctly) switch b (the switch adjacent to the header - can activate the fan regardless of your cars ignition mode... just jump them in their appropriate mode, and see if the fan comes on at all.. if not perhaps you need a new relay/fan.

 

I might hurt someone. Today had some free time. Tested my old thermostat using hot water etc . . . Worked fine. Then i tested my new thermostat the one that i assumed wasnt working anymore. And it also worked. It actually opened at lower temps than teh other one. 165 to 172 or so.
So why did my car overheat that one bar while it just sat there. The bottom hose was still cold even though it overheated. It said it overheated anyways. I am going to call autozone and see if they have a new ect switch A because my wiring connectors add up (Switch A has a green connector, if this is wrong someone please tell me) and the thermo works so how can i be overheating yet the thermo isnt open? Could too high of a mixture in coolant cause this problem. Ignore the stupidty of that having possibly be a problem and tell me say if i had a mixture of 75 percent coolant/25 water would that cause overheating?
Plus the engine isnt overheating but teh radiator and the fluid are extremely hot

 

As I said before I would be concerned with the radiator. I know people run civic radatiors and stuff, but I *think* those are beefed up or all aluminum radiators they use. When I replaced my radiator I went to buy one from the shop. The guy was about to sell me a H23 radiator. I told him I had an H22 and he said it's the same but I insisted it wasn't. He then busted out a book with details on the radiators and sure enough the H23 won't work on H22 like I had said. I ended up waiting a few days to get a H22 radiator from the same place (they have to have it shipped there) and it also cost more.

*Moral of the story a mechanic after looking up the stats on H23/H22 radiators said they're not interchangable*

As far as how to fill up the radiator check out my thread. Plenty of people explained the process very well.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by From the ever so abrasive mgagz7 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just a note on bleeding the air out:
fill it up as best as you can, play with the hoses squeezing and moving and jiggling to get air out.....then open up the bleeder valve on the thermo housing, and get a towel to catch the coolant

let it run for a while, once a very steady stream of coolant starts pissing out of the bleeder, close it

continue to top off the coolant as much as possible, still playing with the hoses to burp out bubbles, as soon as it starts to get hot, the coolant is gonna slowly start to rise, get the cap on when it does, but continue to play with hoses....

let it get hot enough so that the fan turns on twice, but monitor the guage and make sure it stays below half, then shut it off and let it cool

open it up, top it off, and go

it wouldnt be a bad idea to check it/top it off the day after, before you drive in the morning

</TD></TR></TABLE>

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1538693

 

I Ordered a radiator today but dont know when the hell its gonna get here, In the meant time thought id tell more stories about the strangeness

 

I believe the difference between the H23 and H22 radiators (talking about OEM) is that the H23 radiator is a single core... but the H22 radaitor is adouble core... so yea... I think I read that somewhere here... or I think it was PO... I forgot where...