this is my thread from about a month ago. the car is a 2000 gsr. https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1933512

exactly a month ago, i got my radiator and thermostat replaced and topped off the coolant.

my car started overheating today on the freeway after a couple of third gear pulls on a long hill. i pulled over on the shoulder and discovered that the coolant level was about half gone and that it was all over the ceiling of the hood as if it had boiled and overflowed.

on the way home, i tried to baby it by going slow and staying at low rpms, but the temperature seemed to creep up when i was stopped or out of gear and cooled down when i gave it gas.

also, this car spews out a lot of white smoke! even at idle, white smoke just spirals out the back and if i run out first gear, i can actually see a small cloud of smoke through the rear view mirror. white smoke is coolant being burned due to a blown headgasket. one reason why i have not really looked into this is because the car is running rich and it has an aftermarket cat and welded o2 sensor.

this sounds exactly like the symptoms of a blown headgasket to me but i would like to get more opinions first before i go in and replace that.

what is the easiest method of diagnosing a blown headgasket?

also, what are some popular aftermarket headgaskets available? my plan is to go jrsc once this is all fixed so i probably should go for oem, or aftermarket oem spec if it is cheaper.

 

First off, check your radiator cap if its punctured or not tightly screwed on. This happened to me before and it was just the cap which was loosing pressure.

 

im pretty sure that can be eliminated because that thing is on pretty tight.

 

did you check for leaks?

 

i have not done a leakdown test but there are no signs of a leak where i park every day.

 

have u changed ur waterpump

 

no i have not.

 

might wanna check into that cause i was havin the same problem u did i replaced everthing fan/relat/raditor/thermo the whole nine till i pulled the waterpump and see that the blades was rusted off

 

turns out the headgasket is blown.

im having a shop do the whole job which includes, machining, replacing all gaskets, valve job, and valve adjustment. quoted at $820 so its not too bad.

hopefully when its all done, it will be good for jrsc.

 

is it smoke or steam, does the vapor smell like fish. if it is then I'm saying its the gasket cause the only thing that should be coming out of your exhaust is uncombusted fuel and burnt oil.

 

it is the headgasket. my mechanic did a free compression check for me and it came out (170, 100, 170, 170) which is very low.