i have a 90 crx b16 i drive the car everyday and haven't had any cooling issues for the last2-3 months suddenly today on my way home from school my temperature gauge started going up, thankfully i was just about pulling in my driveway i pulled in popped the hood and inspected for leaks or any signs, i found that my overflow container was leaking coolant and there was a mess of coolant around the container, but nowhere else on the whole engine? what can cause the coolant to leak form my over flow can (it was just about full to the top. when i inspected it) although, it is not cracked or broken. any help would be great thanks to everyone

 

like i said i have had a cooling problem once before turned out to be a large air pocket at the water pump. but i solved that issue and since have put well over 1,000 miles on the car probably close to 3,000 and out of the blue sky today the gauge decide to rise, can it be a shitty thermostat?

 

i say it's air in your system. start the car up cold with the rad cap off and let it warm up. this should let the air out of your system.

also you can use the little nipple above the head's inlet area for the radiator setup.

 

ok but how and why do air keep getting in my system?
is it because i didn't get it all out the first time maybe? and i have been driving the car for like 2-3 months with no problems drove a couple 150mile trips with it? thanks for the help

 

How's your thermostat? If it's stuck in a closed position it will not allow proper circulation when the engine warms up causing overheating. It's a 20$ part that should be replace during any engine swap.

 

yea i replaced it when i had the cooling problem a while ago and i also have a brand new radiator, from my engine swap

 

my boss just told me possibly a rad cap? and over flow hose sucking in air? also do thermostats just go out of no where because i drove 20 miles and as i was pulling in back home it had just started heating up..

 

Did you get a crappy one or a honda one? I always get the honda ones because they are known to work.

 

i got one form advance auto parts i bought the more expensive one but not oem, probly should have

 

would a thermostat have gone bad with in three months and just out no where?

 

no.
check headgasket.

 

how can i know if my head gasket is bad? the head was off of the engine int he begining of summer cause i had some ppolishing and the new valves installed i used all new hardware seals and gasket and it ran perfect till now? what can i do to check to see if it is possibly the gasket? pull the plugs? my coolant is clean and soo is my oil.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 90crxdxb16 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how can i know if my head gasket is bad? the head was off of the engine int he begining of summer cause i had some ppolishing and the new valves installed i used all new hardware seals and gasket and it ran perfect till now? what can i do to check to see if it is possibly the gasket? pull the plugs? my coolant is clean and soo is my oil.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Check your fan operation. Hold Rpm's at 3k till the fans turn on or it begins to overheat. Check that the fans turn on. If they dont,jump the fan switch and check that the fan motor is good. If it spin then more and likely a bad fan switch. At the same time replace the thermostat. Once its been overheated they are pretty much crap. After all is said and done have a leakdown performed to check the headgasket for overheating damage.

 

my fan is on a hot switch and i have a cutsom made aluminum radiator, also i do not plan to over heat my engine on purpose ever ill go straight to the leak down and im going to order an oem honda thermostat... also my boss told me if i start it up with a cold engine and the upper hose builds pressure within the first min or two its a head gasket cause its not circulating or something?

 

sry didn't mean to sound like a dick, just do not want to run the risk of blowing it or warping the head if it isn't already it didn't go up real far but definitely higher then ever has before(not normal)..

 

If all is working well id definetly check the leakdown.

 

Sounds like you either have a bad radiator cap or you're getting air from the combustion chamber into your cooling system. That usually happens due to headgasket failures, but could be a crack as well.

Janos

 

why would my head gasket fail if it was just done? and i did have the head straight edged and shaved to ensure it was straight by a professional machinist? im going to buy a leak down tester today and attempt to c if i can figure out which cylinder is leaking and where it is leaking to.. which im guess will be a water jacket correct?

 

well if your overflow tank is dry it will suck in air.

 

a guy at napa today when i went to get a compression tester said if sterling performance( supposedly by far the best place around, does top notch work, old man's hobby builds race engines, its in weissport, pa,) did my head and that i dont have any other issues he said just get the oem therm cause there silicone lubed and it should be ok?

 

CHeapest things first, try a new rad cap, make sure its on tight, I had the same problem

 

ok cool im goinmg to get an oem rad cap as welll

 

ok i got the therm and wow oem compared to after market have pretty many differences form what i can see just by looking, oem looks alot more high-tech then the one from advance ,, im going to post pictures of the differnces

 

I just replaced my thermo too, and I noticed the one from Autozone has about 10°F hotter temp stamped on it than the old Honda one did. Since putting it in (and replacing the sending unit too) I've had issues with the temp gauge going really close to the red H zone before my fan kicks on.

I bled the system, still have the problem...I have no idea what's going on.

It could be the temp is really getting too high before the fan kicks on..
It could just be the sending unit is wonky.


Modified by fireant at 10:35 AM 11/16/2007

 

i think i can say i fixed my problem, i replaced thermostat with oem therm, filled up the coolant(dex-cool orange) and made sure i got all air out that i could, i started the car and let it warm up for 10 mins until at full temperature and i heard the idle drop off when the thermostat opened i also then drove the car about 15 miles, and came home inspected everything and appeared to be no problems so hopefully i m ok for now. thanks for all your help, p.s. tomorrow im going to get a oem rad cap just to be safe