Hey there guys. I tried searching but couldn't quite find anything. I figured I would post and see if anyone had any ideas.


So to start, I have a 1993 Civic Cx. I just recently swapped a GSR motor into it with a B16 head. (Poormans Type R) I have been having some troubles with the cooling system since day 1. It finally got to the point where I had my dad's mechanic take a look at it. It all started when I took it for the first drive. It got maybe 5 miles then was getting hot. I pulled over and took a look. From what I could see the fan wasn't turning on. So as ghetto as it was I hard wired the fan on. It seemed to fix it but I didn't feel like ti was the right fix so I went to NAPA and bought a new thermostat. I put that in then about 5 miles after that the car was over heating again. At this point I called a friend over and he had the idea to try his radiator in my car. (Both mine and his radiators are stock Civic radiators.) That didn't seem to help anything, it was still over heating. So we had the idea that maybe it was a bad thermostat so we pulled it. The car the stopped over heating. For about a month after that I was running the car like that with no problems. Then I bought a new Gsr thermostat from Acura and put it in, and it was back to the same crap. So I pulled that thermostat. This time though, it would still get hot even with the thermostat out.

This is where I turned to my dad's mechanic to take a look at it. I was there with him when he was checking it out and here's what happened. We turned the car on. It was idling normally, not warming up too fast or anything like that. While the car is idling he was feeling the hoses and checking to see if fluid was going through by the time it got warm the top radiator hose was hot and the bottom one was totally cold and felt empty. Then shortly after the car's temp was getting above 50% so we turned it off. Once it was off we felt the back of the radiator to see if there was a cold spot or something. Well, the whole radiator was cold. After that he told me it was most likely the water pump. And it wasn't producing enough pressure to push the coolant through the system.


So that is my huge-normous story. I just wanted to post on here and see if anyone had any ideas before I replace a water pump.

Any help and advice is appreciated! Thanks!

 

If one hose is hot and the others cold then its your pump..

 

Or the thermostat is shut which is normal until the engine gets hot, then it creeps open.... duh

That fan switch will come on when the coolant reaches around 200F, which will take a lot of idling to get it to turn on. That lower hose should be much cooler than the upper hose, since it is after all being cooled by the radiator, so that is not a way to diagnose a water pump.

Water pumps normally make noise or leak when they go bad, but not always.

What is the dilution of the coolant? 50/50? And is the system fully filled and bled. I've seen many cars that "overheat" because there are still air pockets in the coolant, which get much hotter than the liquid will, and spike the gauge.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slowcivic2k &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Or the thermostat is shut which is normal until the engine gets hot, then it creeps open.... duh

That fan switch will come on when the coolant reaches around 200F, which will take a lot of idling to get it to turn on. That lower hose should be much cooler than the upper hose, since it is after all being cooled by the radiator, so that is not a way to diagnose a water pump.

Water pumps normally make noise or leak when they go bad, but not always.

What is the dilution of the coolant? 50/50? And is the system fully filled and bled. I've seen many cars that "overheat" because there are still air pockets in the coolant, which get much hotter than the liquid will, and spike the gauge.</TD></TR></TABLE>Well I have been hearing a noise in that area, but I attributed that to my alternator. It's almost a wining noise. Yes, the coolant is 50/50. As far as the system being FULLY bled, I would say no. It lost all of its fluid when I pulled the thermostat the first time. Once the thermostat was out and I bolted everything back and tightened the hoses, I just re-filled it.