I've been reading archived posts for a few days, trying to get some clues as to what's going on, but I seem to have a strange mix of symptoms that isn't really pointing me towards any one problem.

Here's what's up:

-VERY low temp. gauge... hardly goes above the C mark but seems to fluctuate a bit as I drive.
-Overflowing into overflow tank - steamy/bubbly
-top hose HOT
-bottom hose NOT HOT
-Fans won't turn on

I replaced thermostat and radiator cap with OEM Honda parts, but no change.

I thought I had most of the air out of the system after jacking up the front, running the car with heater on, squeezing and shaking out the tubes, then used the bleeder nipple. The bleeder nipple is constantly spewing air into the clear tube I attached to it.

This sounds like a blown head gasket a little bit, but why is my lower hose staying cold ? Any what's up with the temp gauge ? I don't understand this mix of symptoms...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

PS: long time no post on here... good to be back !

-d



Modified by D-SPEED at 5:25 PM 8/24/2008

 

i had the same problem i did a full engine flush and changed to a fluidyne and the problem was gone. as for the fans check ur fan switch

 

id be looking for a problem with flow... either bad waterpump...faulty thermostat or clogged radiator..try running it with the thermostat... digital temp gauge is great for this as it can help find ur problem quickly... get it up to temp or run for a little while and check hose temps.. temp of radiator ex... that will point u in the direction of the problem

 

So when I started the car it would bubble a lot out of the radiator if I had the cap off, or the upper hose would pressurize a lot instantly... I thought for sure it MUST be a bad head gasket.

So I did a compression test and got:

195-185-195-200

This is a GSR.

Do you think that 185 points to anything ? I thought a blown gasket would make a bigger drop in one or more cylinders.

Thanks for any ideas !

-d

 

Depending on where the head gasket has breached, it may or may not affect compression numbers.

Those numbers you posted are fine BTW.

 

is it possible to have to cooling system pressurized by a hole between the cooling jacket and the oil passageways ?

There is some black gunk on the walls of my overflow canister.

And does anybody have ANY IDEA about the very low and fluctuating temperature gauge ? I can't figure out even how that could happen. It wasn't like that right before all this started to happen.

 

What sort of "gunk"? The overflow bottle in both my Integra and my wife's Corolla has some black-ish residue that I can't really get off without maybe using some kind of brush that I can stick through the opening.

 

the 'gunk' is dark gray and slimy, but doesn't have the consistency of oil, as in it doesn't seem to coat my fingers like oil does. It doesn't really have the typical oil smell either. I can't really tell what it is.

I was originally thinking that there was a hole in between the cooling jacket and the cylinder, which was causing the pressure in my cooling system, and making air pockets which caused my temp. gauge not to read correctly because it was keep coolant away from the sensor, which is right next to the coolant outlet on the head as far as I can tell.

So I was expecting to find a low compression number showing a hole in the head gasket. These symptoms seem to be that of a blown head gasket, but I don't want to pull the head unless I know it's the gasket. Like I was saying, I seem to have a strange mix of problems that I can't figure out...

Thanks for any advice !

 

carbon buildup from head gasket being bad... has this issue before...

 

one of two things, because you said that your upper hose is hot and lower hose is NOT and it flows into your overflow, and your coolent gauge isnt really moving much and the radiator pressurized almost right away makes it sound like your radiators clogged at the lower hose... id drain your cooling system, pull that lower hose off completely and make use its not clogged, then pour some water into your radiator and see if it comes out the neck at the bottom where your lower hose connects, if not then radiators clogged, if does then my next guess would be the head gasket

 

sounds about right to me

 

just thought i might throw this in all this, its all pretty good. Just curious if you remember if your old radiator cap came apart, maybe the spring or part of the cap went down into the radiator? I does happen.

 

ya that happend on my civic radiator the cap came all apart...either way i think this is a good time to completely service the cooling system. new thermostate,hoses, rad and depending on the miles the waterpump...then of course the timing belt as well.

nobody likes droppin alot of money at once but it beats having to worry about it everytime you leave the driveway.

but i agree with the majority here....sounds like somethin is clogging your radiator

 

-I took out the radiator to check flow in there and shot the hose through it and it flowed through unrestricted.

Here is a picture of some coolant I took out. You can see some junk in it. There was some sediment of some sort as you can see.



Here is a picture of some of the overflow tank gunk on my finger... sorry for the bad picture... dark gray and slimy.



I drained the oil to check if it was showing signs of having coolant mixed in, but it looked OK to me.




Started it up for awhile, it runs fine, hits VTEC, but it takes forever for the gauge to even start moving. It hardly even gets to the C mark. I drove around for maybe 15 minutes trying to get it to move but it didn't do much. When I got back I checked the overflow tank and it was steaming and the level had gone up

I have no idea what is up with the temp gauge... it wasn't like this when I bought the car. I noticed the low temp. gauge at the same time I noticed overflow tank going over... this was after driving the car home from buying it... So I'm not sure what the history of it is.

It seems like a waterpump that is failing to circulate water is rather improbable, and that it's most likely the head gasket... I just want to know before I tear it apart because that's a lot of work.

Even if one of those two are bad... what happened to my temp. gauge ? ?

 

sounds to me like a bad water pump

 

did you ever try testing your gauge or your sensor? i would check the temps in various spot around the block/radiator and see if they are constant. If there was a "bubble" in the system around the sensor it would read hotter, not colder. do a Pressure test to the system to check for leaks and check the pressure with it running to see if the pump/cap pressurize the system

 

I had the middle part of my thrmostat come apart and jam itself somehwere in the lines....severly messed with the engine temp...some days it would overheat and some days it would not even warm up...and that risidue seems to look like that radiator leak repair **** they sell at auto stores...dis you ever use that...that is known to clog systems rather than fix them

 

I tested the gauge according to FSM and it worked. I haven't tested the sensors yet though, I guess I'll do that next.

I previously rented a cooling system pressure tester from Autozone, but it didn't have the proper fittings for a small radiator cap like a Honda's. Does anybody know if the other chain stores rent similar tools ?

I bought this car and noticed these problems after I got home with it a few weeks ago. When I took it for a test drive everything was normal, normal gauge reading, no overflowing... it wasn't until after I made the 1 hour + drive home from buying the car that I saw these problems surface.

 

any news?

 

Well it turns out I had a few different problems going at once.

I replaced the fan switch to get the fans working, and replaced the temp. gauge sender, so now the temp gauge works and is reading hot. It fluctuates quite a bit as I drive around, ranging everywhere from normal to all the way hot.

I took the car to the shop and had them do a sniffer test of the coolant, and it's showing hydrocarbons... meaning exhaust.

Sooooo, it's a leaking headgasket. I'm gonna order the parts and hopefully have it going soon.