i have done everything in this green earth to solve this problem. i just recently replaced my z16 with another z6 cause some idiot thought it wud be a good idea to weld the crank pulley bolt onto the crank pulley itself. there fore not letting me get to the water pump. so i jus fired up the new z16 today in my coupe. all was good until i saw that freakin needle rise up and up, all the way here
C........m......l.l.H
before i shut it off. im not sure wat im doing wrong, i've had 4 different thermostats, i replaced the headgasket on my last engine (which overheated the exact same way) took the rad out and ran a hose thru it (wasn't convinced, and starting to think thats the brick on my back), i've run the water hose thru my coolant hoses. changed the ect switch (on the thermostat housing), pretty much everything.
is there something im missing from this. i wud say F it, but i already said F it wen i swapped z6's last week.


PLEASE HELP

 

when its on and hot, feel the radiator hoses. If one is really hot and the others not and let us know. Have you tested the ect sensor on the motor as well? Try replacing it with the one from the other motor.

 

yea. the bottom hose is cold. but i dunno which thermostat i shud get then. cause this is my 4 thermostat. and which other sensor cud it be. i kno theres one right under the dizzy, on the head itself, but not really sure wat it's for.????

 

anyone?

 

I'm new to hondas, so I don't know if this will help you or not, but it won't hurt to try.

Many cars need to be "burped". They get air trapped in the system, then the water pump can't pump the water around. Some cars are harder to burp than others.
Is your heater throwing out heat in the process?

In my old landrover, you had to park it on an incline(front of the car being at the high point) and run it to force the air out....as the air would get trapped in the heater core.
I also found that squeezing the rubber hoses can some times get the coolant moving enough to burp the air out.
I'm not sure if hondas suffer from this problem....but it is worth investigating.

With your bottom hose being cold, it means the coolant isn't moving. That either means the water pump is sucking air(needs to be burped), or your radiator is clogged preventing flow.

 

yea. i jus burped it today. that crossed my mind too before i started. the climate control unit pointed to heat. so i pointed it towards the cold, it was never on, but anyways. i let the car run for about 20 mins. about 10 mins. in the water in the radiator started kinda like boiling( lots of little bubbles), im used to one big bubble, then another, but this was different. so i checked the temp gauge, and it was normal, i switched the fan on, and it went almost COLD, about a lil more than 1/4 of the way
C..l.l.....m........H
and btw, i took the thermostat out because, i have come to the conclusion that i cannot get one that works. i dunno why. i have had 4 of them, none of which work. but now it doens't seem to overheat anymore.
What does the "boiling" like water(lots of little bubbles) mean? did i correctly burp my system?

 

In my experience, removing the the t-stat is rarely a good idea.

If you have the climate control set on hot, and your coolant temp gauge indicates it is in the normal range....yet your climate control is blowing cold air....then you have not successfully burped the system. If the climate control is blowing hot, then you probably have.

The boiling like water may mean that the coolant is coming close to a boil. You may have burped it...tough to know for sure over the internet.

As for your 4 t-stats that don't quite work. Take them inside and put them in a pot of water on the stove, heat the water and watch for them to open. If you have some sort of thermometer to put in the water you can see what temp they open at. If you don't have a thermometer, then as long as they open before the water boils, you should be OK.

This is my guess.
The T-stat was trapping the air, not allowing it to flow and be burped. Do the honda t-stats have a bypass hole? It would be a little hole about a millimeter or two in diameter. If it does, make sure that it is installed so that it is at the highest point.
If they don't have one, you can always drill one. However, if the oem one lacks the bypass hole they probably weren't needed.
You are confident you put in the T-stat in the correct direction?

I'm not familiar enough with honda's yet, where to they put the t-stat? I assume its on the engine after the water pump, but before the coolant reaches the radiator(as opposed to being in the flow exiting the radiator going to the motor).

 

yea. i've done that with all four of them. none of them open. im running out of places where i can purchase one and it be good. im going to honda next, shud have been my first stop....

 

ok. so i went out and started it up again. i was jus curious so i opened the rad cap, it jus needed a lil bit of fluid. from there i checked my reservior tank, i had filled it up wen i was bleeding the system, wen i checked it now, it was almost empty.What does that mean? it doesn't boil wen the car is running, only the rad seems to bubble up alot. it doens't have a thermostat right now. the temp gauge doesn't seem to go past half, and wen i switch the fan on, it goes colder. y is my reservior coolant dissapearing like that. the only leak i seem to find is kinda weird, because, it's non stop, and it's right under the car right behind the rack and pinion, i think it's going thru the chassis and leaking out of the holes in the chassis.

 

If the radiator is bubbling up that could mean you have a blown head gasket pull the dip stick and check the dip stick. If its milky and discolored your headgasket is gone. Second the spot at the rack and pinion would be one of the lines going to the heater core that clips side outside of the firewall make sure the clamps are tight if their leaking just go to autozone and get another hose.Also check to see if the temp sensor is plugged in where the thermostat is.

 

yea. but thats the weird part about it. i checked and all the hoses that are connected to my firewall are DRY. and my dip stick, i checked it, but the problem is that since im using water right now until i figure out for sure wat the problem is, it's kinda hard to tell. but wen i saw it today, nothing was out of the usual. i rubbed it down with my fingers, and it didn't feel any different than oil shud

 

hey i got a question.....if my head gasket was blown, shudn't i expect my car to overheat. these are the things that are happening
1-water/coolant is leaking from somewhere under the car(looks like the frame rails)
2-bubbling of water/coolant in the radiator
3- dissapearing of water/coolant from my reservoir tank(almost the whole amount)
4-car stays at normal temp, and wen i switch the fan on, cools below normal
5-no thermostat

cud the thermostat be related to the bubbling. and cud the leaking under the car be in some way connected to my disappearing reservoir fluid.

 

Because you have no thermostat, that is why it is getting cooler when you turn the fan on. You are not holding enough heat.
Your disappearing coolant is because you still had air in the system. It gets sucked back in when the system gets cool and contracts.

Get a t-stat from honda, install it, and be done. I really doubt you have a head gasket issue, as the system would pressurize.

You have to also understand there is a difference when you run the car with the radiator cap on and with it off. If your head gasket were bad and you ran the car with the rad cap on, it would build pressure until it blows by the cap into the overflow bottle.
If it was sucking the coolant in, it would be evident in the exhaust(whitish smoke).

Little bubbles are normal...don't start to freak out thinking it is a head gasket just yet.

 

and the leaking fluid could be caused by a million things, but you need to find out.

A-It could be that you messed around filling and watching the coolant, that spillage is finding its way to the ground.
B-It could be you have a leak. A leaky house will cause all sorts of problems, meaning the system doesn't pressurize, and therefore it won't cool right.

 

so. 1 more thing. and sorry bout the missing parts here and there. everytime i shut the car off. my reservoir tank(full) disappears(almost dry). it's done that already to count 5 times. how much water cud my system hold.
and the whitish smoke. i was jus out wit my car 10 min. i saw some smoke come from the exhaust, cudn't really tell if it was because it's like 50 degrees out. but smelled like some oil. im no expert at knowing wat a head gasket is, and i really dun wanna change it, if i don't have to.


but wat cud my disappearing coolant be, if there's still air in the system, the bubbles begin as soon as i start the car, and non stop, shud i jus ride it out, and let them eventually go away.


and last thing. im using water for now, until im done finding the problem, because i really dun wanna mess up my garage floor wit antifreeze. wud that make any difference?


Modified by Boostn B20 at 9:48 AM 10/29/2008

 

Running straight water isn't a great idea unless its a short term solution, like you have now, the thing is you'll have to drain and refill at some point. Tap water is bad, as it can have all sort of contaminants that will clog up you system over time. Use distilled water if you can get it. Using water from a dehumidifier is also pretty good.
You must use some coolant or a product like water wetter, as it breaks the surface tension of the water. Straight water can allow for hot spots because of the surface tension. That could be one reason why you are seeing so many bubbles.

1st thing you MUST do is find if there is a leak, and eliminate it, otherwise all of this effort is wasted. Take a cloth and dry off all the hoses. Then run the car for a few minutes and see if you can see an area getting wet.
As someone mentioned above, I think you have a heater hose that either has a leak in it, or isn't clamped properly.

 

yea. i went thru the entire engine bay looking for a leak didn't find one. then i went inside the car, and accidentaly put my hand on the carpet......soaked. so i took it out, and i looked all over. the heater hose i think. the copper pipe that is inside the car that leads fromt he outside heater hose was dripping.
1- how do i get to it,
2- how do i fix it.
is this where my reservoir...extra coolant is leaking. it seems possible?

 

That is very possible where your missing coolant is going.

I would first check that the rubber hose, going from the motor to the heater is clamped down tight, and that the hose has no leaks.
Of all the spots to have a leak, this is the most likely to give you problems as I'm sure it is reintroducing air into the system.
I'm guessing the connection is somewhere near the firewall in the engine bay, and the water is flowing down the outside of the pipe into the passenger cabin.

 

hav yoh changed the radiator &+_ the head of da engine cus ii diid dat wiff ma friends &+_ it stoped heating up &+_ he wasz happy after ii gave hiim da civic wiff a z6 single cam vtec &+_ b4 w3 chang3d da radiator we put da head gasket &+_ it wasz still over heating ii wasz runing it on da highway &+_ i saw da needle on H &+_ **** ii though i blow da engine cus iit shut off but dus da water boil cus iif it dus den ya iits over heating
iight hope yoh fix da civic

 

ey man seriously i appreciate the help, and i hope u don't take me as being a dick for sayin this. but don't put so much effort into ur replies. it took alot for me to get that reply. but thanx.every bit helps alot, believe it or not.

 

Sachilles:
so, i checked the hoses in the engine bay, and trust me they're dry. still covered in dust actually. but inside the cabin is where the leak is. and i checked my dipstick, even with water i wud assume that the level of the oil wud go up, cause after about 5 reservoir tank fulls, i guess it wud be innevitable, but it's still at the same level wen i first put the oil in, on the second dot. wat wud u suggest i do do to fix that leak in the cabin. do i have to take out my entire heater unit to get to it. or cud i jus aplly some sealant to it, and call it a day. how do i take that heater unit out?

 

I don't know exactly how it is done in a civic, but just about every other car I've worked on, getting to the heater core is painful experience. I suggest you post up a new topic explaining that you have a potential leaky heater core. This way you can get some folks with specific info that can help. You usually have to take part of the dash apart to get at them.
Where ever the leak is, you will have to replace the part. There is a lot of pressure in the system and just adding sealant wont fix the problem.
*IF* the leak is coming from a hard pipe leading to the heater core inside the dash, you *MIGHT* be able to stop the leak by using a plumbers union(or some other sleeve) available at a hardware store.
What ever you do, don't put any of that radiator stop leak in your car, it causes more problems than it solves.

 

THERMOSTAT!!!! replace that hoe or cut out the center portion of it(not advised tho)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by -=ZAK=- &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">THERMOSTAT!!!! replace that hoe or cut out the center portion of it(not advised tho)</TD></TR></TABLE>

you obviously did not read the thread.

 

it actually is. the outside lines run into a hard line, that looks like copper in the cabin. everything else is dry, i turn the car on for 10 min. let it warm up to operating temp, and if i open the heat then it leaks, if i leave it closed, it doesn't seem to leak. and the coolant doesn't seem to dissapear