Hey all. Just recently did a major tuneup on my car and it is overheating. Was going 140 kph the other day on the highway and the temps went up to 3/4 hot.

The just replaced all the hoses, timing belt, water pump, spark plugs, etc etc and drained the coolant and added just water with a bottle of water wetter, as it is illegal to run coolant for racing up here!

Any ideas?

 

maybe check for air trap?

 

Even with the use of Watter Wetter, the use of an "antifreeze" mix is still recommended to keep the boiling point in check.

Hmmm... just re-read your post wrt to racing/no antifreeze.

Other than that, you could try using a higher pressure radiator cap, as well.


[Modified by Zygspeed, 12:29 PM 8/3/2002]

 

Have you double checked your coolant level? Every time I've drained and refilled, it takes a few days to get all the coolant to displace the air in the system. Also, is your thermostat working correctly? How about the fan?


[Modified by Mike P., 12:36 PM 8/3/2002]

 

yea your gonna need to bleed the coolant/watter wetter and add more.
if not id check the thermostat...

 

It could be something as simple as a fuse. My Si overheated once and after checking everything I could think of, I realized that the fan fuse was blown. Sometimes the simple things will give you the big headaches!

 

Fans coming on? If not, check your fan switch.

 

Thanks for the quick responses. Humm, well, the fan is working, thermostat is brand new and i filled up the rad. I can't figure it out.

The requirement of coolant should not reflect the overheating especially on hot days.

 

could be a leaking radiator cap. if it cant maintain pressure, the temps go up.

 

If you still have heater hoses, make sure your hoses are hooked up correctly. There is a hose that loops from the block to the head. If you mixed up the heater & the loop, it won't show up until the car is run hard.

 

Well, just got back from mosport and the car is worse than i thought.

It is overheating but only after a few hot laps. checked the fan, hoses, thermostat..can't figure it out!

Another thing, the car is burning alot of oil when pushed hard. I just recently got the head redone with new valves, guides etc. any ideas? would the two be linked?

 

Did you check the thermostat in a pot of water and a thermometer on the stove? For a car to overheat cruising at high speed in a strait line is very bad. Maybe even the gauge or sender is fault? Check the coolant temp directly?

 

You checked out the loop I was talking about, right? The hoses are the same sizes. Have a friend take a look at it using a repair manual.

A fresh perspective really helps! I was chasing all kinds of things on a engine replacement. I couldn't get the engine even started. The fix was sooo simple I won't even tell you what it was.

 

leaking head gasket will cause overheating, watter wetter is an anti foaming agent, it will do nothing to your water. Its purpose is to prevent coolant (glycol based) from foaming at high temps.

 

Hmmm. I thought that Water Wetter was more of a surfactant. Sort of like Class A foam used in firefighting. It lowers the surface tension thereby allowing better penertration or in this case contact.

 

when you say its burning oil, you mean theres blue smoke coming out of your tailpipe? you sure its blue and not white? or are you just judging by the fact that your oil level gets low after every trackday. if youre losing oil and its not going out the tailpipe, or leaking, then its mixing with coolant and you would be able to see the oil in the coolant. i wonder if you do have a blown headgasket. because the easiest way for the cooling system to overheat is to lose pressure, which a crack in the head gasket or hose or radiator cap, or anywhere else in the system would cause. like i said before, make sure the radiator cap is on tight.

no, not even sure why water wetter was even mentioned. it shouldnt be used to solve/cover a problem. your engine should not be overheating.


[Modified by Tyson, 1:25 PM 8/10/2002]

 

There were probably rough edges on the bottom of the head, and it is causing some kind of compression to coolant leak; or vice versa. I'm going through the same problem, except mine is courtesy of a bad deck job by Leitner & Bush.

You should get a leakdown test done to see if the problem is from the engine.

 

Tyson, oil level is down considerably. I thought of head gasket first but the complete head was done recently. humm.

civicrr, i can't seem to find which hoses you are talking about. Could be please describe a little better for an amateur mechanic?

spooncivic, my head was also done recently by Leitner and Bush. i wonder if they did the same thing to me.

 

did you upgrade your radiator?
at Pocono we found that hybrids+road racing+stock radiatorsverheating

 

I will describe it for my engine which is the D16Z6. If you look underneath the throttlebody, you will see three possible places to hook up 'heater' hose. All three of these point back towards the firewall. One of them is on the intake manifold. The second is underneath the first closer to the driver's side of the car. The third is right next to the second but more towards the passenger side. The first & second should be connected by a 'loop' of hose. The third gets connected to the heater. If the second & third connections get mixed up, there won't be a flow thru the top of the block. I had a friend who couldn't fiqure out the same problem on his car. It would work fine until driven hard. It would want to overheat almost immediately then.
Was your coolant level down as well? If you have a blown head gasket, you should be boiling some off too. If you can't do a leak down test right away, you can still check for oil & coolant contamination. Is there milky white stuff in your oil or dipstick? That is water/coolant. Did you open up your radiator & take a look? You can also go to the auto parts store & get some test strips. You dip them into the coolant. They will read if there is any traces of combustion products.


[Modified by civicrr, 11:24 PM 8/10/2002]


[Modified by civicrr, 11:26 PM 8/10/2002]

 

555R, my car has the stock D16Z6..i wish i had a hybrid!

OK thanks civicrr, i looked at it carefully and everything seems to be in the proper places. So, its certainly not the hoses. I'm thinking it may be the ignition timing? I may have advanced it a little too much, which may have something to do with the overheating?!


On a side note. what can contribute to my car burning oil? I was just told by Leitner and bush that they in fact are 100% sure that it was done correct and the head is perfect. Compression test was done and it reads 150,150,160, 180 approx. Could it be possible that my bottom end is to blame eventhough i get decent pressure readings? What else could it be? Arrghg. damn hondas!


[Modified by ITR RACER, 4:50 PM 8/12/2002]


[Modified by ITR RACER, 4:51 PM 8/12/2002]

 

We were having a similar problem with our 95 Civic EX after it was rebuilt- eventually we decided to have it rebuilt as we contiually had problems- came to find out that they had rebuilt the bottom end using non-Honda bearings which in turn meant that it wasn't sealing properly when heated up under race conditions- so the car continuously over heated and had low oil pressure (as low as 40 psi)-too low for vtec to work. Upon rebuilding the engine all has been fine- although we did decide to replace the stock radiator with the larger stock CRX radiator, put an oil cooler on it, and Morosso created a sweet baffled oil pan for us as well-you may want to double check about the bearings- we were misled that the bottom end was 100% stock and alas the misinformation cost us a bunch of frustration.....

 

to ppl whom want to see my setup.

 

my setup. alum core teg radiator, brand new. civic fan and ghetto top mount plates. i just drilled off the lower mounts, and moved them toward the frame rails. then re-welded them in place. the fan rarelycomes on, except in stop/go traffic and racing.