Sorry for the odd question, but I'm curious about something.

I work at a Honda/Acura only shop and for the 4th time I've had a customer's 98-99 Accord 4 cylinder (I think they all happened to EX, but the LX has the same engine too) come in with massive oil/coolant mixing to where it's the doomed "milkshake" all in the engine itself.

Normally I'd suspect a blown head gasket, but in all 4 cases the customers reported no overheating and on a few of the cars we regularly service them and never noted any cooling system issues.

I remember (I think - this is why I'm asking) talking to a friend of mine who works at a local Honda dealership, and he told me they had been seeing more and more of this problem and that Honda basically issued "replace engine due to pourous cylinder block alloy" statements to their service departments. My questions:

1. Have any of you ever heard of this?

2. Does anyone have any documentation in the form of a bulletin, etc?

Two of the Accords were fixed by replacing the engines with a completely different engine, while one was towed away, and the other (car is due in next week) is deciding if he wants to drop an engine in the car.

I see milkshakes from time to time on plenty of other models, but there is usually obvious clues like melted upper timing covers, coolant everywhere from blown out radiators, crazy bubbling head gaskets when using a coolant funnel that attaches to the radiator, etc. etc.

Thanks for looking!

 

Yes this did happen. When I worked at a Honda dealer I saw 5 or 6 cases of this happening. I will see If I can find the bull#. I know they came out with on.

 

Yup. I had the fortune of owning one of those cars. Oil in coolant, no coolant in oil. the car would overheat when it got real bad, since the water pump basically couldn't move the stuff. It would only overheat after it ran for a while, but I had a 75+ mile one way commute at the time, so yeah, it happened. If I had only driven it around town, it most likely wouldn't have over heated.

After 2 HGs, I took it somebody who diagnosed it as a crack in the block between the water jacket and the pressurized oil passage leading up to the head. Not sure if this was correct, but it passes the sanity check. IMHO, if it's a crack or porosity doesn't make much practical difference.

I've got no idea if honda put out a TSB or anything for it, but I know I've seen a few posts by people that sound like they have had the same problem over the years.

FWIW, mine is an early production date 99, f23a1.


and thats one nice wagovan in your sig!

 

So out of the Accord guys only TWO other people have heard of this?

Anyways my Google searches have come up with nothing thus far.

Thanks for looking guys - thanks for any info too!

 

i had 1 a couple months ago the customer bought a new engine for it. I tore it apart and it was leaking coolant into the oil pan area from the bottom of the cooling jacket.

 

i just did the headgasket in my 99 accord with the f23a1.

it was doing exactly what u describe. milkshake in the coolant, oil was fine, didnt overheat at all...

figured it was a headgasket.

still havent gotten it buttoned back up, but hopefully its fixed..

just my luck...


you think theres anyway honda will fix it for free? (that is, if the headgasket doesnt fix it, which im starting to doubt that it will...)

 

bump...

 

Either way, after you already worked on it, I do not think Honda will take care of it after major maintenance was performed by the owner or maybe by anyone other than Honda, but miracles do happen.

 

Hi,
Saw this thread and was wondering if anyone knows how to verify its a cracked/porous block?
Have an '01 Accord F232A1, with manual transmision.
I have same symptoms after replacing Head Gasket. It was good for about a month and then started leaking about a tablespoon of oil into the radiator coolant every 50 miles. No other symptoms. Just brown milkshake in overflow bottle and about about a teaspoon of oil under the radiator cap. I've flushed multiple times, but same symptoms keep returning. Compression is good about 170-180 on all cylinders. Leakdown test is good. No bubbling in radiator. No water in exhaust or oil. I'm tempted to try another head gasket but would like to rule at a cracked block first, if possible. Any advice?