I know theres a coolant passage that goes through the intake manifold, but could coolant make its way into the intake charge through a leaking IM gasket?

 

yes it will it will leak from the passage way into the intake ports them selves

 

yes it will, lol i didn't know this untill i thought id reuse my intake mani gaket and ruined my oil with water.

 

I guess I should cross my fingers and hope this is the problem, then.
Thanks for the reassurance.

 

one easy way to find out is take off your headers and start it for 3 seconds and turn it off and if the cyl all the way left is the only port with a little water comming out then its ur problem forsure.

i found this out the easy way cause my ebay headers were cracked their on all 4 ports lol and i seen it drippen water.

 

it will only get into one cyl not all 4.

 

If the IM gasket isn't the problem the next step would be a leak down test to find out if the head gasket is bad.

 

The head gasket was bad. I had it replaced with a Felpro mls gasket, so it should be good for a while.
Im flabbergasted that the motor is in the shape it is after 89,000 miles... Yea... flabbergasted is the word.
I think the previous owner tryed to replace some gaskets himself and didnt exactly know what he was doing. Im pretty sure the motor never over-heated, though. When I drove it home(over 90 miles), it had NO coolant in the radiator, just air, and it never went above operating temp.
Maybe that was a sign its meant to be lol

 

did you machine the head/ check for warpage? just checking

 

Its not warped

 

Bad news, everybody... not that you care
Cylinders 1, 3 and 4 are burning coolant. Maybe oil too. Its too late to call around, but do most franchise shops do leak-down tests?

 

daam,man u got the best of luck just like me.

 

maybe its warped or bad head gasket. yea most mechaics should do it. but people told me mechanics thought a leak down test was a regular compression test. so make sure and tell them. and let me know how much they charge cuz i need it done to.

 

I though I was being so smart buying this hatch. "The body is in great shape, and all it needs is a head gasket," I thought. ****ing car is a money pit from hell. I guess I really cant complain too much though. In total, ~700.00 has been spent on the car, including the price of the car its self.

 

lol not bad. yes my Honda is a Money pit also. but not as bad as my Ford Probe was. i had Well Over 8k into it.

 

looks like you'll be taking that head back off and getting it shaved.