hey im a honda noob, so forgive me if i sound stupid lol.

a guy i work with is wanting me to trade my daily driver shitbox for his beat up prelude. the problem is mine runs and his overheats. he says a mechanic told him its the headgasket... who knows, i havent looked at it yet.

if the headgasket is blown, i was thinking of doing a head swap on it since it has the sohc head on it now and i will have to remove it anyway. i was curious what all would be involved in this. will the manifolds swap? harness plug up? what will have to be done with the timing belt? is it even worth messing with lol?

im going to go take a look at the car this weekend. is overheating a common problem? anything i should look for?

 

What kind of head are you going to put on it or are you going to get the sohc head serviced and put back on? You will need a full service manual to do this right yourself. I don't know if I would trade, straight up, a working shitbox for an overheating beat up prelude.

 

well the thing is i have a 2008 cobalt ss/tc, so i dont really need the shitbox, which is a 1992 lincoln contenintal lol. i kinda want a car to tinker with since i dont want to void the warrenty on the cobalt. basicly i want a project car.

im trying to figure out what head is on the car. all i know is its a 92 sohc. i was looking to put on a dohc thats compatable. so probably an h22 head of some sort.

 

trade for the prelude then. They are sexy and not too hard to work on yourself. You could swap the h22 vtec head on or even a h23. you have any power goals in mind?

 

before you buy it ask the guy if you can do a compression check. also do a block test. that should tell you if it is an headgasket or something more severe or maybe just a bad thermostat.

 

im going to go look the car over. i know it has some body damage, but i think its just on the drivers door. ill practice my body work skills, and if that fails ill just buy one from the junkyard. i want to make sure the interior isnt all busted up either. it has black fabric interior. it has rims, a horrible fart pipe, ebay intake, an aftermarket front bumper, and a black and silver pant job that im not too fond of. ill probably camo it or something lol. as far as power goals, i want it to beat a stock dohc saturn thats what my friend drives lol. it will never keep up with the balt, unless i boost it or spray the hell out of it lol. i dont plan on doing either of those.

from the way the guy decribed it, it sounds like it has a sticking thermostat. he said it gets hot, then sometimes it drops, and then goes back up. i dont understand how a bad headgasket will cause it to overheat. i know it can burn all the coolant, then cause it to overheat, but as long as it has coolant it should run an the normal temp. it doesnt smoke so its not burning too much, if any. the guy who has it doesnt really know anything about cars, so im hoping this will be an easy fix. im prepared if its not though lol

i think it will be a fun project at least. im kinda sick of driving this granny car to work, and i've always wanted a honda to play with.