I have a 93 civic ex, that has a d16z6 in it currently, after a short distance of driving i pull over and pop the hood and the coolant is bubbling in my resivoir , the water temp guage sits 3/8 of the way up like it should. i have no leaks at all. my oil is clean, no water or coolant. and my coolant has no oil in it. also my exhaust is perfect. i have no a/c on the car... could this be my water pump just not working at all and my coolant boiling off cause its not being circualted? i dont think its the head or head gasket cause no smoke or leaks and motor runs strong. also my thermosat was just replaced.... i know my way around hondas pretty well but i dont understand this problem so any advice as to what is happening would be appreciated.

 

You might try replacing the radiator cap and bleeding the cooling system.

Bleeding the cooling system:

-Park car on an inclined driveway with front end higher than rear.

-Turn dash heater ****/lever to MAX heat.

-Now follow instructions below. The bleeder bolt is located where the upper radiator hose meets the engine.

 

going to do that right now ill let you know how it goes.

thanks!

 

how long should it take till theres no bubbles?

 

so the car idled for for 5 minutes plus with bubbles and coolant coming out of the bleed bolt, but instead of a constant flow of coolant the bubbles slowed down to where there was no coolant coming out of it at all but only air. also my radiator is still almost full.

 

try burping your system

 

how do you burp a system?

 

sometimes you can get air in the coolant which causes bubbles and it wont flow properly. check all your hoses if you feel an air pocket gently squeeze the hose until you feel it go away. do that with all your coolant hoses. hope it helps

 

Squeeze the top hose with the radiator caps off.

IMO, go buy a head gasket. Check out the post on turbod16.com about D16z6 HG's, I have written a few post of there about how to re-torque the head after heat cycles.

 

ya but wouldnt my waterpump not moving water cause this? i dont think its the head cause my coolant has no oil in it, my exhaust isnt white balck or blue, theres no leaks and no water spots on my dipstick... i just dont want to pull my head off unless i HAVE to. also im throwin a seconday oxygen heater sensor CEL if that has anything todo with anything.

 

have you checked if your gettin any electricty to the pump?

 

no, guess thats the next step then

 

Most D's don't push water into the oil or blow white smoke. Have you been to turbod16.com or d-series.org all the guy's there will tell you the samething.

If your water pump wasn't working you would not see water flowing when you remove the radiator cap, engine cold, start it up and let the thermostat open. You'll see water flow.

Your first head gasket is the worst. Once you learn how to do it, it becomes just a minor PITA.

If you DIY make sure you have a good set of tools and a good torque wrench. On the sites I gave you are a ton of threads and info about HG's on D's.

 

where exactly do i test the electricity to the pump?

 

ya but water isn't circulating. very little bleeds out of the bleeder bolt and the rest sits in my radiator

 

Follow exactly the instructions in my post. You need to idle the engine until the radiator fan turns on twice. This procedure may take 20-30 minutes. It's possible that your head gasket is blown, but test the simple things first.

 

Then its very possible your water pump is muffed up. do yourself a favor and dont take any more advice from ekallday. you cannot test your water pump by running electricity to it.. seeing as how its ran entirely off of the timing belt *facepalm*

 

thats exactly what i thought when i first read it, but i thought maybe there was some sensor that controlled it or something. thanks for clearing that up tho .

 

Either head gasket or you have a leak somewhere in the hoses or even the radiator might have a leak. Check those out and hope that might solve your problem.

 

If his radiator is full and the overflow tank is full it isn't likely that he has a leak.

It is possible that the thermostat was installed improperly.
It is also possible that he didn't bleed the system correctly.

You shouldn't be boiling off coolant from your overflow that much is true. But if that is happening then your coolant is physically being moved around the radiator and then into the overflow tank but not cooled off. Which usually means that the waterpump is working and fluid is flowing around the system.

Make sure your fan is coming on to cool the radiator down.
And make sure that you follow the bleeding procedure exactly how it is written.

Once your bubbles go away during the bleeding process it may take a few moments for coolant to start flowing out. You may not notice that the coolant is flowing out since it isn't going to shoot out like a fountain. It usually trickles out in a constant stream but not like off the end of a hose or something.

 

How does the coolant look, by chance is it too diluted with water? if it is it would certainly explain the coolant looking like its "boiling" in the overflow tank.

 

blown headgasket... whats the least expensive route i can take and any good links on how to, ive never put one on before.

 

Are you positive that its the Headgasket?

SOHC's aren't bad at all to do. the worst job i find personally is the cleaning of the gasket.
There was a link posted in this thread about the best place to find information.
Good Luck.

 

Yea be sure its the hg before you go and replace it. if everything else tests fine then yes a blown hg is quite likely.

cleaning off the hg material is actually quite easy if you have the right tool. an angle air grinder with a medium to high grit pad takes the nasty burnt on material right off.