well first off i would like to say hello to everyone on honda-tech.
i have a problem. the other day i was driving my 98 civic lx and it started to sputter and then started overheating. . as soon as i got to my house i pulled the plug out and in cylinder 3 there seemed to be moisture on the spark plug. there was a little bit of rust which concerned me. i tlked to my mechanic and he said that it might be a blown head gasket but he would have to do tests and stuff to see if thats it. i was going to do a compression test on it my self but i was also wondering the compression ratings on the engine that are reasonable. any info would be great.

 

if the car is shooting to much white smoke or blueish its gonna be the head gasket. you can even smell the radiator smell thru the exhaust. and obviously the car is heating up.

 

take off your valve cover see what your oil looks like if its a wierd milky color its blown

 

ya the water is an orangish color but i flushed the radiator

 

What do you mean by this? Are you asking what good numbers are? A lot of times when the head gasket goes, you'll be looking for a cylinder that is a good bit different from the others. This could also be bad piston rings in that one... Being a D series, I would have to say the closer to 200 you get, the better. I think the lowest limit according to honda is something like 130?

The other ways that were brought up already (mainly the goofy looking oil) work too.

Also, did you use orange coolant or is it orange because of the rust? If it's from rust, you might want to look into a new radiator or at least check as much of the cooling system as you possibly can.

 

i was thinking about using that steel seal stuff that is supposed to seal a blown headgasket. what do you guys think?

 

Just buy another one to prevent the problem from occurring later lol

 

if it's a really high mile engine or a beater, go for it. If this car is pretty nice and fairly low milage, I'd just get a new HG for it.

 

yeah it is a brand new radiator and no i did not use orange coolent