I have a 95 civic DX (D15) that to appears to have me completing stumped.

The car starts and drives until its reaches its "warmed up temperature". At this point the car completely bogs under throttle and at idle, mainly in gear (AUTOMATIC) thus causing it to die.


My recent activities:

-I've check the oil for coolant, It's clean.

-I've flushed/bled the coolant recently and changed the radiator cap due to boiling overflow recently. Seems to have resolved that issue.

-I've changed the Valve Cover Gasket/grommets due to oil on plugs, Issue resolved.

-I've changed the Fuel Filter, Spark Plugs, checked the cap/rotor.

-I've ran a compression test (180-175-170-175)



I'm baffled on the symptoms and would appreciate some help.


Symptoms once warmed up:

-Exhaust smells like Fireworks
-White smoke
-Bogging under throttle
-Exhaust crackle
-Rough Idle
-Dying

 

So you've seriously overheated it in the past?

 

Yes. I'd say a week or so a ago, a radiator hose blew causing the car to overheat. Being that i was not present, i can't say how far the car was driven in that condition.

I also learned that nearly a gallon of water was added to the radiator. This was right before a overnight 20 degree night, which led me to flush the system thinking the water pump may have locked up.

 

White smoke indicates coolant being burned but your compression tests indicate all might be well. I'm still thinking the head gasket though. Maybe warped head.

 

After some more research, I'm starting to speculate the Head Gasket.

The smell produced is practically unbearable and some thing I've never experience before. I want to say that a mixture of heated gas fumes and coolant is being produced. It also seems that the smell is most noticeable from the engine bay more so that the exhaust.

If anyone has experienced this before, please inform me. Thanks.

 

You can probably do a leakdown test to give you a better idea of where the issue is.

 

Do a simple block test for exhaust gases in the cooling system.

 

For future reference:

The head gasket turned out to be bad, and melted some nice dimples into the head.