Hi I just bought a 2001 honda accord 2.3 ulev with a suspected headgasket failure. There is definetly coolant mixing with oil(has classic milkshake color), but when I drove it home last night(30 miles) it did not over heat at all. The needle stayed in the middle of the temp gauge. But when I put the vehicle in park the rpms started jumping all over the place. My question is since there is coolant in the oil should I replace just the headgasket or would I be better off finding a used engine? Also would a vaccuum leak cause coolant to mix with oil and rpms to jump like that? I read somewhere that these 2.3 ulevs are known to have cracked blocks, is there any truth behind that myth? Thank you in advance to all who reply.

 

Whats the milage on your engine?

 

216,000 miles. Suprisingly smooth and quiet other than the before mentioned problems.

 

I would say just swap the head gasket to see if that clears it up, but that bids the question of what caused it to fail in the first place. You might consider a new head gasket along with having a shop check the head and block for trueness, and deck if necessary.

 

compression leak down test?

 

my thought is because of the milage to do all the gaskets and seals.

 

I have 359,000 miles on mine. Still original head gasket. No need to swap if it doesn't present a issue.

 

I have the same problem except on a 1995 wagon.

I bought the car like this and kind of got screwed because I later found radiator fix leak in it, so I drained and flushed the coolant system, found a broken radiator and replaced that. Then the water pump crapped out, so I did the timing belt, balance shaft belt, tensioners. and water pump. And finally I've discovered the head gasket issue.


I considered changing the head gasket but decided against it because I have an itching feeling something on the bottom end is going to explode next. I decided to just get a replacement JDM engine from hmotors and use this as an excuse to convert to manual transmission.


a leak down test would be best to pin point the head gasket leak. if the car wasn't driven often and is only driven short distances the oil doesn't have time to heat up and boil off any moisture that naturally condenses in the crank case. I've heard of the milky oil cap happening on air cooled (no coolant) VWs that werent driven often and only for short distances. If you do decide to do the head gasket the helms has a nice procedure on measuring the block and head for warpage with the use of a precision straight edge and feeler gauge.

 

Ok well today I decided to just go with the least expensive route and change out the headgasket to see if that solves the problem. I went with autozones felpro headgasket kit. I spent about 5 hours out there and got the head off and started cleaning up old intake manifold gasket. I spent probaly 2 of those 5 hours wrenching the 5 bottom intake manifold nuts, talk about a nightmare. I broke what I believe is a knock sensor along the way though which sucks. Anybody know if the car will still run with a broken knock sensor? Well after tommorow everything should be bolted all back up so wish me luck. Definetly gonna have to flush the **** out of the cooling system though the whole water jacket looks like a chocolate milkshake. The one thing that worries me though is that I couldnt really find any indications on the gasket of a leak.........

 

the classic "Strawberry milkshake" look in your radiator is usually ATF getting into your oil, since radiators also have an ATF cooler. Once this happens, i would recommend a new radiator and a new trans or a trans rebuild if you're on a budget.

oh, just saw you said it looks like a chocolate milkshake, yea, that's oil getting into your coolant, not atf. should be a headgasket

 

I would definitely do the head gasket.

 

if, after you do the headgasket, oil is still getting into your coolant, then it's a cracked block somewhere.

 

Well so far so good.. I finished up the headgasket job wednesday evening. Drove about 100 miles yesterday and my oil is still nice and clean. No sign of coolant what so ever! I flushed the cooling system today and besides small little trace amounts of leftover oil, there is no more getting into the coolant. So everythings going good other than the fact that I blew a brake line yesterday. Ill be doing the brake lines and adjusting my valves over the weekend. The motors a little noisy at first startup up so I figure the valves probaly need adjusting. Well I'll keep you guys posted. One question I have though is, am I doing any damage to my engine by driving it with a broken knock sensor? I broke the one under my intake and have not replaced it yet.

 

Shouldn't cause any damage, will throw the car into limp mode.

 

Can't you just pull the head and intake manifold together?

 

Other people have done it that way but I choose to just unbolt it. I ended up selling the accord tho about a year ago so don't really know how it ended out. I git a second gen TL now I've been driving ever since