The timing belt broke on my civic dx about 2 weeks ago and when it broke, it bent a whole bunch of valves in the head.

I reduced the motor down, replaced the head with one at a salvage yard after verifying the valves were all good. Replaced all of the gaskets with new ones, torque specs on head being 22 - 49 - 65 in that order, and replaced all of the sensors on the head as well as the water pump on the block. Rebuilt the motor and I made sure I followed the specific instructions in the chiltons manual with regard to refilling the radiator and using the bypass valve to make sure there is no air in the system.

The car runs like a champ now (well sort of). The temperature gauge in the car indicates it is dang near red lining. There are no leaking fluids under the car whatsoever. I've since replaced the thermostat, several of the bypass hoses on the intake manifold, the upper radiator hose. Pulled the radiator and flushed it; removed the air conditioning condensor (a/c didn't work anyway) to improve overall air flow. Still over heating.

Hard wired the radiator fans to run constant when the ignition is on. Replaced the instrument cluster inside the car (yes an 89 crx 5 speed cluster will direct swap to an 89 dx 5 speed). Bad gauge now ruled out.

Other than a bit of "warbling" when I step off of the accelerator, the only noticeable effect that I seem to manage is that when I turn on the heater, the temperature needle drops to about mid-line. Not a problem in wintertime, but a pain in the 100+ degree Memphis heat.

I for the life of me can't seem to figure out why the system is indicating that the car is running hot (and when it gets near red line the car seems to lose a bit of pickup when stepping on the accelerator). Anyone have any thoughts?

 

Radiator hoses are blocked or the radiator is blocked. Only thing that it could be.