Hey Guys,

I have a 91 Civic Si hatch that I have been having some issues with. A couple of months ago it started overheating randomly, three times total. I flushed the cooling system, changed the thermostat, and replaced the radiator with my old CRX radiator (it was a good radiator but I put a racing radiator in it when I did my motor swap).

Anyways, this morning I started the car and it was running really rough. Sounded like it was missing. It did this for about a minute. When I was backing out, I saw what looked like white smoke behind me. After about forty five seconds the white smoke stopped and the car stopped running rough. Later today, I drove it to Advance Auto to replace the U-hose, as it had a small crack. When I started it up, it ran rough, with no white smoke this time, for about twenty seconds, and I drove it home (about a five minute drive). When I got to my house, I pulled up to back into my driveway and it started running rough again (no white smoke)...

Does this sound like a headgasket issue? I do not have any oil in coolant or coolant in oil... The car has not overheated since I replaced the radiator. But I'd say it's had a total of maybe an hour on the road since then. I basically drive it to and from Advance Auto. I'm afriad to drive it for work, because I drive an average of 200 miles a day. I do not want to get stranded two hours from home in a shirt and tie, but I also do not want the car to sit and not get fixed. Ideas guys?

EDIT: I performed a compression test last night. I got cyl 1. 190, cyl 2 190, cyl 3 210, cyl 4 190. There was oil in all of the spark plug tubes. I could see where it looked like the previous owner did not have the grommets that go in between the valve cover and the spark plug tubes, so he used gasket sealer. I took this video after the compression test. This is the worst it has been at start up. You cannot really hear how rough it is running from this video though... I think I needed to take the cover off of my phone.


Let me know if you need any more information. Any help you can provide would be much appreciated.

 

Bump for some help on this.

 

well first off you wont get that white smoke unless you're burning coolant or running seafoam through. its your head gasket. i wouldnt suggest using liquid fix but id use blue devil. i recently replaced my head gasket and it took 12 hours driving, working, waiting and replacing **** we broke so its worth it, it was about $120 maybe less for everything coolant, gasket, thermostat, oil, headbolts. i didnt do any other gaskets but the set is $125 ish at autozone. it was my first time doing one and it was cake bro

 

plus a resurface is a must!

 

White smoke= Burning water/Coolant.
Blue smoke= Burning oil.
You need a new head gasket likely. Is your oil a "milkshake" color, if it is, that means 100 percent HG issue.

 

When the car is cold take off the radiator cap and start the car, you will see alot
of bubble coming out if the hg is bad. Don't do it when the car is warm you'll get burned.