im trying to figure out if i have a bad head gasket because someone told me i did and i want to make sure. Basically on normal temp the top radiator hose is hot (obv) and the lower is warm, i held onto the lower radiator hose and rev'd the motor and when it idled back down i felt coolant flow backwards, i was wondering to see if thats normal?

 

Wait, So what you are telling us is that you believe your coolant flows backwards?

 

well someone told me i have a bad head gasket because the lower radiator hose isnt flowing correctly, after you rev it you can feel the coolant going back to the radiator

 

lol that someone doesn't know what they're saying. Any actually signs of a blown HG ?

 

never seen any oil and coolant mix in the radiator, coolant tank, or dip stick, he also said not to use synthetic oil is that true?

 

Could be a bad thermostat, it is not opening, and that is why your coolant is not running properly...

Take it out and check how it works!

 

This proves he should not be giving advice NO you can 100% run synth oil or a synth blend if you want or just regular oil. willing to bet thermostat is the problem here.

 

ive also heard not to run syn oil in these motors, but idk how true it is. but are u loosing coolant? is oil seeping from between the head and block? milky residue on the oil cap? car weak on power? if not you shouldn't be too worried. the feel of a coolant hose isn't very much to make such an assumption lol

 

Where do you guys hear this ? lol there have been several "OIL" threads in this section they got quite a bit of input plenty of ppl run synth. Heck even I made one here: https://honda-tech.com/forums/acura-integra-6/oil-non-synth-cheapest-vs-top-shelf-vtec-engines-3157625/

 

Drain your coolant, take off the lower radiator hose and remove your thermostat, make sure it wasn't installed backwards, and go see if it works. There plenty of ways to test it, find out what temperature thermostat it is, boil up some water to that temp and drop it in, if the thermostat opens, it works. If it doesn't. It's faulty. It's perfectly fine to run synthetic in a honda engine.

 

I run Mobil 1 full synthetic in both my Hondas. I've never experienced a problem. Honda reccomends Mobil 1 oil for our cars. It's not like there going to say "we reccomend you use mobil 1 oil, but do not use mobil 1 synthetic" the only difference between synthetic and conventional is the separation and filtration of oil molecules