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I have a 1999 Civic EX with a D16Y8. I've had a disappearing coolant issue that I'm attempting to resolve. After the car overheated I initially saw the water pump was leaking. I didn't have the time to fix myself, so I had the water pump and timing belt replaced. I didn't drive more than 15 minutes before the temp gauge started climbing past normal and then white smoke was coming from the engine compartment. With the fan on it looked like the white mist was coming from the radiator, so I changed that out this morning. Afterwards I test drove it again and white steam came out from back under the connector pictured below - I put my hand back under and could feel it blowing out. I'm guessing the head gasket is blown. Anything else that could be the problem back under there?
Actually not 100% sure it wasn't leaking from the ECT sensor; didn't realize it could leak from there. I'll have to check. While going through the bleeding process I couldn't get it to warm up enough to get the fan to turn on. I ran it for at least 20 minutes, even keeping it around 2500 rpms - and it didn't leak then. I did squeeze the various hoses to force air to move out. I even have a funnel that tightly fits the radiator neck so that it holds more coolant than needed allowing the air bubbles to get out without any chance of air getting in.
I'll check, but pretty sure I could feel it blowing out from back under it. Nothing that I've read, and I've searched a lot online, says anything about a blown gasket allowing the coolant mist to blow out into the engine compartment. Usually the talk is about allowing coolant to get into oil or vice versa.
D16Y8 Cooling system issue
