Need everyones help. My niece has a 00 civic SOHC D16y8. Over the winter it was getting hot and using coolant. Topping off coolant once biweekly- kept car running fine. Coolant is not leaking undercar, no milky oil, no white smoke out of the tailpipe. There was a bit of wetness on passenger side floorboard (almost back to passenger side seat rail) heater worked fine on all settings (as long as coolant was topped off). Since warmer weather started topping off coolant would go almost 4 weeks without issue. Only issue would be extended waiting in traffic after some highway driving would end up on some rising gauge but not into the red. No issues around town.
I live 200 miles from the car and have been putting off fixing it, especially since the issue has been solved (bandaided) with adding coolant. This weekend after a 60 mile highway trip, the car got hot, and was immediately turned off and towed home. The car was filled with coolant (almost an entire gallon on the side of the road, which did work for about 8 miles) I always assumed from the carpet that the heater core was leaking and figured Id quickly bypass the heatercore until I could remove the dash and replace.
I bypassed the heatercore last weekend by plugging the outlet into the inlet via a pvc 5/8" connector and added coolant. The coolant shoots out of the radiator as I was bleeding it about 12-18" every 20-30 seconds. Looks like headgasket now. Any ideas before I order a HG and plan to spend the weekend chaning?
Im 200 miles from the car so cant do any HG tests from here, but anyone have any ideas? should I just plan on changing the headgasket?

 

PVC?

Get a sample of the stuff in the carpet on your finger and smell it. Is it antifreeze?

Yes stuff blowing out the radiator would be the head gasket, especially if it does it when the system is cold.

 

well the pvc bypass was just a test to see if it was indeed the heatercore

system was ice cold, I started it and it started blowing out....I was certain that meant headgasket.
I was hoping everyone else thought otherwise. Means I gotta drive 4 hours and pull a head tomorrow

 

Don't forget, since it got hot enough for you to shut it down and tow home, the head is likely warped and needs to go to the machine shop to be resurfaced (flattened) or your new head gasket is not going to do a thing.

 

All the Civics I have owned had the same symptoms yours is showing, you can bleed it and top off the coolant and drive it for a few weeks until it get low enough. No white smoke, or sweet coolant smell.. Like it was recommended above yous should look for a machine shop ahead of time that can resurface the head for you the same day, since you are driving 4hrs away from the car. When I did my first head gasket job last year I only cleaned the head, used the coper spray with an OEM gasket but never got it resurface, and it looks it is in fact warped since now the symptoms are slowly coming back..

The head gasket or the head on the D series seems to have certain defect(Or may be its just age). The head gasket usually fails near one of the coolant ports, in a way where it does not burn off coolant or mix it with the oil, instead it pushes combustion gases/air into the coolant system in a way that while you are driving it will push the coolant out of the reservoir. ..That have been my experience with the 3 Civics I have owned. Currently have two, my second is a 99 Civic Dx that I repalced the head gasket last year and now i just got a cheap 4dr Civic Lx automatic with a blown head gasket, that I am currently in the process of fixing.

 

Block deck is probably fine (I'd still use a straight edge to confirm) but yeah get the head resurfaced for sure and new gasket.

 

if you have a straight edge to check the block, check the head and if its fine don't bother with to resurface.

We would send a head out a week for resurface up until about 10 years ago. One time the machine shop might have been a bit busy. We go to drop it off, he comes out to our van, checks head with with the straight edge, 20 seconds later he says c-ya. That was the last $ they made off us for resurfacing, we bought a straight edge after that. I'm sure they've noticed, not sure if they clued in as to why.

 

just an update, head is off....I have a straight edge and feeler gauge that I will check everything out with today. Last night I started late, and it started getting dark so I stopped. Took just under 1 hour to remove it. I think I couldve done it in about 40 mins with a drill or power tool. I just used a ratchet set b/c I was worried about frail / old / rusted bolts breaking. Ill post some pix later/tomorrow. Everything went straightforward, Worst part was removing a few exhaust bracket bolts so I could slide the exhaust manifold back to clear the head. (Thanks to NY winters).

 

Sounds about right.

 

Just to be thorough, you can't use just any old straight edge but require a precision straight edge like Starret 380-24.

380-24 Steel Straight Edge

You can't just grab the ruler off your desk and hope to get good results, we are talking .002" space is too much.

 

half way there