Howdy folks. I'm taking about my 2002 civic ex with a d17a2 sohc-vtec system. It has about 210,000 miles and it got a head gasket around 160k. I did the timing belt, water pump, etc at 190k.
Around this time last year, I drove over a tall mountain pass to see my friend. I got back and about a month later noticed my cooling fan coming on a lot more often. I checked the coolant bottle and both rad and bottle were low like it boiled over. I watched it for a while and kept refilling the rad and coolant bottle. Coolant is being pushed out of the rad and not being pulled back in because a gas bubble is breaking the vacuum.

I finally used one of those color change exhaust gas detection tools and got a clear fail. I don't see any "milkshake" on the dipstick or oil cap and don't have any obvious signs... Yet. I had a very noticeable misfire a few weeks ago and a pending p0303 code a few weeks ago and pulled the plug. It looked normal, not too clean or super dirty. I was hoping for a bad coil, but it doesn't look like that's it. I moved the coils between 2 and 3 cylinders (timing belt is cyl1) and haven't had any pending or active codes or any misfires.

Is a misfire going to be how a head gasket issue becomes obvious or will I see overheating?
How long is the labor time for a head gasket on these? The cam cover gasket is new about 2 years ago, and the original was a major pain to remove, So I'm thinking it won't be awful to do.

It isn't the first time I'll go through the process of doing a head gasket, but it's my first time on a Honda. I know I'll have to take it somewhere to resurface the head, but what about the block? Do the blocks warp on these aluminum block engines?

Last question, do you all recommend new bolts/studs or are they reusable?



PS, about 30 minutes after I posted this, it overheated on me going up a steep hill in 80 degree weather