Guys...

Car has run beautifully in florida weather for the past couple months
with homemade turbo swap...(1990 Civic STD Hatch with ZC, T25)

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=396090

Problem: I was driving today (temp about 83 degs) noticed the temp
gauge was almost all the way hot, so turned on the heat as high as
possible and pulled over. The reserve coolant tank was rocking
back and forth and steam was coming out from around the cap. Let
it sit and added water to the radiator. None of my coolant lines to
the turbo seemed to be leaking. I was certain the radiator was full
and decided to drive back home, as I was doing before. Damn
thing started overheating again; gauge rose quickly. It has never
overheated in the past 7 years nor with the turbo for the past 4
months. I do not have a cooling fan in (car drives fine without it
unless you sit at idle for about 10 mins) and I have the huge metal
absolute radiator. I havent had the cooling fan since I did the ZC
swap once again 7 years ago, so i'm assuming this has nothing to
do with it. Is it possible my headgasket went? Usually if it does
start to run hot I just turn on the heat until I start moving again
and it drops back down...but it doesn't help now. The coolant
seemed okay, no oil specs or anything as far as I could tell...
What things could possibly be wrong? Thanks for anyone who
can help...

Jason

 

quite perplexing. My bro's old CRX was overheating and I couldn't figure it out. Ended up i replaced basically the entire coolant system, so compare your list with mine. 1.) Water pump 2.) Thermostate 3.) Head-Gasket 4.) Radiator It turned out it was probably #4, and #2...But because of them it blew #3.
Don't quote me, but I believe you can check if your headgasket is blown if you start your car, then open up the radiator cap, after proper warm up time check to see if it bubbles....if it does, the gaskets gone, and replace. (note, open radiator cap when the car is cold only, i'm sure you knew that but just making sure!)
A quick way that I checked to see if my radiator was working correctly, was after a proper warm up time. I touched the outgoing and imcoming water hoses of the radiator. With the bad radiator, I noticed very little difference between the temperature of both hoses, but when the new radiator was in, the return hose was much cooler.
Thermostate checking, first take it out, boil some water, then drop it in. After a while, the thermostate should open. replace if needed.
The last thing you can check is the water pump. But be aware, if the water is not pumping, then its more then likely the radiator hoses will both be hot, due to no circulation of the water. Hope this helps, if not a little and good luck with getting the problem solved.

 

THANK YOU... :-)

Jason

 

also, does the car only overheat after you boost on it, or does it overheat even if you dont boost on it??

 

I drove it very slow (I was on the way home when I noticed the gauge
rising quickly). I did boost just a tad as part of accelerating, but nothing
hard. The radiator isn't very old at all. The upper hose was really hot
to the touch I remember, I was squeezing it trying to get more water
to go down the radiator. I managed to get it to campus where I have
classes. The drive is about 2 miles home in traffic, so we'll see what
happens since it's been cool for a while (it's been sitting for at least an
hour now).

Are there any other indications to see if my headgasket is leaking or
screwed?

Crap!

Jason

 

Reminds me of my car, I too got away without a fan for a long time. Overheating from a radiator leak/hot weather/no fan took out my headgasket. First chance you get go run the car without the radiator cap and see if theres bubbles then let us now!

 

You guys are great...anymore comments please let me know, I will
going to test the car soon.

The car will be cold, should I just turn it on and run it from cold w/o
the cap on? If I see the coolant bubbling then my headgasket is
pretty much shot?

Second thing, I've never taken off the head, what kind of pain is it
to change the headgasket? (This is a ZC...)

Jason

 

Yeah, start it cold and let it run for a while while watching for bubbles. I never really had a lot of bubbles at first but give it a rev and water would shoot out. Also after driving my car would appear that the overflow was boiling however if you removed the overflow cap you would realize it was just a solid stream of steam/air coming out the hose that was just blowing bubbles.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NosajCivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">. . .and I have the huge metal
absolute radiator. I havent had the cooling fan since I did the ZC
swap once again 7 years ago, so i'm assuming this has nothing to
do with it. ...
Jason </TD></TR></TABLE>

Did you say you didn't have the radiator fan on/installed? Turbo & Summer heat doesn't go well either. I had almost the same problem after long driving during summer with only one small radiator fan on an all aluminum radiator (koyo); Once stopped or in traffic, steam come out, gauge shoot up in second, etc. After installing bigger and an extra fans, driving in summer heat while boosting & AC at full blast without problem ever since.

Hope this help finding your source of the problem.

 

Ok, what about the head gasket sealant crap that you pour into your
engine...does this stuff work? I am graduating college and just need
the engine to get through until I get a real job!

Jason

 

Your water pump is gone....same thing happened to me

 

Whens the last time you replaced your water pump, how many miles on your current water pump?

I would def. add some fans on the radiator.

 

this is the way i test :
run the car until warmed up(not all the way to overheat). with car running compare temperature of top rad hose to bottom rad hose. both should be hot. if lower is much cooler than top hose then coolant isn't flowing
most common is faulty thermostat. but have seen clogged radiators and water pumps with the fins rusted off. recomend replacing thermostat and radiator cap(good idea to replace these anytime overheat has occured).
where is FL are you?

 

OK...

This morning I went to the autoparts store and got the Stant replacement
thermostat for the ZC engine (1990 CRX). It came off easy and the gasket
and thermostat fit in fine. The old one which I am assuming was stock
(shame shame I never replaced the ZC one which is 7 years old in my
car alone) seemed alot more beefier. There was a piece of mulch it looked
like in the spring apparatus and some other crap around it. The spring
still was able to be compressed with my fingers though. So I put the new
one in. Backed the car up a little so I could see if there were any leaks
(there was a big *** puddle on the ground). Started the car with the
radiator cap off; I had previously filled the radiator up as far as it would
go with water. Let it sit for a good ten minutes. The only thing I could
see from the radiator hole was fresh water, it didn't really look like
anything was flowing, just vibrating. When I revved the engine with the
t-body the water would change frequency I guess and sit still. There were
no bubbles at all, not one...so I guess the head gasket is still "ok". I
checked the gauge and it was sitting just below the halfway point where
it normally sits. I did check the hoses, the top hose was hot and the one
coming from the bottom back to the block wasn't nearly as hot, still easy
to touch. There were no visible leaks as far as I could tell from any part
of the engine or turbo. The coolant on the ground had the multi-color
oil look to it while it sitting on the ground, but i'm guessing it was just
"mixing" with oil that had been on the blacktop for awhile...

Should I give it a test drive and see if the thermostat fixed the problem?
Would the temperatures of the hose indicate there is something wrong
with the water pump? It didn't appear as if the water were flowing...
maybe I didn't wait long enough to let the thermostat pop open?

I appreciate everybody's help on this!!! to all...

Jason

(Gainesville, FL - UF)

 

It may not have gotten warm enough yet for the coolant to really start flowing. Id take it for a drive around your house and watch the temperature. If it starts to get hot go right home and then check the hoses. Your headgasket sounds like its fine.

 

You guys are great....ok I will be able to take it for a test drive later
this afternoon, I had to come to school to work for four hours; thank
god gf has a car.

Just out of curiosity, how difficult is it to change the water pump with
the engine in the car?

Thanks - Jason

 

Yeah, now with that info, i'm leaning toward the water pump being gone. I believe the pump isn't that expensive, my bro's old car didn't cost more then $50 bucks.
The water pump is fairly a straightfoward afair. Its going to be easier for you because you don't have any accesories.
First, set the car to top dead center, then take off all the timing belt plastic covers. I ussually put some white out, at the top of both cam gears, as well as the timing belt to ensure that i don't mess with the timing. Take off the alternator belt,
then lift the car up, take off driverside wheel, you should see the main pulley bolt there. Shove a screwdriver into one of the appropriate holes and remove the large bolt. Should be a 19mm (i think), after that the pulley should come off with ease. Make sure you take the little metal pin in there. After that, go back to the top of the car, and loosen the belt tensioner. After that, you should be able to remove the timing belt. Then the water pump is ready to be removed, take the last couple of bolts out, and take it out, see if theres any noticable damage. Reinstall in reverse order. Let me know if i missed anything.

Here's a good website:
http://www.c-speedracing.com/h...t.php

Its for a gsr, but its the same basic idea, as well as the same basic locations.

 

Thank you EG6 and everyone else...I will test tonight when I get home and then
if it still overheats I will have to I guess replace my timing belt and water pump...
I hope I can do all this, I will be in front of my apartment

While I have all this off, is there anything else I should change, like the alternator
belt, etc? Any seals I should buy?

Jason