Hey guys I have recently aquired a 91 civic hatchie for 700 bucks and I am having nonstop overheating issues. The coolant bubbles in the overflow tank and the thermostat was recently replaced with a 175 degree failsafe thermostat. I thought that maybe if the radiator cap was bad that it might have something to do with that. It actually needs a flush too but I haven't had the time. It will drive for about 20 minutes then start to lose coolant thru the overflow tank and then begin to overheat. Any help would be appreciated.
Nate

 

Any help, any ideas..........I know its slower here in the day time but help would be nice.

 

might be the temperature sending unit. (had similar problem with my CRX). but a radiator flush is a good idea.. it's a start.. just keep in mind when you overheat you are warping the head gasket.. so be careful!! worse comes to worse a motor swap!! good luck!

 

My temp/fuel gages don't work, yet i know when my car is running a little hot. Well,was running hot.

Since i couldn't afford to blow another engine up, or buy a new cluster, what i did was, change sensors 1 by 1.

Well, in the long run, i spent more $$$ on $ensors than i would have if i had just replaced the engine.

For the record, you should make the time to bleed the damn thing. Even if its at 12:00 mid-night. If it continues to overheat, atleast youv'e eliminated the concept of having air in the system.

 

OK...so if its overheating it could be the damn sensor? But doesn't the sensor only tell the fan switch to turn on.....to turn on the fan? PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong though. Would the radiator cap have that much affect on overheating problems?

 

if there are bubbles in your coolant that can mean one of a few things, none of which involve sensors, fans, thermos, ect. either you have lots of air trapped in your coolant system, in which case you need to burb it or you have a blown headgasket. Try this, take off your rad cap (make sure spring is good) turn on the motor and let it warm up. Once its warmed up try reving it via the throttle body. If you see a change in the amount of bubbles that will indicate that some of the pressure from the cylinders is getting into the coolant system and thus you are seeing that in the form of bubbles in the radiator. In extreme cases (ex. the motor was driven on for a long time while overheating) the block and head could have warped.

Good luck I've been down this road before, its not fun!

 

since you just aquired it, it would be a good idea to do a timing belt and waterpump change, that will eliminate the water pump as being hte problem

 

Follow VTGringo's advice. If you are using coolant and the overflow is getting sucked dry you more than likely have a blown headgskt. Check your plugs, if they are bright white and smell sweet then time for a HG. HTH

 

head gasket

 

deff. head gasket man... easy fix tho if you want to make it cheap... just buy the head gasket, timing belt while you're there, valve cover gasket if you want it fixed cheap... otherwise... you need to take the head to a shop to get it inspected and make sure it's flat... they prob overheated it and warped the head man...

 

Alright guys thanks for your help. Its not what I wanted to hear but it confirmed what I already thought. I am def. gonna try your idea Gringo.....thanks. I am getting rid of this car in a few months...it just has to run until I get rid of it and buy my boy's Subaru WRX.....I'm going back in the military....tough times call for shitty automatic (reason its shitty) cars that cost only 700 bucks.

 

Just thought I would give an update to my ongoing gay problem....
I drained and flushed the coolant today...I put in Water Wetter and 50/50 prestone coolant and I used Engine cleaner to totally clean the crap out of the engine bay which was covered in muck. I also replaced the radiator cap and that solved the boiling in the overflow tank. So now I have a car that rough starts when hot and puffs out white smoke and I am a quart low on oil. I know that most things point to the head gasket but I think that there is something blocking something in the coolant lines...as in the whole cooling system. I know stuff moves thru but it must move thru slowly. Also I when I bled the coolant it never completely came out air free (head gasket). So my point is this.....can a back up in the coolant route lead to overheating which would lead to a bad head gasket? We shall find out soon...