what is it?

after putting my h2b back in my car, i bought a brand new thermostat and gasket from honda.

i then leave the car on to see how long it would idle before the temperature raises to normal operating temperature or overheat.

it took about 30 minutes for it to raise, but when it did, it shot up to 3/4 towards hot.

so pressure never built in the lower hose but i kept opening the pressure release valve anyways to see if fluid ever reached it. it didn't.

my thermostat never opened. after trying over and over to get it to open from idle, it never did.

after this, i buy another thermostat from autozone and it ended up doing the same thing. to eliminate that problem for the rest of the day, i ran my motor without the thermostat and temperatures were fine until i hit the freeway where it dropped and never came back up until city driving.

so i've only realized now that maybe when i refilled the radiator, i should have loaded the lower hose as well? hopefully my theory is this car thing isn't for me lol.

thanks for any replies and reading my garbage.

 

Well When I did my swap My engine took a long time to warm up, almost same story!

But it didnt over heat


Maybe your civic Instarment cluster has different volt calibrations then the H22 temp sensor! and maybe its not overheating????

Its a guess!

We Need to meet up dude!!!! Callllll Meeeeeeee!

 

Did you use a "spill free" funnel to bleed the bubbles while the car was running? This is key into have a proper cooling system. You want to run the car with coolant level at the rad cap to be higher than any other cooling passage. Keep heater on full hot with fan speed OFF. Run engine until fans cycle twice.

 

yeah, u just cant fill the radiator and put the cap on...there is still air in the system you have to get out by running the car with the cap off...turn on the heater so that when it gets hot you know that your heater core doesnt have air, and once the thermostat cycles a couple times, it will push the rest of the air out. also, when installing the thermostat, make sure that little hole in the diaphram is pointing up.

 

yeah, i didn't just fill the radiator with fluid and i'm not using a heater or fan. but i'll try again. thanks alot.

hey B, check out my build thread dude! i'll text you today.

 

so at the radiator cap is where the coolant level should be highest? i think my thermostat is higher....i think, lol. thanks again.

 

the problem was when running really hot, the thermostat did not open to cycle the fluid. i was thinking maybe that the coolant needed to fill up that hose in order for it to share temperatures with the coolant exiting the head and sitting in the radiator.

 

by cylcling through with the car running with cap off, that hose should be clear of air...fyi, the cap is the highest part of the cooling system on those engines. what i personally like to do is fill the system with the radiator funnel on top (less mess and easy pouring), squeeze the hoses to get some more air out, turn on the heater on full and raise the rpms to 2000, wait for the heater to get hot, then shut down the heater. wait for the fans to kick on, then drop the idle back down to normal...let the fans cycle again, then install the cap.

 

the problem is the coolant never cycles! what's a radiator funnel? does it seal at the cap? thanks again for helping me with this, lol.

 

i'm also assuming that if i had a heater it would somewhat act like a vacuum? and if i don't, what's the alternative?

 

if ur cooling system isnt cycling, then you might want to check out the fan switch/thermostat. ur fans dont turn on? have you tried to see if the coolant cycles with the radiator cap off? the funnel is just a funnel with a connection at the bottom that screws onto where your radiator cap goes...it really just makes things easier and less messy. and what do you mean when u say you dont have a heater?

 

lol, i removed all luxurious components! haha. and a fan wont fit with my swap.

 

well, if you dont have a radiator fan...that could be a big part of your problem.

 

....

the problem i'm having is that my thermostat doesn't open. i don't think that has to do with the radiator fan. i just wanted to make sure that my coolant system is operating properly. i don't have an overheating problem, just having trouble getting fluid to reach my thermostat. thanks again

 

are you sure that ur thermostat is not opening....or is it possible that it is opening, but you have nothing to cool the circulating coolant in ur radiator?

 

thermostat is definitely not opening.

 

well, theres nothing that really controls it...its a mechanical piece. are you sure you have the hole facing up? otherwise, there is just air behind it, but its already been said how to bleed correctly.

 

I hate to sound like an idiot here, but I am not familiar with the engine swap, but the accord I was working on that was having the exact same problem you guys are having turned out to be a simple fix. There was a coolant bleeder valve just behind the thermostat. You open it up with the engine cool and off. Its spits a few times as the air escapes, and keep it open while keeping the radiator full and I kept it open a couple minutes longer than needed just to make sure. After that, the fans started working correctly and the thermostat started opening up. Does yours have the bleeder valve?

 

Air trapped in the cooling system can block coolant flow and make it seem like the thermostat isn't opening. Those "spill-free" radiator funnels are awesome for bleeding the system.

The first time I replaced my thermostat I didn't realize this, and the car would quickly start overheating. At first I thought it was a bad t-stat or I installed it wrong, but it turned out it just needed to be bled properly.

 

another note,

when i had my thermostat in, the reason i conclude to the thermostat not opening is because the lower hose was the only thing in the bay that was cool. it also had no pressure and the "burping" valve wasn't releasing anything be it pressurized air or coolant + air.

 

If you aren't getting anything out of the bleeder, then a couple of things could be the problem. The first time I did it with the engine running and due to its locations, it was actually sucking air in, so the engine need to be off. Also, you may have to turn it a few times to get it open. If nothing apears to comes out when you have it open, I would say air is probably coming out, its not under any pressure or anything with the motor cool and off. It probably took 15 to 20 seconds of being open before anything came out, then it coolant started to come out. I wait to close it until I had a good stead stream for a good 20 seconds. I used the term spit out air, but it really isn't spit, the stream come and goes as the air comes out, and the best term I an use to describe it is sputtering or spitting, but it not under any pressure or anything.. Another note is keep the radiator full as you bleed it. If you don't your radiator will empty to the same level as the bleeder and you won't be much better off, so keep it full while you are doing this.