Alright guys let me start by saying im not new to the mechanic world, i have a 9sec camaro. I am however new to the civic world for the most part though. I rebuilt the motor 60k ago cuz i had a bad sleeve in cylinder one. Im woried now however that i am in for serious issues again for some odd reason. Temp gauge stays low until i drive the car a couple times and then starts to climb. Rapidly and i lose heat in the car. Pull over check the coolant and its damn near half way empty. Fill her up n go on my way until a couple days later again. Hence now im here. Pulled thermostat and checked it and its still in working order. Top hose scalding hot and lower hose cold and cool to touch. Fan has been having issues turning on and i wired it to a switch n just turn it on myself when it starts warm up. What can be my problem here?

 

If fan isn't working try and get it fixed. However your major concern is water in the cylinders or the oil pan. Does your car smoke at all or is there any water when you do an oil change?

 

Also check for water puddles under the car

 

OEM Thermo?

 

No puddles under car. Honda thermo. And i pulled it n checked it in boiling water used my snap on infared temp to check. Opens at 177

 

No water in oil or pan.

 

My temp guage barely comes up when i have coolant in the system running the car. But when it starts to run out of coolant my gauge climbs fast.

 

I hate to state the obvious here but it has to be going somewhere haha have you tried running the car for a long period of time while you check for leaks and watch your gauge? When you replaced the thermo, did you check the passage pipe that connects to the housing that runs behind the head? Something could be stuck in there causing the coolant to not even get to the thermo, assuming your thermo is good based on the tests you performed. Just to be clear, what engine are we talking about here?

 

D16y8 and didnt check the pipe based on the fact that i dont lose heat at all. Had the car running in the garage last night for an hour watching the air bubbles seep out. Had nose of car elevated n kept messing with the throttle to heat it up more and after a half hour i turned the heat off and kept it running with an intermittent throttle for another half hour.while doing so last night though i did not lose any coolant while watching it. Like i said in first post blowing into overflow. See it puddling on top of radiator and air box. But none of those were apparent last night while sitting in garage.

 

Never turned fan on at all for that entire time running in garage either

 

I must've missed this along the way but you're saying that the coolant is blowing back into your reservoir? What color is it? Does it fill up the overflow most of the way?

 

Yes still green coolant and overfills n blows out of bottle. I see little puddles on top of air box n radiator. Hoses are all good

 

Compression test the engine, might have a slight problem with your head gasket. If you have it, do a leak down as well.

 

Just noticed there is a slight smell of gas in my overflow tank... head gasket? Still no coolant in oil but since the design of the engine has sleeves for the cylinders depending on where the head gasket went bad could this be my issue? Or should i do a compression n leak down before tearing into it

 

ahhh, that first comment with the gas is a pretty good indicator of a head gasket. Might as well do a compression test but that should confirm it right then and there. This explains the mysterious vanishing coolant without leaks or anything also. All points lead to head gasket, unfortunately.

 

The odds of it not being a head gasket at that point are what slim to none right? Mls head gasket felpro from napa should be ok or should i go to honda?

 

If it were me, I would definitely do the compression test. If the numbers were off, then I would order a new head gasket. If they looked ok, I would go to the leak down and take it from there. The gas fumes are a pretty solid indicator because that means gases from the combustion chamber are getting in there somehow. Felpro is good, I forget what I usually get but RockAuto has good prices and usually pretty darn quick too deliver.

 

Yah i usually order from rockauto but i need it done asap. Its my daily and driving a big cubic inch sbc with fats n skinnies w/ race gas isnt a good way to daily

 

Haha yea that's no good. Felpro should do fine then