It wasn't the head gasket
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Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 176
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From: Orange County, CA.
It wasn't the head gasket
Problem healed itself. Turned out that I had two separate problems, I fixed one easily; and the water-in-oil prob. healed itself. ;-)
Water now flows through the system, once I put the U shaped hose from the intake manifold flange to the t-stat housing back on. You need that hose, or there will be no circulation through the head when the T-stat is closed AND the T-stat will not open. Very critical hose connection, since cooled water flows IN through the T-stat, instead of OUT as in all other engines; without that little hose, the water pump gets no water to pump, and just cavitates and the T-stat needs the hot water from the head, flowing from that hose so it can open. Bottom line: don't block it off!
The second problem, with the half-quart of water in the oil, Is still a mystery which has cured itself. After flushing the motor twice with fresh oil and no water in the cooling system, I got most of the milky stuff out. I then pressurized the cooling system (22 PSI), and listened for leaks in the pan and cam cover with a piece of tubing in my ear. I could hear no leaking and the pressure held steady, without bleeding off, according to my tire gauge. So, I re filled the cooling system, put in fresh oil, and started it up. I let it run for about 15-20 minutes at idle, finally the T-stat opened (bottom rad hose got hot), but the fan would not come on. The gauge got up to about 1/3 or slightly higher and stopped there. I raised the RPM to about 3000 for a couple minutes, and finally the fan came on, but only for about 15 secconds before it went off again. The gauge still at 1/3 or so. Ambient air temp was about 80 degrees. Either the custom Radiator is really efficient, or the gauge is off some. The fan eventually came on again for another 15 seconds. Does this seem normal???
At least it is running!:D No bad head gasket; Denial pays off sometimes.
PS; I figure the water in the oil was sabotage/vandalism, as the car sat out in my driveway with no hood and only covered by some blankets with a tarp over it for about 2 years since I had the pan off.
Water now flows through the system, once I put the U shaped hose from the intake manifold flange to the t-stat housing back on. You need that hose, or there will be no circulation through the head when the T-stat is closed AND the T-stat will not open. Very critical hose connection, since cooled water flows IN through the T-stat, instead of OUT as in all other engines; without that little hose, the water pump gets no water to pump, and just cavitates and the T-stat needs the hot water from the head, flowing from that hose so it can open. Bottom line: don't block it off!
The second problem, with the half-quart of water in the oil, Is still a mystery which has cured itself. After flushing the motor twice with fresh oil and no water in the cooling system, I got most of the milky stuff out. I then pressurized the cooling system (22 PSI), and listened for leaks in the pan and cam cover with a piece of tubing in my ear. I could hear no leaking and the pressure held steady, without bleeding off, according to my tire gauge. So, I re filled the cooling system, put in fresh oil, and started it up. I let it run for about 15-20 minutes at idle, finally the T-stat opened (bottom rad hose got hot), but the fan would not come on. The gauge got up to about 1/3 or slightly higher and stopped there. I raised the RPM to about 3000 for a couple minutes, and finally the fan came on, but only for about 15 secconds before it went off again. The gauge still at 1/3 or so. Ambient air temp was about 80 degrees. Either the custom Radiator is really efficient, or the gauge is off some. The fan eventually came on again for another 15 seconds. Does this seem normal???
At least it is running!:D No bad head gasket; Denial pays off sometimes.
PS; I figure the water in the oil was sabotage/vandalism, as the car sat out in my driveway with no hood and only covered by some blankets with a tarp over it for about 2 years since I had the pan off.
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raider1qaz
Honda Civic / Del Sol (1992 - 2000)
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Feb 9, 2013 09:12 PM
