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Hi all,
I am the proud owner of a 1990 Civic DX hatchback. It has run very well since I’ve bought it but a week ago I noticed the coolant was low and the exhaust was blowing sweet smelling white smoke so I immediately thought ‘head gasket’. This was the biggest DIY I’ve attempted on my car but it’s an old car and I want to keep the costs down.
So I think I successfully changed the gasket (didn’t machine the head though) and the head wasnt cracked. Broke a temp gauge sender and replaced it.The car started fine but after 10 minutes it was overheating and the coolant in the funnel wasn’t draining into the radiator anymore, no air bubbles either. Water and white smoke were coming out of the exhaust? What did I mess up? My first thought is residue from the old gasket that I was scraping off gathered in the water pump and blocked it. Thoughts?
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Did you check the head for warpage? That causes many blown head gasket symptoms…
Also, did you torque the bolts in proper order and to torque specifixations… Also, FWIW it may not use TTY head bolts (Torque to yield, aka stretch bolts) but if it does, you should buy new head bolts…
Karl
I did but now I wish I inspected it better. But anyway why would it overheat now when it didn’t before?
And could the water coming out of the exhaust be the STP fuel system cleaner I poured in the gas tank?
Yes I brushed the bolts clean, put a dab of oil and torqued them to spec in the right order. I don’t know if they’re TTY head bolts.
Doubtful the vapor coming out is pour in engine cleaner….
I would put a pressure tester on the cooling system and see if it holds to do further diagnosis…
[quote=”Boisclair” post=165990]Yes I brushed the bolts clean, put a dab of oil and torqued them to spec in the right order. I don’t know if they’re TTY head bolts.[/quote]
I would do a Google search to find out. Stretch bolts were just getting started that long ago, so it is possible it doesn’t have them.
Karl
No, it would let you know that there is a leak in the cooling system and if you can’t visibly see it, then there is a good chance it is internal to the engine.
Karl
When the cooling system is not working properly it doesn’t take long to overheat. I suppose it is possible that if large enough chunks of gasket got in the system it could cause blockage, but not necessarily in the water pump.. That thing moves faster than a garbage disposer….
The white smoke from the exhaust is a real telltale sign that coolant is burning… may want to check to see if your oil looks like a chocolate milkshake…
Could it be water left from before I changed the gasket? I just changed the oil and coolant at the end of the gasket job and there was no sign of either mixing.
It is possible you have some residue in the exhaust system, but your overheat is saying something different….
In a best case perhaps there is still an air pocket in the system… or a cooling fan is disconnected or not running. And the residue is still burning off….
However, a head/head gasket that is not sealing does not always mix coolant and oil. Sometimes the exhaust gasses (which a very hot get into the system). Also, coolant under pressure lowers the boiling point. When you lose pressure things heat up quick. Also perhaps you have not run the car long enough for enough coolant to mix with the oil…which is a good thing. Coolant in oil is no friend to rod and main bearings…
Many variables here… if coolant is new, you can do a block test (tests for hydrocarbons in coolant) or put the system under pressure as previously stated…
Karl
You can use a block tester to determine if hydrocarbons are entering the combustion chamber. This will let you know if something went awry during the repair process. Also, I never perform a head gasket repair without sending the head out to a machine shop. Finally, you did bleed the cooling system after preforming the repair, right? B)
Hi, and thanks for your input. I might do the block test but like Toyota Karl said I think I’m going to do the cooling system pressure test first.
I think I was bleeding the coolant, the radiator cap was off and I had a funnel with coolant in it. Is it enough? I know this car is always fussy about the bleeding and I might need to pinch hoses and turn the heat on.
Update: Can’t believe I messed this up but what happened is I was exhausted after the headgasket job and I didn’t burp the cooling system properly. This morning I started the engine, turn on the heat and pinched the hoses and a lot of air came out. It seems to be all out now but there is still water coming out the exhaust after about 20 mins total of idling. Going to do a pressure test when I have time.
UPDATE 2 : I forgot to mention that my car could not circulate because it needed to pass inspection, so I didn’t know exactly how it would behave on the roads. It passed inspection on monday morning and I could drive it to work. I also did a pressure test and the pressure dropped from 15.1 PSI to about 14.9 PSI in 4 minutes. The tester I used was from work and I think it was made for trucks so the cap wasn’t 100% airtight.
On the way to work (30 min drive) it reached operating temperature unusually fast and I had to stop 5 times to let it cool down because it was overheating badly. The top radiator hose was very hot and the bottom one wasn’t hot at all so I figured it’s the thermostat. I took the thermostat out, put whatever coolant I had left (1/4 coolant, 3/4 water) and bled the system for a while and it didn’t over heat.
My question is though, how come the temperature gauge indicates the exact same operating temp as when it’s running with a thermostat and 50/50 coolant water?
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