sf170089

Hey guys! I am back with another problem with my 01 Honda Civic, LX (~ 158K or so). Normally, this car gets driven short distances of ~ 5 miles at a time. On Thursday, my wife drove it about 15 miles. During the drive, she noticed a small amount of "smoke" emanating from the hood when stopped (she did not tell me about it until tonight). Then, today, she drove again for another 20 or so mile trip. Again, she observed "smoke" from the hood when stopped. When she pulled into the garage, I popped the hood and it appeared that lots of coolant sprayed from the radiator cap. It was wet all around the area and a definite spray pattern was apparent on part of the battery and engine. I could hear the "sizzle" and smell the coolant. A few small drips appeared under the car after standing for a few hours. She said that by the time she got home, the needle was pegged in the red Hot zone of the temperature gauge.




Here is where I may have made my first mistake. I left the hood opened and allowed the engine to cool for a bit (maybe 2 hours). I thought there was some catastrophic failure, so I figured I would look for it. So, I opened the radiator cap and poured in ~ 2.5 quarts of tap water. I turned on the car and everything seemed okay. I was expecting a bunch of water to dump on the floor, but there was nothing. I let the car run (A/C maxed) for about 10 minutes, but the temperature indicator did not move. It is so hard to see the level indicator of the reservoir, so I am not quite sure where that is. But, the top radiator hose was hot. I could grab it with a bit of discomfort, but it did not burn. The bottom radiator hose was barely warm.


I did the standard searching on the forums and found the "Overheating and mysterious coolant loss common causes - reference" that everyone links to. What it currently sounds like is that I have at least the starting of a Head Gasket failure. But, as everyone else starts off, I am in denial. I do not want it to be the head gasket. Being late at night and pretty dark in my garage, I am not going to do much with it until tomorrow. But, I wanted to get some opinions and input as soon as possible. The only step I did from the "Overheating....." thread was confirm that the fans kick on. My first question is, did I do a horrible thing by adding straight water to the radiator? Everyone says to get OEM Honda coolant. I am not sure how hard that is on a Sunday, but I will try. Next, if I cannot get ahold of OEM Honda Coolant, should I wait on everything else until I do, or can I start the troubleshooting process. Here is what I plan:
1. Check the radiator cap for damage. Again, OEM Radiator cap on a Sunday might be hard.
2. Burp the system. I do not have the fancy funnel from Amazon, so I will just park on the hill next to my house and follow the burping instructions.
3. I watched Scotty Kilmer's video using the blue liquid/test tube kit for combustion gases. But, that is a $60 kit and it looks like I will have to order one.
Final questions, do you think we did major damage to the engine letting it peg the needle to the red H? Do you think a novice with a bunch of tools can easily change the Head Gasket, or should that be left to the professionals? Can the car still be driven short distances (5 miles or less at a time) without further damage?
Thanks all!

ezone

Water is ok in an emergency as long as there is no chance it will be exposed to temps below freezing. You can replace the coolant when the head gasket job is done (asap).


Battery wet, that usually means the plastic reservoir overflowed and it came out the puke hole (vent) and it's usually made a mess on fan shroud and bottom splash panels too. Radiator low.
Root cause is usually the blown head gasket.


You've read the first post in the overheating thread but only checked that fans operate?
Keep going...prove the head gasket is leaking.

pjb3

The test for combustion gases in the coolant is not always accurate. If it comes back positive that is a pretty good sign the head gasket is leaking but if comes back negative you still can't rule out the head gasket.

If you have already looked at the "Overheating and mysterious coolant loss common causes - reference" I would put the $60 for the kit toward having someone pressurize the cylinders and test it that way.

sf170089

Hey guys, I wanted to thank everyone for their advice and give an update.

@ezone: By the time I got to the post, it was late at night. I just did not have it in me to start troubleshooting beyond looking at the fans. Thanks for the confirm on the water. It helped us limp along for a while.

@pjb3: Thanks for the advice on the combustion gases. I thought that pretty much was the definitive test. I was about to take your advice and have the cylinders pressurized. But, someone mentioned pressure testing the coolant system.

Being a novice, I probably did not quite accurately describe what was going on and I probably made assumptions that I should not have. Every day, I was having to add about 1/2 quart of water to the radiator. So, the coolant/water was going somewhere. For that amount of liquid, I just assumed that if there was a leak, I would see it. But, I would let the engine run at idle for 20 minutes with no visible sign of leaking. As a last ditch effort, I did the "lend-a-tool" from Advance Auto and picked up their coolant pressure test kit. I hooked it up and it held no pressure at all. I could see a giant leak at the top of the radiator where the plastic meets the metal. So, I bought a new radiator and installed it. While "empty," I hooked up the kit and the system held pressure for 30 minutes. So, I got a gallon of OEM coolant from my local Honda Dealer and filled it up. I followed the "burping" instructions posted on the forum and it has been holding strong every since. Absolutely no issues with overheating and I have been losing no volume. So, for now, I am going to call it done.

Having everything ripped apart for the radiator swap gave me a good opportunity to "clean" the engine. I did not spray it down, I just used some brake cleaner on a rag and wiped everything off. After changing the radiator, I visually checked the engine and coolant daily for about a week. I now check it about 2 times a week, just to be sure. So far, everything still looks good.

Thanks again guys, I really appreciate the help!

ezone

Cool you found it and that's a lot simpler than the head gasket job.
Radiator tank blow out you can usually squeeze the hose and hear/see liquid squirting out the crack, most are not small when they go.

How many miles on the car? The plastic (nylon) in the radiator does fatigue with thermal cycles and time, and extreme temps speed up the aging process.


Did the radiator tank have stress lines anything like this one?




This is one I saw in an older Odyssey during a service, I noted it should be replaced and told the owner........THE VERY NEXT DAY it let go and blew coolant out of the front side of the plastic tank.

NDNV

Yikes. How old an Odyssey was it. I gotta go check my 03 EL now...

ezone

1st gen, unsure of the actual year now.