darthtony360

Good evening,

Im posting here because Im having this situation with my civic. A week and half ago I was driving my car with A/C on the highway and I was going to a meeting in Orlando. When I parked the car , I saw that smoke was coming out from the hood. Then I opened the hood and I saw that smoke was coming from the overflow tank. That car didnt overheat. I never opened the overflow tank , but it is like it was like the level of coolant wanted to go up or evaporating or something like that. I let the car cool down and I opened the radiator to see if it was leaking coolant or not. I added more blue cooland and it was almost full. So I put the cap on the radiator and put a the correct amount of coolant below the max line on the overflow tank. Then I drove to Kissimmme and then back to where I live near Sanford , which was like an hour and half drive and the car didnt overheat. I thought everything was running like it supposed too. Then I went to Orlando again two days later and I saw that the AC was not throwing cold air like it supposed too. I knew that the tempetures were going to be in the 90F ,but something was not right. As I drove back to where I live in Sanford , then first cold and hot air got inside the car. There was a lot of traffic in the highway and I took another route. During my time driving , the temperature has always been below the first line of the boat and not overheat. It was this day that the temperature started to go up and I park in a supermarket and turn off the car. I open the hood and the same thing from two days ago was happening. For a while I thought that the AC compressor overheated the engine because when I turn on the AC unit , it was not engaging because of the hot temperature. I was thinking that something went wrong with the cooling system. To make sure I didn't do any damage to car , I call a toll truck to bring the car back to the apartment. Then the next day on Saturday , I was checking to see what was going on and I opened the radiator. When I turn on the car with the radiator having the cap off , the it spilled out some coolant. I was pushing the gas to heat up faster and it was spilling coolant , so Im not sure it is supposed to be that way. Then I was waiting for the car to heat up till the thermostat and the radiator fan turn on , so I added coolant at that moment and closed it again with the radiator cap. Then on that Saturday I used the car without the AC system for around 40 minutes and it didnt overheat. Two days , my mechanic was going to come to check the car , but didnt came. So I checked again to see what was going on and I read that it could be a blown head gasket and also possibly damaged engine. I took this pictures this past Monday opening the radiator and checking the oil to see if it was like a chocolate color to see if water got mixed out. Then I called the mechanic and I told him thinking that the color I saw was indicative of a blown head gasket and that the coolant levels I was dealing with it were confirming of that problem. He was going to check with a friend of his and they call me a few hours later. Before the call , I drove the car for at least 30 minutes and it worked fine. Going to the call , the mechanic told me that the engine was damaged and that if I drove the car more , then it would be more costly. He said that since the blown head gasket happened , then it also need to change or repair the engine. I was confused as to why they mentioned the engine and told me that the whole cost of the repair and parts was going to be a $1200.00. For that price I can get another car , especially since my car need a paint job. I was feeling sad and depressed and frustrated because I have invested so much money in this car by putting the ac system , new clutch , etc. Then I called another mechanic and it only mentioned the head gasket problem , which would round up around $620.00 for parts and repair. I was feeling demorilized that I took the new radio that I installed and returned because I didnt have a car anymore. I didnt use my car for almost a week and I been wondering how Im gonna get more money to get a used car because of working a part time job. Through out this week , I decided to not talk to the first mechanic anymore and yesterday Saturday , I decided to check if the radiator fan was working. I opened the radiator and overflow tank and I saw the coolant color. Then I checked the oil and it was still the same from Monday. I was heating up the car since I have not use it and I was checking for other symptoms of a blown head gasket. The only symptom I saw was bubbles coming out of the radiator and when I turn on the car with radiator with no cap , it spilled out some coolant. Then I had the car one warming up for almost an hour and I saw no leak on the exhaust manifold, I saw some smoke coming out of radiator , and no white smoke from exhaust pipe. I began to wonder If have a blown headgasket or not and if my engine still works. Then I drove the car for only 10 minutes and it didnt overheat. Even the AC was working. So right now , I dont know if I need to fix the head gasket and also repair or replace the engine. If the engine is fine , then that would be a huge relief since it can only be the head gasket. Could this be the problem with some other parts like radiator cap and thermostat?? I also get the feeling that the bublles that came out of radiator can indicate that there is air in the system and that it needs be flushed so I can put in new coolant. I cant afford to get a another car and I want to know what Is really happening in my car. If anyone's have a any advice , I really appreciated it. Thanks

Pictures Monday May 16 and Saturday May 21

ezone

Blown head gasket.
Oil looks OK to me (pics are crummy though). If it looked like a chocolate milkshake that would be bad.

Quit running the engine.
Overheat occurs once the coolant level in the radiator drops enough to compromise cooling efficiency.

Overheating can cause warpage of the aluminum cylinder head, it needs to be inspected, measured and evaluated once it is removed. Nobody will know how bad it is until this is done.

How many miles on it? Does it consume oil already? Will it consume more in the future? How hot did it get? Did overheating compromise anything inside the engine? Does it knock? Answers to these and other questions are what lead to a decision about engine repair vs replacement.
Along with replacement of things like coolant hoses, belts, and various engine gaskets to ensure reliable operation.




BTW, the pictures looking into the oil fill cap show overuse of the gray sealant on the valve cover gasket replacement. LOL... Didn't need to use quite that much.

darthtony360

How many miles on it?
163,000 miles
Does it consume oil already? If you mean by burning oil , then it is not doing it yet.
Will it consume more in the future? I don’t now
How hot did it get? When I was driving In traffic it began to go up and I park the car. Then immediately I turned off the car and the temperature went up a little above the first line of the boat. It never went up to H because I turned off the car immediately.
Did overheating compromise anything inside the engine? Im not sure since the temperature never went up to H
Does it knock? No

darthtony360

My apologies for the long article. I was trying to be as detailed as possible. This is my first time writing a post on this forum. I checked today with my mechanic and he did a test , using a type of lube that started in blue coolant and turned yellow. I forgot the exact name of the tool , but it turned yellow and the head gasket is the problem. But , it leaking a little oil and oil is not mixed with water or white smoke is not coming out so it is not really bad yet.. He told me to get and put head gasket fix from bar's leaks in the system and also take off the thermostat and run it for at least a week. Then put the thermostat back on.

ezone

The fact that it's bad enough to fail this test means-- it's bad.

FYI, many of these failures will pass that test, and almost every other test people think of.
Including these:
These engines won't normally do these things when the head gasket blows...

That doesn't make the head gasket any less bad.
It's bad.
Your logic is like saying "only a little bit pregnant".
Fix it now before it becomes a disaster.

That's straight up HACK. If you do this it might never be fixable.

If you ever want it to be right, fix it right the first time.
If you only need it to last a short time and will junk the car afterward, feel free to try the liquid glass sealer.

darthtony360

Alright , I checked the reviews for both bar's leaks and blue devil and there were a lot of negatives. I'm not going to put any of those sealants because it make matters worse. The debate is if I get a mechanic to fix the head gasket , would I also need to change or repair the engine? The mechanic told me that it would cost a total of $1200 to fix head gasket and engine. Would it be worth it?

ezone

You need a mechanic that is capable, competent, honest and one whom you trust, to evaluate how bad it is.

Don't shop for price. You just might get what you pay for.
One idiot working on your car who doesn't know what the hell they are doing can cost you more than the car is worth trying to get someone else to correct what the first one screwed up.
(seen this happen many many times, it's so sad to see an owner in this position)


Some mechanics or shops automatically try to sell you an engine for any problem like this
(because profit, or because they might be scared to open an engine....IDK).

Some of us prefer to repair whenever possible.




My own evaluation would consist of
Check over the car for overall condition and major problems, make a shopping list to be discussed with the owner.
Address the complaint
Prove and verify the problem, make various estimates.
Get authorization to teardown and inspect.
remove the cylinder head from the engine block
Inspect head for warpage, inspect block deck.

If head is not warped, it gets new gaskets and reassembled.

If head is warped (it overheated significantly), it gets sent to the machine shop to be straightened and milled perfectly flat again, engine reassembled, and customer is notified it could use more oil in the future and to check and refill the oil on a regular basis.
(at your mileage I expect it would already be using some oil anyway)



If the owner drove it overheated until it quit running on its own, that's the point where I automatically say it should get an engine replacement. (or overhaul)

darthtony360

Alright , at this time I decided not to buy any head gasket fix or sealant product. I try to see if I can fix the head gasket myself. What would be the tools and products necessary to be able to do the job?? How long with it take?What would be a way to check if the engine is damaged or not? The key here is that the engine never overheated and it has small leak at this time.

darthtony360

Ok, I try to see if I can fix the head gasket myself. What would be the tools and products necessary to be able to do the job?? How long with it take?What would be a way to check if the engine is damaged or not?

darthtony360

Hey everyone , Im just posting an update in terms of my situation. Two days ago I checked the car again with the mechanic and we saw that the engine block also got damaged. There was oil in the black box behind the engine. Now I have the choice of spending $1200 to replace/repair the engine or sell the car as it is. For how much could I sell the car?

ezone

What is this black box you speak of?
Is this the only 'damage' your mechanic noticed?
Got pics of it?

darthtony360

I was talking about the air cleaner box filter. There is weird noise coming out behind the engine block and we saw the oil mixed with water. He used the block tester kit twice and got yellow at both times.

ezone

Is this the result of a blown head gasket, and not actual damage?

Weird noise?