marrzie

I have a 2005 Civic 1.6. A few months ago I noticed the heat wasnt working. I pulled into mcdonalds it was working but it started blowing cold while in the drive through. After I got back on the highway it started blowing warm again. I thought it was the thermostat but then I noticed the coolant was low. I filled it up and it was warm again. 3 days ago I felt the cold air blowing again but 2 minutes later I noticed the heat gauge in the red and I immediately pulled over and shut off the engine.
The next day I noticed white smoke from exhaust and bubbles in overflow tank. I changed the thermostat but the lower hose that goes to the thermostat was and stays cold. I then added rislone head gasket sealer(I know I know) and as I was heating the engine up with the radiator cap "off due to exhaust pressure from filler cap" I removed the thermostat housing bolts and it was still dry and it remained that way the whole time I heated the engine. I then felt the heater core hoses and they were cold. I then removed both of them and no fluid escaped. I then ran water into the heater core alternating top to bottom and it ran through the core fine both ways and the hot cold **** in the car moved the heater control valve on the heater core hose.
So the only hot hose is the radiator hose not running to the thermostat.
There are no leaks anywhere under the car and no funny noise from water pump area. After adding head sealer chemicals the white smoke from exhaust disappeared and my engine went from extremely rough running to very smooth/normal running. It seems like some exhaust might still be coming from the radiator. I hope if I can get the water pumping properly through the system the head sealer will help keep me on the road for the short term.
So now there is only cold air blowing in the car. The radiator looks clean inside and it fills fine and drains from the petcock fine. Just for some reason water will not flow into the thermostat housing and will not flow into the hoses that connect to the heater core. I let the car get close to the red with both thermostat housing hanging free and heater core hoses hanging free and not a drop came out. However when it got really hot you could see some exhaust gases start to come out of the engine via the thermostat housing but not a drop of liquid. Any ideas?

marrzie

Also my passenger side radiator fan does ot work. I started the car and turned on the a/c. The drivers fan started. I heated the car and passenger fan never started. I unplugged drivers fan and plugged the connection into the passenger fan with the a/c on and then the passenger fan worked.

mikey1

sounds like a blown head gasket to me,

how is the coolant level in the overflow bottle?

does it get extremely high? overflow?

marrzie

It is about the same since all this started. It is overfilled a little bit.
I am curious as to why no matter the engine temp is there no coolant flow to either the heater core or through the thermostat housing. After I added the sealer it was a big difference in exhaust from the tailpipe. Before adding sealer it was a lot of white smoke and coolant smell. After adding the exhaust seems very close to normal. But I cant get the sealer to circulate throughout the system.

mikey1

those sealers are horrible,

they can gum up your entire system to the point where coolant will not flow, or barely flow,

those sealers are like trying to put a band aid over a 12 inch gaping open wound, it aint gonna work

my $5 bet is still on the head gasket, and you might need a new rad now after putting that crap into it,

you will probably also need a new cylinder head if you let it over heat and get into the red zone

marrzie

Ya I am pretty positive the head gasket and possibly head are the main issues. Would that account for zero coolant flow through the hoses mentioned in the above post or would you guess another issue as well?

It got to the red zone for less than 15 seconds before I shut it off. I am really hoping for the best but.....

mikey1

those sealers can gum up the system pretty bad,

was coolant flowing okay before you used it?

marrzie

As soon as the car first overheated and I pulled off the road I noticed the thermostat hose was cold. I didn't notice the heater core hoses being cold with no coolant flow until about 30 minutes after I added the sealer to the radiator.

I guess I just need to pull off the water pump and make sure the impeller did not magically fall off. Haha because almost everyone says that rarely happens.

marrzie

I just drove the car with the radiator cap on for 10km.(previous 2 days I have left the cap off while testing and trying to get coolant flow)
After my drive the heat gauge was just below the red. I opened the hood and the thermostat hose was still cold and no heat but the was a lot of boiling/bubbling in the overflow and it was at a higher level than before. So ya I think you are for sure right on the head gasket.
I am going to take it apart next tuesday. I post later after that my results. Thanks.

Colin42

make sure you buy an oem head gasket, a lot of people have had issues with aftermarket ones.

marrzie

Tore it all apart. It was the head gasket. You could see the sealer had fixed the leak between 3-4 but it was still leaking between 1-2. Sent the head off and he had to shave a bit to make it perfectly flat again. Also he went ahead and cleaned everything and did the valve adjustment etc. Thanks for the tips bros.