mjreissig

hey guys, just stumbled across this forum.
I am a proud owner of a 95 Civic LX, inherrited from my grandmother 2 years ago. untill now i have had to do NO repair work to it AT ALL. recently though it overheated at a red light. cooled back down so i figured that the cooling fan wasn't kicking on. got that problem fixed by jumping the wire, tried to replace the sensor 3 times but still wouldn't kick on (last one was with a genuine honda part.)

More recently i replaced the radiator since I learned that it was clogged on the inside. I didn't get a cheap autozone one, but a nicer one through a vendor of a friend. 2 weeks go by and NO problems.

this weekend, it starts overheating when i am going uphill, AC on, 95 degrees outside. I coast the car with the engine off to help cool it down, pull over in a parking lot, and let it chill for a while. The reservoir had overfilled with hot coolant, and the radiator was low. I filled it back up (once it had cooled down and I turned on the engine to keep it circulating while I filled it back up. even bleed it in the parking lot.)

every time I opened up the cooling system I made sure that i got all the air bubbles out (yes using the bleeder valve and heater on full blast on the defrost setting.)

Now under light opperating conditions (non-interstate driving, AC off ) my car opperates very smoothly, and the reservoir doesn't overfill.

A friend of mine believes that it is a bad head gasket, compression gasses escaping and going into the cooling system.

I used a NEW failsafe 180 thermostat, placed in properly.
NO cooling hoses are bent, kinked or whatever. in good shape (grandma was a delaership baby.)
NEW radiator
Timing belt is still in good shape, will replace that and water pump if head comes off though.
Fan is bridged so I know that it is working. (bridged at the sensor plug in so I know that something is funky with the sensor not kicking on.)
any ideas?

95 civic LX 1.5L NON-Vtec 5spd.

mjreissig

well I finally got the darn engine to re-create the overheating condition and i took a block tester to it and found that i do indeed have a leak in my head gasket. Since i don't have the muddy oil, white on the end of the plugs, or oil in the coolant, I am pretty sure that it is the gasket itself that is bad, allowing compression gasses to go into the coolant and blowing out the reservoir.

Thing is, that if i take it easy on my car starting with a cool engine i have no leak whatsoever, even in this hideous GA summer heat. block tester and compression tester have proven this many times. a VERY intermittent leak!

I have tons of experience tuning these cars (and others) and have seen the insides of these engines a few times, but as far as that my knowledge about physical repair to this car is squat. RARELY ever needs it!!!

My new question is how often do these heads become warped after running hot for a short time (less than 5 minutes?)

with only 95K miles, should I really replace the head bolts (which is what i always recomend to other people i encounter?) Or am i only being paranoid. The last time these head bolts saw the air was during the manufacturing process.