OuTLaW503

im at the point of giving up but before i do i wanted to post this to see if i could get any help. been google-ing for 2 days and cant find anything to solve this crap. so heres how it started. i have a 2000 civic ex manual and i am kinda mechanically inclined esp. with the external engine parts havent gotten into the internal engine yet, and i do do alot of researchin while doing a repair.

So it starts water pump was leaking because o ring was no good and because temp gauge would start to heat up and i noticed my radiator was empty and a puddle on the floor. so i jacked my car to see and couldnt really tell so i reilled my radiator to see where it was leaking from since i had car jacked up. as i was filling water would splash from by the timing cover so i knew it was water pump.
so i followed the procedures in service manual and read some diys on how to replace water pump. here was how i think started: when i took off the crank pulley following a diy and on the diy it talked bout the key that would fall out and not to lose it and had a picture of the crank pulley. well i didnt see anything fall and i only saw the crank pulley on the picture. so i thought the rectangular key was the slot on the pulley that slides on crankshaft. stupid me i installed crank pulley without key (everything was tdc) and put everything back together refilled fresh new oil and filter and coolant. anxious to have my car running i started my car and it made all kinds of loud weird whistling noises. i saw coolant shooting out of the radiator also so i turned off the car. checked it reilled radiator then started again. same thing only coolant wasnt coming out of radiator cap. then check engine light turns on and i get all cylinder, misfire random misfire. so i was like wtf! opened my gagrage and decided to smoke a cigarette and ponder. thats when i noticed that by my exhaust there was a lil puddl of liquid. so i checked my rad it was empty. water pump is not leaking anymore. i pulled my dipstick to check oil and thats when i noticed its dirty and had a feeling coolant got into my oil. so i drained radiator and drained oil and oil was sure mixed up with coolant. so i decided to rest and google forums and tech. went to the same diy water pump that i had read and came across the crank pulley picture again. i enlarged the picture and there that **** was. the genuis put the key on the pulley and the size of image was so small i didnt see it. thats when i knew i ****ed up. i took everythig back apart made sure key was holding the pulley in tdc and wanted to know a few things before i put everything back.
so my questions are:
1. could this have screw up my head gasket? would i need to change that too?
2. with the key in place in the crankpulley, would i be able to start up and be fine now or would coolant still get in my oil?
3. i am thinking of doing an engine flush to get all that brown sludge out, should i also do a coolant flush?
ive googled for hrs and dont seem to know what to do next or the outcome. i have only till tomorrow and need it running to take wife to work and baby to her appts, etc etc...

rekomstop209

If you have coolant in your oil, that is almost a definite sign of a head gasket leak.

OuTLaW503

**** i was thinking that too. but could there be any other way for coolant to get in? could it been caused when i forgot to put the crank key in the pulley and had started my car? cos im sure that if i had not forgot bout it everything wouldve been fine.

OuTLaW503

is there any other ways or reasons to fix/diagnose this issue? or should i just replace head gasket anyways? i have already put timing belt back on and everything and going to be putting on access belts.

axis11

Without the key, crank pulley might have slipped. There is a big possibility that you damaged the head as well(piston slamming on the valves) and not only the head gasket. You would have to remove the head to see the extent of damage.