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Greetings, first time Civic owner here. Ended up with a '95 Civic with 159,000 miles. Here is the issue, sadly I didn't catch this when I was looking at the car.

Engine starts up good and runs fine. Run it down the road everything is perfect, plenty of power ect. However once it gets warm it will die when you go back down to idle. Then I notice oil is showing up in the overflow tank. It is also using oil. So here is the thing, it does not overheat and has no coolant in the oil.

So my guess would be the headgasket?? From what I read that is one of the most common issues with that. If it is the head gasket when I take the head off do I need to get it machined?? If I am cheap will it last any length of time if I don't get it machined?? Just going to be a commuter car nothing serious.

Basically
Runs good
Dies at idle after it is warm
Oil in Coolant
Uses a little oil
Does not overheat

What does the Masters of the Civics suggest is the issue??

Thank you
Timo

 
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Any words of wisdom before I decide to start removing parts?? Did a search through all the topics and didnt find many that had the same issues.

Any help would be awesome.

 
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Have you changed the oil recently ?

 
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Oil in the overflow is 99% a head gasket I can't think of anything else it could be unless someone can add to this.

 
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Oh sorry I Forgot to add yes you need to get the head checked out and cleaned up when you take it off. ... I guess I could have edited my other post but that would have been an extra button.

 
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Just bought the car so still figuring things out about it. For $800 I didn't expect much. Here is kind of a update.

No once it stops raining will get the oil changed and radiator flushed.

There is a major problem with the power steering. It goes through fluid like crazy, drove it a bit yesterday just to check it out. Is there a powersteering cooler in the radiator?? If so could that be leaking??

Ok if I do end up pulling the head will make sure and get it checked, thank you.

 
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I honestly am not sure how the power steering is cooled, though I'd like to know now. You have to trace the lines and find the leak. I don't think its burning off so there has to be a leak somewhere. Are you noticing any puddles underneath the car?

 
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I haven't seen any leaks or puddles............however with that said it is on a gravel driveway and it is raining so after it dries up a bit will toss some cardboard down under the car to see.

Bit confused about the routing of the lines but it seems to run into the radiator. In a bit will head out and take another look.

 
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Update:

Been going over the engine with a fine tooth comb. Found several leaks in the vacuum system. Water pump is leaking so replacing that first. Engine is running better than ever then I noticed the leaking water pump.

 
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Further update from car from hell. Flushed the radiator and replaced the water pump (who in the hell thought putting the cursed water pump there was a good idea needs to be tied to a post at a Hannah Montana concert), so far no oil has show back up.

Once it warmed up a bit and started to use the Air the engine promptly went back to dieing at stop signs. So increased the throttle a little bit and replaced distributor and rotor plus spark plugs then checked the engine codes. Well showed both the O2 sensor and the MAP sensor are both out. Hmmm thought a moment and decided to clear the ECM and see if those would show back up. My desire to replace sensors was quite low at the time. Well the engine codes went away...........for a while.


Started driving it and idle was good and no real issues for 2 days. Engine started to surge at idle but that didn't concern me to much then today she just flat out quit idling and rechecked the codes........Engine light stays on during the check. I am assuming that is code zero?? While I am driving there is no engine light at all at once the idle went to crap. Kind of at a loss as to what to do next.

Thought I would also toss in my temp sensor stopped working as well. Anyway to check to see if the ECM is really toast or is there a way of giving it a bit of first aid??