Rep Power: 0

I have another thread about the new HEAD GASKET job I had been doing for over a month now and I'm finished today after all the troubles I had.

Now after pouring the whole 50/50 gallon into it, the coolant won't circulate and the upper hose gets extremely hot but not coolant flow ? since I drained the Block coolant when I did the head, do I need to fill it back in order for the water pump to suck in the coolant? i also changed the thermostat oem from dealer or could it be that the thermostat is not opening yet and the block is dry ? should I fill the engine block by disconnecting the hose that goes into the block? The car temp gauges didn't overheat but the engine itself did and then after a while it started acting weird like wanting to shutdown from overheating but just that the gauges inside the cabin is not reading it as overheated yet?

Coolant is not circulating as I have the radiator cap off, I tried squeezing the upper hose a lot and pour in some more distilled water but not use.

My thoughts are if the engine block is empty, how does the water pump sucks in the water if there's none there ? or I am wrong

 
Rep Power: 224

Did you do the proper burping?

Raise the front end up as high and safely as you can. Remove the rad cap (make sure the engine is cool). Start the engine, turn the heat on full. Add coolant when necessary. Let it run until it's fully warmed up. After ~20 minutes you can turn off the heat (as long as it's warm) and turn on the A/C to help warm up the engine.

If the block were completely dry it would still partially fill when you starting putting coolant in. You do the burping to get all the air out of the system.

 
Rep Power: 0

​​​​​​Front wheels are slightly raised off the ground as i had been trying to fill the power steering system after the new used rack and pinion and pump install. I will raise it as high as i can this time.

I did the turn heat on full but felt the engine was overheating and the upper hose was extremely hot with no water circulating. Then I turn engine off waited and proceed to keep turning it on a few times but not luck.

Car is 200k miles now and I did timing belt at around 125k miles together with the water pump Aisin brand. What chances are that the water pump went bad? I don't hear any unusual noise or anything ?

If the thermostat don't open, the water can't get into the block?

Last night when I last left it on, the engine started acting weird like waiting to shut off and I immediately turn it off because it felt like getting too hot, i remember this may had happened years ago when one time my radiator blew up and lost the coolant

 
Rep Power: 224

The top radiator hose gets hot as soon as the coolant does. The lower radiator hose only gets warm when the thermostat opens. If the thermostat isn't opening coolant is still going through the block but it isn't going through the radiator to cool down.

What are you seeing that makes you think it's overheating? If temp gauge is reading okay maybe it's just not warm enough to fully open the thermostat yet? Trying to let it warm up to temp at idle takes quite a while.

 
Rep Power: 0

​​​​​​​thank you very much. Feel relieved knowing at least still hoping it will work normal again. I will try recording if it start acting strange again.

 
Rep Power: 0

Not too good news, feeling i don't have to tell.
All went as you said, idle relearn and the water started circulating with the cap always open and the heat at max for over 10 minutes. Then later switched to ac on and turned off the car and back on at normal idle now. As it got hotter started spitting water like a 🌋 volcano.

I'm afraid this is worse than it ever was prior doing the head gasket, either the machine shop did a bad job or the block itself was bend and I was told at the machine shop that i didn't need to resurface the block but I did clean everything very well and the gasket installed in the proper way with the 2 pins up front and all the bolts adjusted by steps as torque specifications up to 49ftpounds.

The engine sounds so good and I did change so many things in it and readjusted the valves very precisely. So what hurts me is that i am doing mechanic for over a month in a place that i am not allowed and too many people passing by and I don't have where to take it to concentrate and do everything over again at peace.
I am going to post the YouTube video I just uploaded.
Please lete know https://youtu.be/QT-6NFI_lPI

 
Rep Power: 367

change the thermostat with an OEM one (several reported issues with aftermarket ones)

 
Rep Power: 367

if you want to test, put current and new inside a pot, heat it (with a proper thermometer in) and check when they open and which temperature

 
Rep Power: 0

did you see the YouTube link video of my car? The radiator spitting coolant up like a volcano?
Yes, thermostat is brand new oem from Honda stealership.
You think this could be the thermostat? If so perhaps that sensor beside it have anything to do with it?

I will have no choice but running it without thermostat then?

 
Rep Power: 367

no, did not see video.Did you use coolant or water?

 
Rep Power: 0

I used Aisin blue coolant the whole gallon and then I had a half of a gallon of distilled water and added it all by little at the time
https://youtu.be/QiOVjJZSfbQ

 
Rep Power: 367

looks like when the thermostat opened a flush of hot coolant got in the radiator and it erupted. potentially the distilled water could have impacted. Water have lower boiling point than coolant

refill lost volume, close radiator, check reservoir when engine is cool. test car. carefully. checking temp needle.

Drive a short distance.
When you stop, check the coolant reservoir when car cools. If reservoir is full, gasket might still be leaking.
test for a few days

 
Rep Power: 367

car troubleshooting is never easy and takes time, lots of thinking and understanding what is going on.
Push comes to shove, remove thermostat, if you still have the old one, do the hot pot test on both.

 
Rep Power: 0

was at the initial idle relearning process but losing coolant every time it revs up

 
Rep Power: 367

that's the water pump circulating the coolant through the system... nothing to do with overheating...
you should really leave the work to shops...

 
Rep Power: 0

I'm very glad for all the help from you people here, it's been the only guide i had and this has been my only car i ever had since 2005 and mostly have done all this myself following only this and mostly this forum and some randomly YouTube videos because I'm not an experienced in mechanic and much less how deep it went this time but after all i think it is easy and fun after you know how an engine functions. The only part i have yet to touch is the pistons which seems like fun to get to know.

I got really frustrated with this not knowing what it will come out of it. I had been a whole month working on this and waiting days in between and many things going on.

You're right, The video on top is normal the water circulating but as it was revingup and losing coolant, then it appears to do splashing when the water came in and it was missing coolant in the other 2 videos i posted not that one? I went to store in it today and all felt good, i added new coolant as it was missing some and will check tomorrow morning for the reservoir if full or not. Hoping for the best, i already was planning getting other same model but manual transmission and interchange the good parts and junk the rest but I hope this works still.

 
Rep Power: 0

Everything working perfectly, the reservoir in the morning was low almost empty and I fill it a little. The radiator cap didn't had any pressure when I opened it compare to before the repair. So far so good.

The Beck and Arley pcv valve i added is louder than the whole engine. Read comments about people complaining too. They say to go OEM.

And I went today for alignment.

 
Rep Power: 367

good. keep checking for at least a week
some would say half to a month

 
Rep Power: 0

All good regard to the head repair and coolant part so far good after 2500 miles or so.

THe issues it is having is prior repair there was extreme muffler noise and shacking at idle, which use to bent the 2 muffler holding bolts. I replaced them and now it is doing it again at idle after a/c goes off and on the rpm seems a tad little affected and besides the 2 cheap engine mounts front and passenger side i added prior all this.
I ordered 4 denso ignition coils to see if that solves it and besides the car is consuming more fuel than it used to.
I use to average 320miles in the city and after repair i get 250 to 280miles max, i also been having fuel smell when turned on next morning days
when the car was new i used to get 420 miles a tank or so. This replaced Japan auto transmission runs at higher rpm but i am driving slow and still fuel consumption is way out of what it used to. I was getting over 300 miles a tank prior repairs and will see because the actual coils are still the same old original ones after 200k miles