Rep Power: 0

I am losing a little more than a half quart of coolant every 225 miles. I have checked every hose I could get to. There is absolutely no steam coming from the exhaust and I have found puddles of coolant on or near the engine. I expect the head gasket is blown and coolant is being lost from the overflow bottle. Its cap is gone and I think it was blown off.

What are the dangers of letting this go as long as I keep the coolant topped off? I know it can only get worse.

I had a 87 Prelude Si that all of a sudden had lots lots of steam from the exhaust and I used a bottle of stopleak which took care of the problem and I got probably 75k more miles out of it before i gave it away running with over 300k miles on it.

How much success have you others had with one of the stopleak products?

Has there been a poll/study about where the head gaskets start leaking?



I

 
Rep Power: 314

From what I know, and it's not much. That stop leak stuff tends to plug up more stuff than just the leak. It does horrible things to the engine. You may have gotten lucky with the prelude.

Going for a long time with a blown head gasket can destroy the engine as well. It can cause havoc to important parts, and yes it will only get worse. Your car is not that old, it might be worthwhile to bite the bullet and fix the gasket. This is another reason that I don't recommend using the stop leak, the engine is not that old and you should take care of it as best as you can.

 
Rep Power: 813

yeah goodbye engine AND cooling system. try to get it fixed asap. be sure to have the head checked for warpage, this seems to be a problem with 01-05 heads not being machined properly at the factory. you will see why when you take it off.

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks for the input.
I think I get to learn how to change a civic's head gasket and I will of course have the head redecked.

The car has 250K miles on it (thanks to a 110 mile commute) and the valve train is a little noisy anyway.

It will give me a good excuse to replace the timing belt/water pump and adjust the valves.

Thanks again.

 
Rep Power: 813

no problem. get yourself a good service manual, the honda green one is the best for this type of work. they are on handaaccessories.com and ebay for around $50-80.

 
Rep Power: 0

DO NOT drive around with a blown head gasket even if it's small. One of the issues that you face is the fact that you have coolant sitting in you cylinders. also could warp the head and ruin your cooling system. I just helped my friend change out his head gasket on his 4runner and he ran stoptech in his truck. The sad thing is that the reason why he blew his head gasked is due to the stopleak. he added it in and it clogged all of his fluid and oil ports going through the block and the head.

 
Rep Power: 314

yeap... sounds like a whole bunch of work there... but after your all done think of how great the car will run

 
Rep Power: 0

I just figured out that stopleak wouldn't work at all any way.

If the water was going into the cylinder (steam from exhaust pipe) then it might work but with exhaust (or cylinder pressure) being pushed into the water passages, that means the stopleak would never be moved into the gap.

Oh well, I am bighting the bullet and have ordered all parts I will need to fix it up. I'll be doing timing belt / water pump while I'm at it. It will give me an opportunity to do a valve adjustment which should bring back some performance and quiet things up even though the valve train was still relatively quiet.

 
Rep Power: 0

Let me know how the valve job goes I was thinking about doing this with the civic and the supra.

 
Rep Power: 0

With the gasket, I decided to go ahead and replace the head with a rebuilt head since I was this deep into the motor.

After removing the old head, I could wiggle the open valves. The "slop" showed that the head was worn out (250k miles).

After replacing everything, I drove the car and it seems to run fine but I am hearing a click from the cylinder head. I think missed a valve when I did my valve adjustments. I get to try another adjustment tomorrow.

 
Rep Power: 314

These engines have a natural tick to them... I find especially int he lower RPMS... try another adjustment if it does not work don't worry about it. Glad you got it fixed.

 
Rep Power: 0

I found that the intakes on cyl 3 had a lot play. I completely redid the valve adjustments and it is as quiet as it was when new.
I don't think I can feel a power difference with the new head. While I would think I am back up to close to what it was when the car was new.

It took me a total of 32 hours to replace gasket/head, timing belt/water pump/idler.

I would think it would be quicker a second time around and can say I hope I never have to see.

 
Rep Power: 314

Glad it's all fixed up enjoy.