DeepVI

Hey boys and girls,

Hoping some of you can shed some light on if I'm hosed or not while I want until Monday for the shop to open.

Background. Was cruising at 75-85mph from Tucson to Phoenix for about an hour when the cruise cut out and I lost power. No loud bangs, just lost power. Checked my gauges and the engine temp was pegged, also had and oil and engine warning light on. I immediately pulled over and popped the hood. All the coolant was gone and this is what I saw. https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

Got a tow truck to haul me home. I pulled the plugs, no oil fouling. Pulled the air filter and this greeted me.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

Obviously I had some radiator issue that caused the engine to over heat. I'm just wondering if you can shed some light on what happened and if my engine is hosed.

Thanks, Duncan

MelJ

You'll have to rehost the pics. They aren't showing up. Open them up as an image so you get the .jpg extension.
Could be an HG or radiator issue.

DeepVI

I reposted links, should just be able to click on them. I know I have some sort of cooling system issue. My big concern is all the oil in the intake.

MelJ

Yeah. I've never seen anything like that before. The oil around the plug area is odd too. No fouling? Hmmm... I honestly wouldn't even know where to begin. I would have them test the coolant to see if the head gasket was the culprit. No prior overheating issues I'm assuming.

DeepVI

Forgot about that. I did have one incident about a month ago.

Getting off the interstate coming back from Phoenix to Tucson I noticed a coolant smell. Engine temp was pegged. Limped it another 1/4 mi to a Circle K. Waited an hour of so for it to cool down added water and coolant and it's been fine ever since. Engine temp sits right in the middle. Then again it's only a 20min drive to work, so it hasn't seen a highway load on the engine or cooling system since then.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

if you overheated and the engine and oil pressure lights were on, yeah there is a good chance that engine is toast. you can have the code checked just for fun to see what it says. fix that, add coolant back in, and see if the car starts again. might get lucky. but you have quite a bit of oil to clean out of everything. looks like something exploded in there. and the milky look of it is pointing to a bad headgasket and that would be the least of your problems.

lazlong

I've seen that before. It's a blown headgasket.

At the least, you need a new headgasket. While in there the true-ness of the block and head need to be checked. If they're out of spec you'll need a new engine. Cross your fingers, the heads on these engines warp pretty easy.

DeepVI

Was kind of thinking that direction. Fingers crossed for sure, I pulled over and killed the engine as soon as I realized I'd lost coolant again, hopefully that will have saved it.

Anyone else concur with the HG diagnostic?

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

severe case of HG, i would bet...

04 Honda Civic

iTrader: (2)

I would think this.

However if you ran it for a long time the head is probably warped and a headgasket wouldnt do it for you.

You, or your mechanic will have to pull the head and check for cracks. Send it to get pressure checked and possibly milled.

I would worry that too much got into your oil and maybe sent the oil light on. That could mean really bad news.

Drain the oil and look for metal shavings, and also pull the oil filter. If there is alot of metal shavings I would say dont even go any further and you will need to consider a new motor.

DeepVI

The verdict is in, engine's shot. HG was the least of my problems. Cracked the head, warped the block and smoked the pistons. Going to swap the motor, it's still cheaper than another car. Thanks for the feedback guys.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah i kinda figured that but didnt want to disappoint you too much. good news is mildly used engines are usually around $400-600 on ebay. maybe $1k for install labor if a shop does it.

pwnsauce

outta curiosity op, how many miles did that engine have on it?

DeepVI

137k

lazlong

Most of these people are established businesses. Nationwide salvage listings: http://www.car-part.com/

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

good god. potentially a high or very fast overheating case.
somehow the gauge did not catch it when happening, or there was no coolant left to trigger the sensor...

Nosepicker

137K miles and that happened? Wow!

I know you guys are saying the 7th gen engines/HG easily blow up but could how you drive the car potentially be the main factor (i.e. heavy/lead foot)?

I have a 6th Gen and I would think the 7th Gen's engine an associated parts would be that much better.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

only thing i can think of is driving the car in very cold climates and turning the heat dial to hot after the car warmed up, pouring ice cold coolant straight into the block. hard driving once the engine is warm should not be a problem. ive seen too many of these problems being posted lately to be caused by bad driving. its either a problem with the mating surfaces of the engine not being smooth enough (so says the machine shop who checked mine out), or a combination of beating the car when cold and driving in cold climates.

DeepVI

I was cruising at 80-85 on interstate for about an hour before it let loose. The radiator was empty. Obviously I has a coolant leak that led to this catastrophic failure. Before this no major problems. Just changed the timing belt, water pump and tensioner about 10K ago.