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I'm looking for some insight on what to do next on my overheating civic. I will try to explain all of the things that have happened to the car, it will be a long post.

03 honda civic LX 1.7L

The car was apparently driven over something hard before i bought it, i had to put in a new AC condenser because there was a dent in the bottom where the splash shield is also busted, and it was leaking Freon. That right there makes me think there may be some kind of damage to the radiator.

The day after an oil change at wall-mart my civic just started overheating out of the blue as i was sitting at idle. I didn't get anywhere talking with them.

Symptoms:
Car overheats at idle or low speeds, does fine on highway.
Cold air blows while temp Gage is high, hot air blows as temp Gage goes back down.
Exhaust manifold has small crack on top sucking in cool air
AC compressor kicks on for a short while, then kicks off. If i hit it with a wrench it kicks back on, hinting that the magnetic coils are weakened.
Very little or no coolant leakage, coolant tried to boil out only once.
Burns oil, (I add a quart every few months) but oil is normal color
I ran water only in the coolant for the last year (facepalm, i'm learning)

I Have been running car like this for over a year, just making short trips on highway, never letting it overheat.

I was stuck in traffic a few times and pulled to shoulder and turned car off just as i was redlining. One of those times i immediately tried to start the car just to find out if i got it hot enough to shut off, and it wouldn't start for a bit. A recent dealership diagnostic said blown head gasket as air bubbles were coming out of radiator, wanted 1600 to fix it. I didn't even know what a head gasket was.

1 repair manual, 300$ worth of tools, random rides to work from strangers, and a week and a half later i finally got my cylinder head removed myself. Half my engine is sitting in my living room. My head gasket did not have a break anywhere, but it did have some 'clean' spots in the black rings, hinting that coolant might have leaked there. Tomorrow it's going to the shop to test for warping and cracks. I'm using a gasket kit and will be replacing all the gaskets.

Assuming the head is not cracked, and praying it's not the block that's cracked, i am trying to figure out the original reason for overheating.

While I've been working on the head i have:
Changed the radiator cap
Flushed the radiator (car was not running, did not have connector for hose)
Tried flushing heater core (couldn't get enough pressure to get water to come out the other hose, did not have hose connector)
Put in a new thermostat and thermostat O ring
Changed the O rings in the fuel injectors and cleaned the crud out
Cleaned most of the carbon off of the pistons, and the gasket material off of the mating surface
Had the exhaust manifold welded

After i put the head back on I plan to:
Refill and burp coolant system
Check both fan motors and relays / fuse (wire jumper and ohmmeter)
Check water pump (look for water flowing at running temp)
Pressure check radiator for leaks (rented a hand pump tool)
Oil change / coolant system flush (i really want to hit that heater core)
Put on the new AC compressor after i have the system discharged

If I find nothing wrong there then the next things are:
New radiator (could be build-up at bottom)
New water-pump (might be leaking?)
New hoses for whole coolant system (might be clogged?)
New temperature sensor

Is there ANY thing else i'm missing as far as diagnosing the overheating problem? Also, I'd really like to somehow be able to rule out the block being cracked

Thanks.

 
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Im in on pointers. How bad was it smoking out the tail pipe before all this happened?

 
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No smoke at all. No discolored oil.. the only noticeable symptoms were overheating at low speed / idle and heater blowing cold air when car was hot.

 
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Head came back, no cracks, slight warpage. Will have the car put back together tonight and start looking for the original cause of overheating.

 
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Badfish, we're all still waiting to hear about the original cause. Please share.

 
Rep Power: 517

Common problem, they just blow the head gasket. No overheat needed to do it.
The overheating is usually the result of the blown gasket and resultant loss of coolant, although it is well known that an overheat will cause a head gasket to fail too.

HTH

 
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did you ever check your spark plugs? sometimes if a head gasket is blown coolant will leak into the spark plug chamber and burn on the end of the plug. and if you went this far you probably should have replaced the water pump and timing belt while you were at it.

 
Rep Power: 185

Really? That is extremely disappointing and disturbing. 01-05's only or other model years?

It sounds like a design flaw. Is that your take on it?

Do you recommend an alternate replacement if it fails, a more reliable replacement from Honda's OEM?

My 02 civic EX has no symptoms of failure whatsoever at 84k, but I'd like to know as much as possible.

 
Rep Power: 517

Really? That is extremely disappointing and disturbing. 01-05's only or other model years?
It can be an issue with any engine.
It is common with this engine series.


It sounds like a design flaw. Is that your take on it?

Manufacturers don't consider most things to be design flaws if the car gets through the warranty period.
I think the engineers could have done something differently to make it more robust. TTY head bolts would be my idea.


Do you recommend an alternate replacement if it fails, a more reliable replacement from Honda's OEM?

I'm a dealer tech. I use OE parts most of the time.
I'm not familiar enough with what is available in the aftermarket to give an answer to that.


My 02 civic EX has no symptoms of failure whatsoever at 84k, but I'd like to know as much as possible.

I've seen them bad as early as 50k, and I've seen some go a quarter million miles with no apparent failure. Seems to be hit-and-miss, not really predictable. But I see enough to know the symptoms when one does go bad.


At least one dealer within an hour drive from me has been pushing engine replacement for head gasket problems, instead of just fixing the head gasket. IDK if they lost the person that was capable of doing the work or what.