mel1803

My daughter bought a 05 civic ex special ed. 2months later it overheated.I've been a auto tech for almost 40 years,it was a bad head gasket.I did the head gasket job with new head bolts, had the head milled they did a valve job too.The car ran great till just a week ago when she called me and said she had no heat,i told her to stop by my shop and the car is out of anti freeze again,no external leaks that i can see since then we've filled it every other day with anti freeze.It looks like another head gasket problem again.My question is has anyone seen block problems with these engines?

ezone

Moved to a new thread.





I personally have not seen cracked heads or blocks in my little corner of the planet, but that's not saying much. Severe overheats can cause strange, mysterious damage.

I've seen plenty of botched jobs over the years for various reasons.

Machined surfaces MUST be flat and extremely smooth.
MLS gaskets generally require a finish of less than 30rA.
I've had some pizz poor work from a local machine shop, sending back heads with a belt sander finish that were supposed to be glass smooth. Leaked as soon as they went together. Valve jobs all effed up from the same machine shop. Like they hired kids straight outta McDonalds. That might be the last automotive machine shop here so I may need to send my work out of town next time, that sucks for my customers.

Use of whizzwheels to grind gasket residue can ruin the flat surfaces, they eat the metal and cause low spots that can't be sealed by the gasket.
Razor blade is what I use on these.

Aftermarket head gasket? Pfft.
I've only used OE and they work for me.

Sucked the liquid out of the head bolt holes before reassembly? Gotta do it.

Overheating for some OTHER reason?

Is the reservoir getting overfilled, while the radiator goes low? Coolant doesn't get sucked out of the reservoir to refill the radiator?

Did the engine overheat? How bad? Is the radiator neck and cap damaged? Cap can't hold pressure/pass vacuum?


A leak this rapid should be pretty easy to find. Pressure test radiator overnight, pull plugs in the AM and spin it over.



Pressure leakage from the combustion chamber into the cooling system is easy to prove.
TDC a cylinder so valves are closed.
Install Funnel-fill to radiator neck.
Apply shop air direct to cylinder (150-170 PSI)
Repeat all 4 cyls.
Watch coolant rise in the funnel when you get to the bad ones..