Rep Power: 0

I was in a front end collision with my 2000 Civic EX and the radiator was damaged. I replaced the radiator and it ran fine stayed cool and heater worked for a day then overheated on the highway due to the lower rad hose popping off. Put the hose on better and refilled coolant. Two days later overheated again and lost coolant. I took out thermostat to see if it was bad causing problems but the car was really hard to start I lost my water again and it over heated. I put my phone under my car and tried to turn it over and saw all my water pour out of my flex pipe and out my exhaust. Im assuming thats a bad head gasket. My question is will I be able to get away with a headgasket kit with head bolts or will my head or block need to be machined?

 
Rep Power: 222

The head usually needs to be decked

 
Rep Power: 0

theres some resurface videos on youtube if you want to go cheap and sand that baby down , of course you gotta spend time with it tho.

 
Rep Power: 0

To confirm a bad head gasket you can perform the air pressure applied to each cylinder test.

 
Rep Power: 211

Did you properly bleed air from the coolant system each time you added coolant?
Bleed procedure:
Raise front of car on jacks ensuring the radiator cap is higher than engine valve cover
Set the climate control heat on max with fan "off"
Remove radiator cap, let engine idle, add coolant to radiator and reservoir as needed, let engine idle until radiator fan engages (roughly 20-30 minutes)
Remove from jackstands, allow the engine to cool completely, check radiator and reservoir levels before starting engine.

One common area for 6th gens to leaking coolant is at the heater hose below the distributor. Since the distributor's o-ring oil seal is a common area of an oil leak, hot oil leaks down and on top of that heater hose where it feeds into the cylinder head. Eventually, the hose bubbles and splits from hot oil causing premature decay.