Rep Power: 0

Hello all. 98 civic ex 200k miles. Due to hose failures car has overheated twice over last 3 years though I caught them both early. Waiting in a drive through I noticed temp warming up and exhaust smell from underhood. Once home found reservoir with black coolant and sooty residue but no coolant in the oil. Did poor man head gasket replacement by disconnecting all hoses and wires from head. Lift head off block. Gave it the eyeball with straight edge, looked good replaced gasket and put it all back together with correct torques. Started right up and runs great. Coolant now disapearing and have to replace about 4 oz every two days. Did block test with blue liquid. With motor on I could not get much air to flow through blue liquid tool. I took the coolant reservoir tube out and was then able to get air to flow through blue fluid tool. Liquid stayed blue. tested liquid back at muffler exhaust and liquid turned yellow. I've read maybe it's the radiator cap but the cap I have is only 2 years old and wouldn't I see leaked coolant on radiator top or get the familiar sweet coolant smell when stopped or driving? No cooland drips. Any help or ideas are welcome. Thank you.

 
Rep Power: 211

First, replace the radiator cap with a Honda Genuine (OEM) cap . Don't use a Stant brand or other cap. Also, remove the coolant reservoir and clean it out thoroughly with a stiff bristle brush.
Make sure you can blow air through the radiator to reservoir hose, and replace it if need be.

To do a proper block test you need to drop the coolant level down below the top of the radiator core a bit. Also, put a rag around the block tester and radiator neck, rev the engine slightly to get the coolant flow moving better during testing. Test at operating temp. Obviously, be careful when testing.

A block test will not find every type of head gasket breach. 150 psi compressed air into each cylinder (one at a time) at top dead center with the radiator cap off and looking for bubbles is the best test.

Did you use feeler gauges along with a straight edge to inspect for flatness?

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks for the input. I will try the oem cap. I'd like to try like you said to pressurize each cylinder but I'm short a compressor. I'm going to borrow a bore scope and look inside the each cyl see if I can see anything. I didn't use a feeler gauge as the head was still partially attached I just I balled it since it was to tight to get the gauge up there with the straight edge. I might just have to take the head in to get checked by a shop. Don't know if I'd have to take all the springs and valves out though. I might be in over my head there. But a whole head job at a shop is way over my wallet at the time. Again, thanks for the input.

 
Rep Power: 211

Can your eyeballs see less than .004 inches of flatness?.. lol. To properly measure flatness it requires a precision straight edge and a set of feeler gauges. Also, need to check the head and top of the engine block in several locations including diagonally.

Bring it to a machinist to have it measured, valves leak tested (with water), and springs tested.

Not to be a dick, but your engine doesn't care if your wallet isn't full. All it cares about is that it is brought back to specs.
Also, Honda's are pretty particular about replacing with genuine parts in most cases. Definitely use a genuine OEM headgasket.