Rep Power: 0

Thanks for the add. I am a long time wrench but mostly hot rods especially Fords. Never owned a Honda. Picked up a ford truck and they threw this 1998 civic EX in for $200. 1.6 with a 5 speed. Looks clean and has a clean title. $800 in late DMV fees. 255,000 miles on the odometer. I don’t know what service it has had but will research it.

Owner said his wife was driving it and it seemed to get hot and then died. Wouldn’t start again so they towed it home and parked it. Been parked since 2015. Said he was told it had a blown head gasket. I don’t think anyone actually looked at it. I need a little gas miser and I figured I could get my $200 back in parts if the engine wasn’t worth the work. No key yet (owner is in the process of moving and the keys are in a box somewhere) so I took the ignition housing off the column and the switch off the back. I’ll get a new key made once I get the reg taken care of if they can’t find it.

No oil in coolant or coolant in oil. Put a battery in it and cranked it to see if it sounded like it had compression. Sucker tried to fire. Gas was on E so I added 5 gallons. Fired right up. Seemed to run fine. Let it idle for about 20 minutes in 108 degree heat. Temp gauge was dead but it didn’t appear to over heat. Thermometer in radiator went to about 200. Fan never kicked on. Bought new temp gauge sensor as well as fan switch relay sensor. Installed fan sensor and found the temp sensor was unplugged. Gauge and fans work fine now. Stays in the normal range.

Let it cool off a little and then did a wet compression test. 215 on all 4 cylinders. Did a pressure test on the coolant system. Held 1.1 as per the cap. No bubbles in the coolant when it runs. Can’t think of anything else to do at this point to confirm the head gasket is ok. Evacuated and charged the AC. Pump cycles but only cools at RPM of 2k or higher. Will deal with that later. I live in the country in norther CA so I’m gonna take it out on the back roads and watch the temp.

So it looks like maybe she ran it out of gas but thought it overheated. Maybe I scored a $200 car that is sound. After all is said and done, I will have about $1200 in it. Everyone I talk to who knows Hondas wants to buy it, especially those in the 30 year old range. Is this a good platform to build on? If so maybe trade or sell to someone who can get more out of it than me.

Any other tips to check for a blown head gasket? Any maintenance I should do if I keep it to use as a daily driver? I figure a timing belt, water pump, belts, maybe crank and cam seals to start. Sunroof headliner is deteriorated. Had to replace?

 
Rep Power: 222

Keep an eye on the temp, you may have gotten lucky.
These cars don't like aftermarket sensors, you may want to change that fan switch to an oem one.

 
Rep Power: 367

gasket testing method (video) in the first post here:
https://www.civicforums.com/forums/3...reference.html
another dead giveaway is losing coolant from the overflow reservoir.
Regular testing methods will not pinpoint the breach on these D-series engines