97 civic smoking??

[cuetip]

well guys the time has come, my civic with 449k is acting weird...

when I got off of work after working a double, the car drove home just fine about a 20 minute drive, but then when I decided I wanted to go to norman, I went out started the car, which again started up just fine I drove it to town to get some air in my tire, got out of the car and bam the car just died...
I went to start it and im getting a lot of white smoke continuously coming out for the exhaust, it can barely keep an idle, and when I press the gas it jumps and the rpm needle goes crazy like im letting off the gas and pressing on it again, so im like damn what now? so I let the car cool down a little before I started it again, and when I started it the car was able to find an idle but the smoke was still coming out, so I decided to drive it maybe 6 miles to my grandparents house, but when I got almost to their house I looked down and my temp was very high almost on H, so I pulled over to let it cool down again. But I was able to get to my grandparents house without anything else happening, but I did notice that when I press the gas the temp needle goes up and down like the rpm gauge, and im hearing the sound of boiling water in my reserve, hmmmm

Anyone have any ideas of whats going on? my grandpa says I should flush the radiator and see what that does

 

[lethal6]

You overheated and probably cooked the head. At the very least you have a blown head gasket. Flushing the radiator isn't going to do anything at this point.

Word of advice...when the car starts smoking and overheating DO NOT keep driving it.

 

[RichardCrainium]

If your rad is now pressurized then you fried the head take the cap off start the car put your hand over the hole where the cap goes if it feels like its trying to blow your hand off then the head is warped if not it might be ok. Just to cover myself make sure the car is cold when you take the rad cap off plz don't burn yourself I would feel horrible.

 

[sikswic]

id change the head gasket (if it blew) and then flush the radiator

 

[cuetip]

Thats actually what I was thinking, since it was odd how fast it started to over heat, when it has never done it before

And actually lethal the car has never over heated tho, th s was the first time it has done this, and the temp started rising when I was a few blocks away from my grandparents

 

[lethal6]

A few blocks? It started smoking well before your parents house, therefor it had overheated before. Probably the reason it died in the first place. This was 6 miles from your grandparents...or so you claimed.

I could care less if it overheated before or not. The issue at hand is that it overheated this time and you cooked it. A few blocks or 6 miles, what ever the case, you still kept going. Bad move.

 

[RichardCrainium]

If you warped the head then you might save it by planning it down but you may need a new one if you really fried it. You never keep going with an aluminum block/head motor an old 350 might be ok a few blocks but not aluminum. I hope you didn't do a lot of damage but don't count on it sounds like you may have.