Civic with possible Headgasket issue

[mexico]

Hello all. Working on a 99 civic for a friend. Car is losing coolant out of the overflow and then getting hot. Car has a new radiator and all associated hoses. Changed the oil and saw no signs of coolant. Rented a block tester and the fluid showed presence of hydrocarbons in the radiator. Did not see any smoke out of the tailpipe. I then performed a compression test. Dry: I saw 150psi out of cylinder 4 and 120 out of 1-3. Then poured 2 caps of oil into cylinders. Saw crazy amounts of compression around 200+. Discontinued the rest after two cylinders. Afterwards I saw tons of smoke out of the tailpipe.

My theory: the Headgasket was letting go and the extra compression from the oil blew it out completely. Did I perform the test incorrectly? I'm planning on tearing down soon. Any advice or opinions?

 

[xxBLOOD88SHOTxx]

The smoke you saw was the oil you poured into it burning. The oil test is more about checking the piston rings, and it looks like this engine isn't all that healthy. Was the engine warm when you did the compression test?

 

[dancam]

Meh, my daily driver had compression all cylinders 100-110 psi and all 220-240 about 5 years and almost 200,000km ago. Still runs great. Are the fans working? I theorize that the temp guage is not working that great and the car is overheating, boiling over and loosing coolant then continuing to overheat because of less coolant and whatever caused it to overheat first. Try a pressure test of the cooling system. Or replace rad cap, thermostat and ensure fans are operating and correct temperature.


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[vincentwallen]

When the engine is cold and with the radiator cap off, does the coolant blow out of the radiator? I doubt it will but if it does it may have a blown head gasket where a water jacket is. There will be no mixing of fluids, and no smoke. It pressurized the cooling system, blows the coolant out then over heats from lack of coolant. If it don't do that i would check the water pump. ...... it's a b***h but i had a car that would over heat from lack of flow then boil the water out. I thought it was a head gasket at first but when i pulled the pump i had no impeller's left. ....

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[mexico]

Thanks for the replies gents. So far the only clues to HG failure has been the block test fluid and loss of compression. Car is not an oil burner. Speaking of burning oil, the smoke stopped. Must have been the oil used for the test. I will attempt to rebleed the cooling system. Is there a bleeder valve that must be used?e
If the HG is blown the owner has decided to use a liquid product (blue devil I think), despite my objections. Anyone have any convincing evidence to help me dissuade him from putting that junk in his engine? This is an otherwise clean car with 150k on the clock. Be a shame to gunk up his brand new radiator and hoses and not even fix the issue.

 

[dancam]

That will clog his heater core, rad, overflow bottle and coat the walls of his block further aggravating any other overheating problem. At the very least actually confirm its a head gasket before doing that.


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[daperez13]

In all reality, changing the head gasket is not that expensive or time consuming. Sure, for someone who has no experience or is mechanically inclined, this would be a daunting task. If the water pump has never been replaced, maybe it's a good time to do that as well (use an OEM Honda part). I'm not saying wing it and replace the head gasket just for the keck of it either. This is when you have exhausted most of your options and there's not much more to look at. For 150k with that kind of compression, it does appear that the engine may have further health issues.

 

[mc360]

Hydrocarbons in the coolant is plenty evidence of a blown head gasket, you don't always mix oil/water with a blown gasket. It's simple enough to change the gasket and should take less than a day depending if the head needs resurfaced. I blew my head gasket on my turbo civic and it only started overheating at stop signs and lights but was fine driving, coolant bubbling in overflow and never getting sucked back into the motor