Might have blown a head gasket

[fordman84]

Drove the wifes honda the other day and noticed the heater wasn't working, then when I got the speed up it did. No biggie. Took it again today and same thing, so now it isn't just my mind. I'm thinking air in the system even though I haven't opened the coolant system in probably a year. Get home from work and pop the hood...coolant overflowing from the overflow and leaking all over the front of the engine. Damn. Pull the dipstick and oil cap...no milkshake, so far so good. After an hour I pull the radiator cap. As I break the seal, a LOT of air goes sucking into the system so it is low low low, but the overfill is running over. I put a rag down into the overflow and pull it out and it smells like oil to me. Tomorrow in the light I'll fill the radiator and turn the car on and watch for freaking bubbles, don't have a leakdown tester.

The pain of it all is that for two months I've been trying to get my wife to get out and just test drive new cars since she keeps saying she wants one. There is always some excuse. We should have traded this thing in two months ago, now I'm looking at a massive job to replace this thing.

I'm just hoping it is a head gasket and not a cracked cylinder, which it kinda sounds like since water isn't getting into the oil.

 

[grayghost668]

hell fill it up and check it for leaks if it is a head gasket or a cracked cylinder I know it dirty but there is a product out there now that you can pour into the radiator and it will seal almost any gasket or crack cost around $90 take it in trade it and never go back to the place

 

[outofyourmind]

I don't see how you would have oil in your water and not have water in your oil.
It's probably just a bad radiator.

 

[fordman84]

Yeah, I'm gonna fill er up tomorrow and see what happens. The wife wrecked it about 14 months ago, but they didn't replace the radiator. Might be a small leak or the idiots might not have filled it back up. Maybe it got so low the coolant boiled and that caused the overflow. Could be the "oil" smell is actually burning antifreeze.

So I'll fill it up, drive it for a few days to see if it boils over again, and sell the sumbitch.

 

[fordman84]

I don't see how you would have oil in your water and not have water in your oil.
It's probably just a bad radiator.

I think it would just be the oil smell, the higher pressure cylinder pushing combustion gasses into the coolant system.

But I'm not getting any overheating at all. I'm also going to watch the thermostat, see if that is staying closed too long and letting things boil up.

 

[outofyourmind]

I had a cracked head once on my Pontiac. Had oil in the water and water in the oil.
I hope it's something simple cause that shit can get expensive nowadays

 

[OnlyCrimson]

If there's no milkshake looking oil in the crankcase and it's not blowing a white/grayish smoke it's probably not the head gasket. I would start with the thermostat, sounds like it's stuck open to me.

 

[fordman84]

I had a cracked head once on my Pontiac. Had oil in the water and water in the oil.
I hope it's something simple cause that shit can get expensive nowadays

Yeah, if its just a gasket, I can replace that for $150 in parts and 6-8 hours. I'm hoping that is the worst case, best is a slow leak somewhere, thermostat is a close second for best case. I could do that for $20 and 10 minutes.

If there's no milkshake looking oil in the crankcase and it's not blowing a white/grayish smoke it's probably not the head gasket. I would start with the thermostat, sounds like it's stuck open to me.

I'll have my hand on the upper and lower hoses watching to see when the thermostat opens, just to see if this is also the case. I just can't get over the fact that heat works at higher RPM's but not idle. I know air-lock will do that, so hoping it is just was low.

 

[JohnRandle]

Sounds like water pump or thermostat to me.
If it were head gasket, typically you would see/smell it in the exhaust. White puffy, sweet smelling.

 

[mrwallace2ku]

Oil change is a cheap indicator for water in system, Randle soundz like he has a "handle" on the situation here.

 

[JuiceTheGator]

Sounds like water pump or thermostat to me.
If it were head gasket, typically you would see/smell it in the exhaust. White puffy, sweet smelling.

Yeah.

Do water pumps still have a valve that breaks open when they wear out...so you're made aware of a trashed pump by the coolant all leaking out?

 

[fordman84]

Got out and did some work on it, still not sure. First I tried to fill the system back up, but the damn thermostat would never open. Drove it around and never opened, bottom hose stayed cold while the top was boiling. I pressure checked the system and the only leak I found was from the dang seal on the tester, but that freaked me out pretty good when I saw a fast drop.

Changed out the thermostat and the bottom hose started to heat up, so I know it is now opening. Let it cool down and will have to wait for Sunday to mess with it. I've got a mechanic buddy coming over with a vacuum tool to flush the cooling system to make sure there is no air in them. Honda's rock, but this one is a PITA to bleed. There is no bleed valve, the way to bleed it is "turn heat on high, remove cap, run until no air comes out". what a crock.

 

[fordman84]

The good news out of all this is my wife FINALLY agreed to go look at cars today. The bad news is that she fell in love with a car. It's nice, but damn it is pricey. Hyundai Genesis. Didn't expect for that to happen, I thought for sure she was hooked on the G37 sedan but she didn't go for it. So my parents have been "suggesting" we check out the Sonata since they like their hybrid. Those salesmen are good..."just have a seat here, it has all the features you are looking for". Hook line and sinker. Balls.


Now I have to get this one cleaned up and they are expecting to have the twilight blue color in she wants on Tuesday, just in time to get it on 2013 books.

 

[mrwallace2ku]

Put that old car up for sale on E-Bay, I'll take a cracker on er there!

 

[fordman84]

Put that old car up for sale on E-Bay, I'll take a cracker on er there!

would get more money selling it, but such a pain.

 

[BTHOtu]

Hondas are bad about blowing head gaskets. Good thing about hondas are that they are relatively easy to work on and you could find cheap parts anywhere. If you think it might make it another 200K miles I'll take it off your hands. I have to drive my pony to Mesquite every day and have been racking up the miles...Might have to wait until March Bonus Time.

 

[anotheridiot]

no oil contamination, it could be the tranny fluid in the radiator if those lines are broken, would also give more pressure than the coolant pressure. The water pump is probably inside the front cover by the timing chain so if that went it would contaminate the oil quick.

 

[fordman84]

no oil contamination, it could be the tranny fluid in the radiator if those lines are broken, would also give more pressure than the coolant pressure. The water pump is probably inside the front cover by the timing chain so if that went it would contaminate the oil quick.

The strawberry milkshake (tranny fluid with coolant) is more of a Toyota thing in my experience. I swapped out the radiator in the 4runner for that reason.

So I pulled new coolant through the system today, and the new thermostat seems to be working well. Still to this day the gauge has never shown over halfway up, so either the gauge is crap (most likely) or it has never been close to overheating.

I let it idle for an hour and the heat never went even to halfway up, the heater worked great, and no spillage issues. Just gonna trade it in. It has been a beast of a car and I'm sure it will last for a while, but it does have this issue or I'd have no problems unloading it on someone I know. This gremlin in the coolant system scares me.