Well my lemon continues to suprise me. I fixed the cel by clipping the resistors in the ECU and now it idles great and the cel is gone. I found the source of the starting problems (some security card that slides in under the dash wasn't making contact so I jiggled it and boom the car fires up great, who thinks up this hokey security sh*t).

Now for the bad. I verified that the radiator, water pump, thermostat, fan are ok but now I think I may have a bad head gasket. It is cold out so I cannot be sure but the exhaust seems to smoke more than would be warranted by just cold air alone (it would also explain the lack of coolant in the thing when I got it home).

Is there any other easy way to tell if you have a head gasket problem other than ripping into it?

 

look at your coolent, should look really milky

 

The coolant was mostly water when I got it home. The water in the radiator was a little dark with what might be considered milky fluid (hard to say) but the fluid behind the termostat was perfectly clear. There is no milky residue under the valve cover (but that might not mean anything). Will a compression test show a head gasket leak?

 

leak down might be more effective, but doing both wouldnt hurt anything

 

Just recently, I thought I needed a good radiator flush. Took the 92 si that I have to the radiator guy up the street. Yoshi. My symptoms were low coolant, and a SHOOT in temp getting off the freeway when for 30mins of 65mph, everything was FINE! I'd pull over, wait, fill with water, and was good for city for another 20 min. then it would happen all over again. Thought it was my thermoswitch. First thing Yoshi does is take off my oil cap. Turns it over and wipes is finger on the inside top. It's not oily, it's WET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like coolant wet. "Head gasket." He asks me if the car is warmed up, I tell him "NO, cause I actually live 3 blocks from you." He squeezes the top radiator hose and it feel like a balloon. He tells me that the pressure building up in the hose is due to the head gasket being blown, in addition to the coolant in where nothing but OIL should be. Eventually the coolant is going to rust out the internals.

Hope it helps.

 

There is no milky or watery oil on the inside of the valve cover and the upper radiator does not balloon up. I was going to run a leak down test tonight but I can get down into the spark plugs because of how recessed they are. I am going to check the heater core next and see if water is leaking there.

 

you'd know if the heater core is leaking the inside of the car will smell bad of coolant.
And a head gasket can leak in so many places that usually oil and coolant don't mix together untill it gets real bad or just happened to be in that spot. Keep in mind that I've also seen them leak only one way at first. Meaning the cylinder can suck in some water but not blow hot gas into the coolant, and vise versa I've had a head gasket that only blew hot into the coolant not enough to overheat it while driving but enough to instantly boil it when you came to a stop.

 

Can't smell coolant because the guy had straight water in the system (no coolant). I think he was trying to hide something or just got lazy .

So a leakdown or compression test is the only way to tell? Anyone know how to do these tests on these VTEC engines? I tried to do the leak down test last night and the spark plugs are recessed so far down in the engine that I can't get to them.

 

get a extension for your ratchet

 

I was talking about the leakdown tool I had to fabricate. I made a longer one and will do a write up in the DIY section. The leakdown test passed; no bubbles in the coolant. Also all cylinders were less than 10% drop.

After investigation I am certain my water loss is in the heater core. The wetness in the firewall insulation is only up to the level of the core and dry above that. Also I found signs of water hardening around one of the inlet pipes. I shunted the heater core for now until I can get it fixed.