I've got a civic ej1. Recently the engine was repaired by a honda tech. The problem is that the engine spill the coolant by the overflow tank only when I drive it, at idle about 3 minutes and nothing wrong only when I drive it. When that ocurrs I wait for engine to cool and add coolant to the radiator cause its empty and take the overflow tank to the MAX level cause its really over the MAX line. Drove it and again the same problem. I bleed the air and do the things I know but nothing. I think is the head gasket. Please help me!

 

easy way to check head gasket is see if your oil has a milky residue if it does then your head gasket is blown. Does it overheat at all? Is it hard to start right after you just turned it off? Are any of your coolant hoses swollen? Those can all be signs of a blown head gasket.

 

Any of the coolant hoses expanding/ballooning? That is one sign of a bad head gasket. My coolant was fine when my head gasket was leaking. And no weird color smoke coming out of my tailpipe.
Also can try taking off the radiator cap (of course when the engine is cool), start up the car and set the heat to HOT (don't necessarily have to turn on the fans though). Let the radiator fan kick on and off about 3-4 times and watch the inside neck of the radiator (where you took the radiator cap off). If you see any bubbles coming up that is another sign of a bad head gasket (which happened to me).

Possible your thermostat is stuck closed causing pressure to build up in the system. Could be a bad radiator cap too (which is cheap to replace) - can try this 1st.

 

Thats the 1st thing I do. My civic dont have thermostast, so thats not the problem. The hoses any time I drove my ride theyre balloning. I took the radiator cap off and I saw maaaaaaaaaaany bubbles comin out. So I think is the headgasket

 

Never overheat, no milky residue and really smooth to start raight away you turn it off. The only thing I saw is that the hoses, both off them(lower and upper) are inflated.....and when i took off the rad cap the rad is very low of coolant and when I refill it, maaaaaaaaaany bubbles came off the rad. I reallyyy think is the head gasket.

 

Your more than likely right. Your just burning the water off thats why its low all the time. Pull your spark plugs and see if they have any signs of water damage.

 

is the upper hose kinked? if it is, replace the radiator cap with the correct one. if its not, more than likely your thermostat is stuck in closed position.

try changing the cap first.

 

Sounds like the same issue I had. With the ballooning of the hoses, missing coolant. Would only overheat while autocrossing on my 2nd and 3rd runs since the coolant was heat soaked. The biggest thing was the bubbles in the coolant which meant a leak in the headgasket at the cylinder heads. Sometimes it could be on the exhaust side (most of the time).
I also took out my thermostat to see if that would help, but would still overheat on 2nd and 3rd runs.

 

Well its seems like the car is doing the things you guys tells. Now the car when I drove it for a while....when I turn off and about minutes like 3 or 4 mins when I turn it on the car sounds like out of compression or low in compress. Hopping is the head gasket.... What you guys think?

 

its definately the head gasket get it fixed ASAP so you dont mess up your engine anymore.