I have a 1990 Accord with the F22A1 and I was originally led to think it had a bad head gasket but today I pulled the head and found that the gasket is just fine, the head is fine, and so is the block. What gives?

The simptoms were:
~ sporatic overheating
~rough rough idle
~misfiring on steady rpms

I never noticed any white smoke except for a minute after startup. Any ideas? Warped head? Warped block? The car only has 154k miles... I dont get it.

 

Do a compression check? I have no idea why you pulled the head, you should have been able to diagnose it with a $25 compression tester and a half hour.

Also, ever clean the EGR valve, use a top end cleaner like seafoam, change air filter, PCV valve, etc?

 

your thermostat could be bad or u have a leak in a hose/hose connection or the radiator. all of which can cause what u r saying. make sure your fan is working. the relay can be bad. the temp sensor too.

 

So the likeliness of a warped head or block is pretty unlikely correct? I pulled the head because of the way it was acting and also because Im getting an F23 head.