I have a 93 Honda accord SE and I have been having some problems with it overheating for a little while now. But just lately it has gotten alot worse...I'll fill her up with water, start the car, 5 minutes later im in the red zone on my temp guage and i can see a small amount of smoke coming from the right side of my hood, right next to the reservoir. And everytime I hit the gas the temp seems to go right back down, but as soon as I stop at a light or even a stop sign its right back up. I have changed the thermostat, temp sending unit, and there is no leak that I can see in the radiator. Please give any advice you can! Because I really dont want to think that its a blown head gasket.

Thanks,
Corey

 

It is probably your radiator fan not coming on because when your stopped there is no air cooling the engine and when u step on the gas and go you get air hitting but not sure. Just let the engine run for a bit and then look to see if the fan comes on

 

if you want to check for the fan first unplug it from the thermostat housing and jump it with a pin to insure the fan relay works. If the fan turns on with the key on move up to warming it up and waiting. Should take somewhere between 15-20 mins to get the fan to turn on.

Temp needle may seem like its not moving fast at all or moving period but give it time. If after 20 mins no fan movement i would say to start with the temp sensor. Try to clean the contact surface. Get some steel wool and clean it up till its silver shiny again. After that shoot some parts cleaner on it and thread it back in. Make sure to use some sort of thread sealant as when you take that booger out your coolant will come gushing out until you plug it up. Anyway once you clean it up, and get some thread sealant stick it back in and retry.

 

Normally, unless the condition of the cooling system is really bad, there shouldn't be any considerable build-up on the thermoswitch, not the eom or equivalent anyway. It might vary, but the only ones I've seen are yellow/gold in color, not silver :shrug: If one was made of a different material, that might increase the chance of build-up.
If you think that's the problem, I'd just replace it. The new one will come with a new o-ring, no need for any thread sealant. They aren't that expensive. Might wanna find out the proper torque to make sure the o-ring seals correctly, it was 17 ft-lbs. on my civic.