I'm embarassed to explain my problem as it shows my obvious neglect of my car recently but the problems exist regardless so...

My 94 teg's had a recent history of heating/coolant problems. I recently had it serviced and new thermostat and everything was fine for maybe a couple months. Now the car goes from midway on the temp gauge to very hot in a very short time. as soon as I start rolling, it comes down just as quick. I neglected to quickly check the coolant levels because of the service I had done recently. It also started recently having no heat until the car is rolling, at stop no heat coming through the vents. Upon looking closer just now, I see that my coolant level is very low but with no obvious leaks to mention. And...here's the scary part...there's a large amount of leak from the front of the engine (head gasket) area... Is it safe to assume that I may indeed have blown a head gasket? If so then F me as I just called to see how much that costs to fix and wow, I could buy lap dances for weeks with that much, ha ha. My dipstick, although dirty at the moment doesn't smell like AF or have any green in it...and to be honest it's hard to tell if the leak is from the valve covers or the head/block gasket seat.

The other problem is that occassionaly over the past few years I've owned this car, in extreme heat or extreme cold, the car turns over but has no spark and won't start. ..until you wait a bit and then it would normally start right up. It only happened once in a blue moon so I didn't rush to get it fixed right away. Well in this extreme cold we're having here it did it again but this time just won't start...still turns over but no spark. I've been told it's either the distributor or the coil.

My concern is now are these two things related? could the head gasket / heating problems have fried something that's causing it not to start? I know when it happened the car was running hot and then parked in pretty cold weather for a few hours...would these opposing temps. have done anything?

Any help is appreciated for sure!...although if it does sound like a head gasket I don't think I'll be able to get it looked atright away anyways.

thanks
94teg

 

Check to see if the oil is mixing with coolant and vice versa. That is usually the best sign of a blown HG. Also, check the compression and if there are two adjacent cylinders with bad compression, it is usually the head gasket. The leak is pretty scary though. I had one of those and had to do my headgasket. I didn't want to pay out the ass, so I borrowed my GF's car and started tearing mine apart. It isn't that hard to replace the HG and it is a great learning experience. I would check to make sure that it is in fact your headgasket before you jump to any conclusions, though.

And also, the firing problems may be due to coolant leaking into the cylinders and fouling the spark plugs. I just recommend getting a professional opinion and then going from there.

 

To check to see if you have a blown head gasket have somebody do a leak down test one motor it only takes about 1/2 hour but it will probably cost you an hours worth of labor and it will also tell you what shape your motor is in. Now for the no start/no spark problem its real common for honda/acura to have no spark its most likely the igniter and coil one causes the other to go bad or get weak you should repace both at the same time along with the distributor cap and rotor. Honda /Acura has a recall on this problem they will pay for both igniter and coil and even a tow bill if it is towed to them.

 

Another EZ way to check for HG leaks is to run the car till it's warm (cooling fan comes on) with the rad cap off and use an emissions sniffer to check for hydrocarbons @ the rad filler. If you find hydrocarbons your gasket is pooched. Sometimes head gasket leaks won't show on the outside (Especially if their new) i.e.: no leaks.