Engine & Internal - 180k

Hi everyone, I'm new. I have a 1994 Honda Civic It has 183,000 miles on It! :) It seems to be running good except for a few things. 1 there's this pinging noise that
comes from the engines head - Could this be the lifters? All my fluids are good. It only happens when I go above 2500rpms, You can really hear it going up hill. #2 Every once
in a while my engine decides to shoot out white smoke, it seems to happen more after I get off the freeway at the off ramp stop light as soon as I start going again. #3 My ac doesn't work. Now this could be an easy fix but I'm not sure if my car has the newer AC stuff... I heard they banned or just got rid of the AC stuff they used to have.

1994 Honda Civic DX 1.5 DOHC 16 Valve


Thanks guys

I dont know much about the others but white smoke means coolant.

For the A/C: there could be many reasons, but the most obviouse is that you've lost charge or the compressor is bad. Take it to a shop and have them look at it, you need specialized tools to diagnose A/C problems. As for the older style coolant, don't worry, they will convert it.

White smoke means burning coolant. You will need to pull the head and do a head gasket change.

As for "pinging" that could be a number of things as well. Anything from an exhaust leak to a bent valve.

well I had new head gaskets put on about 3 months ago. I hope it doesnt need it again, its not cheap. But ever since then I've wondered if something was done wrong.



So here's another question for everyone. If you had this honda with 183k would you keep it going till it died or trade it in for something newer?





Thanks for your help guys!

94 DX? I'd say engine swap, but thats just me :-p

I did think about swaping the engine, but I couldn't decide if I would do it myself or pay someone to do it.

I would go back and talk to the person who did the head gasket change, they may have screwed something up.

As for trading it or killing it, that's totally up to you and your budget.

how much money do you have to work with?

it sounds like its probably a headgasket problem

About two grand. :)

do a compression check or leakdown test and then do a headgasket with some arp headstuds and then put a turbo on it for baout 1500 bucks..

dude check the exhaust system , i dont think the headers will be the probolem but check the catalytic and the resonator after it and make sure the pipes are good, i buy a 1995 ex and it has a weird buzzing sound ans it was the resonator so i remove it and replace some rusty pipes and the sound was gone. hey how much do you pay for that car????????? i pay for mine 5g (in puerto rico car are expensier) with 173,000mileage on it.. today i reach 175,000 sharp.

I only paid 1500.00, which i think is a good deal.


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