So I was pushing my automatic 87 civic 1.5L to WOT the other day, and the speed started dropping. I eased off the gas and it downshifted. After that, I was able to accelerate like normal, but about 20 minutes later after climbing a 10% grade hill, I noticed my engine heat level was beyond the red line. I started running the heater and got out to check the car after I found a spot to get off the freeway. When I got out of the car, steam was rising out from the hood. I continued to run the heater while driving to look for a place with water (it was midnight, so most places were closed). When I found a place, the heater air went cold, so I figure I must've burned off most or all of my coolant.

I looked inside the engine bay and I couldn't see any leaks. I refilled the radiator with 1-2 liters of water before it got full. My engine was able to get me home after that without overheating. The rest of the way home was local driving...

I rebuilt my engine about 1000 miles ago, and it was working fine until I tried driving my car this hard the other day. It seems a lot like I blew my head gasket, though I don't have milky oil or oil in my coolant. My friend can smell coolant when he drives behind me.

Does this sound like a blown head gasket? I'm also wondering how I could've done this. Just pushing the engine this hard shouldn't do this, right? I found a link saying that 84-87 civics with a precombustion chamber tend to crush head gaskets because of irregular thermal expansion of the head, and that driving the car too hard or with too much load could crush the head gasket. The link is here:

http://www.aa1car.com/library/us697.htm

I started to perform a leak down test yesterday and when I pulled off the spark plugs, one was slightly melted and the other electrode was severely melted. The metal almost melted enough to ground the electrode and completely prevent spark. It seems like I installed my timing belt one tooth off, since I had to turn the crankshaft pulley bolt an additional 15 degrees (or so) past TDC to get the cylinders to seal. Could this have caused me to overheat or to damage my head gasket? or maybe this combined with driving the car hard? I feel like a goofball right now and I just want to avoid making the same mistake putting my engine back together.

 

i cant verify but when they changed mine i had no visible leaks, no milky oil, no white smoke just consumed anti-freeze like every 2-4 days then then it will start to go to hot, but u usually according to the mech u could smell the exhaust fumes from the radiator cap off. it might not be blown but leaking if u add coolant and it disappers and no leaks it might be leaking into the cylinders. but that sux man hope u find the problem good luck

 

Yeah, I've had to refill my coolant after about 40 miles of driving over a couple of days. I don't think I smell exhaust with the radiator cap off. However, if I crank the engine with the radiator cap off and the radiator full, coolant does shoot up out of the radiator.

 

well may be cause u took the cap off lol well idk man srry i cant help what part of LA u from?

 

haha yeah, I worked on my dad's Geo before and when I was bleeding his cooling system, I started his car with the radiator cap off and it didn't overflow. I found out earlier that the radiator overflowing when the cap is off and the car's cranking is (can be) normal.

I'm living in San Fernando Valley (Chatsworth) with my parents right now. Actually I'll probably stay around this area when I move out in the next couple of months too =P

As for my car, I confirmed with a leakdown test that my cylinder 3 was leaking into the cooling sleeves. I'll have to take my head off again. HOPEFULLY it's just a head gasket problem and not a cracked block. Oh yeah, I didn't mention earlier that one of my spark plugs was melted. It just happenned to come from cylinder 3 as well. I'll bet they're related problems.

 

FYI.. your timing is too high, which cause it to melt.. lucky didn't melt your ring.. yet..!!

 

Yeah, advanced timing was the only explanation I could find for such high temperatures. Thanks for comfirming.

The weird thing is, I set my car's timing with a timing gun and I could've sworn I set it to the proper settings. I thought maybe the timing belt was installed 1 tooth off, but it didn't look like it.