95 Civic running hot please advise
 

My daughters Civic is running hot and will lose water. Have not seen a leak because when it gets hot she is driving the car and calls me, when I show up its hot and low on fluid. I changed the thermostat and thermo switch for the fan and it ran hot again. I ran it in the garage 45 minutes and it didn't run hot. Anyway talking to my brother and told him I notice foaming in the radiator and he said its the head or gasket. So I just did a compression test and got 170lbs, 180lbs, 160lbs and 150lbs on the last cylinder.

So what do you'll think?
How hard is it to change the head gasket?

Thanks for your time and advice

anyone?

Unfortunately, the compression test indicates possibly two bad cylinders. Together with the bubbles seen in the coolant, you almost definitely have a bad head gasket. The big risk of replacing the head gasket is that the head and block may now be warped from engine overheating, so the new gasket may not fix the problem. You may want to consider purchasing a rebuilt replacement engine.

Those are definate tell tale signs of a bad head gasket. foam in the radiator, losing antifreeze, smelling antifreeze in the exhaust, lots of smoke from the tale pipe and loss of horse power were the symtoms I had when my head gasket went out about two months ago. I replaced it about a month ago and didnt think it was to bad of a job, but I also have some experience from doing a little work on HMMWV's and 5 ton's. I wouldnt suggest it if you dont know any thing about engines. But, in my opinion, its one of the easier ones to do.

I am having just about the same problems. Loosing water, overheating, and also rough Idling. I have not done a compression check yet but I did pull the spark plugs and when taking off ( ) (x) ( ) ( ) #2 I think (the one with the x if looking at it from the front of the car) I notice a lot of oil around the top of the boot and also the plug was fouled with oil. I cleaned the plug tube, boot and plug and put the plug back in. Still idling rough. Head gasket?

are you loosing oil too? do you have black smoke coming from the exhaust? cause if your head gasket is blown you should have antifreeze fouling up the plug, not oil. I had oil in my #1 cylinder when my piston ring went bad. could be that for you to.

Fix it
 

Well my daughters car runs fine until it gets hot. Does not burn oil or smoke. I'm out of work so she has been driving my truck and I its time to try to fix this thing myself.
I think I need to by a manual?
Do I have to take the timing belt off to change the head gasket?
Shoot guess I'll need to buy a torque wrench as well?

Thanks

1) Download a free Civic service manual (92-95) from the link in my signature.

2) Yes

3) Definitely