So I have a really old Civic ('84) Sedan and it recently started overheating. It was running fine Thursday night, I took it back to my friends house. I got up and drove a friend to his house, and we noticed "smoke" coming from under the hood as we were stopped at a stop sign. I then noticed how high my temp. gauge was, as high as it could go, "off the charts" so to say. I checked to make sure it wasn't the rad. fan because it was a fairly hot day. It was working fine. I noticed the "smoke" was coming from the coolant reservoir area. I assumed it was the coolant and I tried driving home after letting it cool off for a while. I made it halfway when my car died at a stop light. I got it out of the way and waited about 15 minutes, got it to start again and made my way home. The car was making a very loud rattling sound whenever I accelerated. It died once more in my driveway when I got home. Again, I waited and started it back up to move it a little bit. I checked the oil and it was very low, although the oil levels have been fine. I haven't noticed any oil leaks either. I also attempted to check my coolant levels but the reservoir is in an extremely awkward spot and I can't read the levels at all. I added some new oil and drove it around just now, it's been sitting since that day. It again overheated, though the oil levels are fine. I don't want to run it anymore until I can diagnose this. I don't have any coolant on me to add either. Any help? Thanks!

 

Your oil is going somewhere, check the fluid in the radaitor when your engine is cold. How does it look? I would drain it to see if you have oil mixed in. Sound like you blown a head gasket and possibly damaged your cylinder head. Good luck!

 

sounds like a hose is leaking

 

Run a compression test, i got my money on the head gasket.

 

sounds like a stuck thermostat to me. pull it out and see what it does