i have a 95 civic dx 1.5 liter .. pretty much all stock. yesterday i was heading to utah, bout 150 mile drive. before i left the coolant was full. i drove for about an hour on the freeway and then i hit stop and go traffic. the temp started fluctuating and then eventually rising to about the 3/4 mark. i turn on the heater and keep going, and them temp will fall back to normal. this happened a couple times until i could stop. checked the coolant and the reservoir was FULL. couldnt check the radiator..car was too hot. let it cool for a while and went on my way. the temp rose and fell a couple times but did okay. checked the coolant this morning and its empty.
now this has happened to me a few times in similar situations. when im driving around in the city, it doesnt get hot at all but i do notice a drop in the coolant. it doesnt seem to matter if i use the a/c or not (though it was an a/c issue at first). i have changed water pump, thermostat, rad cap. the other day i had it pressure tested and they found no leaks after a half hour under pressure! so i was thinking okay its gotta be the cylinder head gasket...well i flushed the system out and saw no bubbles from the rad at all after running it for quite awhile..there is no steam or smoke whatsoever from my tailpipe and performance wise my car is doing great. i am totally stumped here. i cant for the life of me figure out where the coolant is going or why the temp is acting so strange. so far it has not gotten hot enough to do any damage.

anyone have ANY ideas ??? any other head gasket symptoms? i was thinking about having the cylinder head bolts tightened again and maybe torqued a bit over spec.. but im about ready to replace the entire system.. help!!

 

Don't over-torque the stock head-bolts. Bad things will happen - any combination of: snapped off head-bolt(s), uneven pressure on the head gasket (which can lead to a gasket failure), warped head when the head gasket finally does pop, and the list goes on. If you want higher torque, there are some aftermarket head-bolts (about $9.00 ea.) that are specifically for use after a head has been warped. As well, they'll take a higher torque rating. And there's always some high-performance head-bolts out there, which is what the tuners use when the build for higher compression and boosted solutions.

But yeah - I wouldn't over-torque those stock head-bolts.

 

That coolant has to be going somewhere. If it only goes low after overheating that might be normal because the bottle overflowed, but if it goes away while running at normal temp you DO have a leak, pressure test or not.

 

if it comes down to that i will definetly put aftermarket bolts on. are there are any other symptoms of a head gasket failure ??

 

i think i am going to replace all the hoses and see how it goes.

 

Remember to use new screw-on clamps! Don't be an idiot like me and re-use the squeezy clamps.

 

jus curious what does it matter if u use the same clamps?

 

haha thats a good tip.. thanks impreza