Hey all thanks for viewing. I have a 1995 Honda Civic Ex coupe 1.6L 4-cyl. engine with manual transmission. Believe it or not it only has 86k on it. I am the 2nd owner, the 1st had it garaged for 5 years, hence the low miles on this beauty. He replaced the timing belt and water pump, etc after taking it out of the garage so those are new, replaced around ~60k.

I was on the highway today and had the music up really loud so I'm not sure how long it took me to notice but the engine light and the oil light were both on and the heat gauge was up as far as it could go. I immediately put it into neutral and exited the highway, also popped my hood to try and get better airflow into the engine. I'm pretty sure the engine was dead because I remember looking at the tachometer and seeing it read 0 before I thought to kill the ignition.

Upon pulling over and opening the hood a mild amount of thin smoke came off the engine for about 3-5 minutes. The thick black hose going from the radiator to the engine had a small maybe 1 to 2cm gash/tear that had spewed radiator fluid throughout the engine compartment and was probably the reason for the smoke.

I checked the oil level and it came up as full and no leaks beneath the car were present. I got it towed to a place that my friend trusts but they aren't open til Monday. Someone recommended Sears because they are open on Sunday but I'm afraid they'll try and tell me everything from the tires to the gigaflux capacitor needs to be replaced and will take advantage.

Sorry to be so longwinded. I guess my question to you guys is what do you think we're looking at here? Could my engine be totaled? No, I have not tried turning the engine back on yet, I was afraid to. Is that something I can do safely to the engine? The tow truck guy looked and didn't see any apparent broken belts.

I'm thinking of getting it towed to Sears and seeing what they say. I will post back to hopefully get your opinions on whether you think they are trying to take me for a ride or not.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and I'll update as soon as I get more info. Thanks for reading!

 

I believe the most common problem after overheating the engine is warping of the cylinder head. The previous owner of my Mazda did the same thing you did and had to have the engine replaced (lucky for me, he chose a factory long block). However, that doesn't necessarily mean your cylinder head suffered the same fate. The first thing they are likely to do is fix the hose, replace the coolant and fire up the engine. If it runs really rough, a compression check may be next but a rough-running engine would not be a good sign.
Personally, I would not go to Sears. You can install a new hose and replace the coolant, yourself. Start it up and report back.

 

dito. replace hose and fill up with water and try to fire it up. if it runs smooth YOUR LUCKY, if it doesnt run smooth than most likely shes a gonner. overheating the motor can kill it pretty fast if you dont keep track of the gauges!
hoses break it happens thats why the gauges are there with dumbie lights saying check gauges. it doesnt sound good tho since you dont know how long its been pegged!