I have a 98 civic EX d16y8 sohc two doors with around 166k.

A couple of months ago the car started overheating so I took it to a mechanic and while he was changing some tubes circled in blue he might of poked a hole in the aluminum joining circled in red, from which coolant leaked.

His solution to the hole was to put some epoxy adhesive on it so it wouldn't leak. It worked out fine in the sense that it didn't leak but some days later the motor kept on overheating. I replaced the radiator, thermostats, all the hoses and finally the water pump. It seems it was the water pump since it was completely broken down. So the engine regained pressure and it might of caused the epoxy sealing to wear off.

Again I took the car to the mechanic and he told me that its necessary to replace the aluminum "T" joining (the part circled in red) in order to fix the car. To do so would imply replacing the whole intake manifold which would cost a lot of money. Most of the mechanics had told me to do same thing.



Now my question is if there's any other alternative to replacing the whole intake manifold. I was thinking of using J-B water weld to seal the hole there. I'm open to suggestions/instructions and any help is appreciated. Thanks.

If its any help: no blown head gasket (done the test).

Link to water weld page: http://www.jbweld.net/products/water.php

 

It looks like you will need to remove the intake. First of all, I would pressure test the cooling system. You will see the coolant leak out where the hole is at.

My civic had a very slight leak at the head gasket, it was very hard to diagnose. It took a few months before it got really bad.

 

I think those nipple pieces are steel, not aluminum. Depending on the type of damage it might be repairable by brazing or welding. I would not trust glue to do it. If it's leaking where the nipple is pressed into the manifold, that probably means the manifold is cracked and the whole thing should be replaced. A used one may not be real expensive, since it is a part that is not in high demand. But there is considerable labor involved to R&R the manifold and everything attached to it.

 

Yea the new manifold costs about $150 not much, but its the manual labor that hurts. The few mechanics I went to said that it was at least $650 to replace the manifold.

I love my civic, I bought it at about $4500, and I've already invested about $600 trying to put it into shape. So if I were to replace the manifold to fix it I would need to put another $800, and considering the price of car its not reasonable to do so.

Either way, I've already identified where it leaks. I've put a pic to illustrate. I mean the glue works pretty well for a couple of days and I need something to seal it in the meantime while I'm figuring out what to do. But where the nipple connects into the manifold is fine, the leaks is only on the nipple. I was kinda looking towards a solution what would include welding or brazing but I didn't know, so that's why I was seeking help.