ok mad issues with my civic. its over heatng pretty bad. i stored it for 2 years because it was over heating and i was building my tiburon. i put a new radiator and rad fan in the civic. then changed the thermostat(yes its installed correctly) topped off the rad and the resovour with coolant. it is still overheating and i have to drive it with the heat on when im not in the tiburon. i noticed yesterday when the egine is running and i take off the oil cap air comes out of the hole where the oil cap was. i have worked on hondas for years from doing bolt ons to audio to motor swaps andi have never had this problem. i always say F**K the dealership so i wont go to them. any suggestions on what i should do or examine?

 

You sound quite knowledgeable about cars so I hope this question does not insult your intelligence. Is there any possibility that your water pump is faulty?

 

well i cant honestly roll that out. i origionally purchased the carwith 60kmiles in 2003 from a friend. he said he did all the belts, plugs, wires, cap, and water pump at 50k. he is not exactly the smartest kid in the world and has no mechanical knowlege either. i bought the car cuz his mommy and daddy paid for all the maintenance and it was garage kept since day one. i might as well change the water pump anyway. i anyone has any other ideas im all open to anything. thanks again

 

Is there a safe way to verify that coolant is properly circulating through the system?

 

does it overheat at idle as well as driving ?? ?? did you bleed the system properly after you replaced the t-stat ?? lower rad hose getting hot while engine is warming up ?? fan comes on ?
rad cap ok ?? and last do a leakage test to make sure there is not a blown head gasket

 

As mentioned by deserthonda, you must open the bleeder bolt to release air from the system when refilling with coolant (see picture). Did you do this? Also, can you remove the thermostat, reassemble the housing without it, and test whether the engine still overheats?

[IMG]local://upfiles/25538/9A298BB7C4074467A0F19C37F2319C9C.jpg[/IMG]

 

i bled the system when i did the tstat. the only thing i havent done yet was the leakage test ill probably do it tonight when i get out of work.

 

It very well could be. All the 92-95 Civics (at least everyone I've talked to with one) seem to be having this problem now. It's most prevalent after the first overheat.

 

Is your coolant disappearing? Getting white smoke outta the tailpipe? Is there oil in the anti-freeze?

 

coolant is slightly dissapearing. white smoke out of tail pipe only when temp gauge goes near the H. but no oil in antifreeze. what im going to probably do is the timing belt/water pump/serpentine belt/alt belt combo. however my accounting test next week and my statistics test the week after are realy going to limit my time to F with my honda