almost overheated

[ef-civic]

hey just wondering, i took my car out over weekend.. went for a run to the mountains, had a few races with my mates crx.. then went to grab a drink from maccas on way home.. and it was starting to overheat.. i checked water through week and it was pretty goood.. also there's no leak in radiator.. what was my problem ??

[teh_mechanic]

if you didnt lose any water you can still overheat.
Thermostat could be stuck closed.
Radiator could be blocked with muck.
Maybe you are running very high advance on the engine and these 'races' got the engine going harder than the cooling system could take

[ef-civic]

radiator is brand new. what u mean runing very high advancE ??

[ef-civic]

oh yeah and i did lose water.. but it wasnt leaking out.. there was steam though..

[Mr_will]

when you say starting to overheat...what exactly do you mean?

if the temp gauge was higher than normal, that doesnt necessarily indicate a problem - it could just indicate that you were pushing pretty hard.

unless it does this when you are driving normally i would not see it as a major problem

[AzKik-R]

whenever you take your car for a good thrashing, always a good idea to run the car for a while just till everything normalizes, if you parked up immediatly after giving it a good thrashing, it doesn't give the engine much time to circulate the heated oil and the heated water. you get the same effect when you're racing on the highways, and then you hit bumper to bumper line-up's, and your bonet is almost attached to the hot exhaust of the car in-front of you, need flowing air to cool it all down.
another thing you could try is turn on the heaters, and that takes a lot of heat off the engine more so in the older cars.
2 possible problems, maybe the oil??? ooooor maybe the water???

hmm, any ideas how you got steam, generally steam comes from water hitting the hot surface. maybe you are leaking?

[krogoth]

oh yeah and i did lose water.. but it wasnt leaking out.. there was steam though..

steam??

that makes no sense....

how much radiator fluid did u put in?

and wat kind of radiator fluid?

[ef-civic]

when there is hot water.. it makes steam ? it was like bubbling in overflow.. and steaming.. could smell coolant, i didnt put fluid in.. just checked it

[AzKik-R]

soooo, where was the bubbling happening, because the coolant in the radiator is designed not to be exposed to air.... ever.
sooo if its bubling, then its exposed to air somewhere.

[Samo]

i say its the themostate ...

its only abt $15 from repco

[ef-civic]

what if the lid of the overflow was open ?? would it have popped open ?? but its fine now though ?? all i did was but more coolant in.. kept it running.. cleaned my air filter out.. and its running cooler now..

[kayot1k]

in regards to thermostat you will know if its stuck cus ur radiator coolant will never get hot cus theres no water passing through.

its wierd but mine overheated as well, no steam, no leaks, coolant level a tad low.
just did a fresh coolant flush as well. when i switched on the heater it immediately dropped back to normal. i wonder why.
its fine now though, did extensive test drives to see if it over heats.

[aaronng]

when there is hot water.. it makes steam ? it was like bubbling in overflow.. and steaming.. could smell coolant, i didnt put fluid in.. just checked it

Was it bubbling or boiling? Both are different.
Bubbling in the overflow = leak in the headgasket...
Boiling in the overflow = hot coolant (Honda coolant boils at 131ºC).

[krogoth]

just wondering

the only way for bubbling or boiling to happen is:

1. he didnt use honda coolant, which is premix right? so he mixed some random coolant with water, and stuffed up the mixture, didnt do 50/50, prob put too much water and not enough coolant

2. or he simply didnt put enough coolant water mix in the radiator?

i dont see much else

[kayot1k]

from previous experience i would say his coolant levels were low.
even having your coolant level a tad low can result in this steam or coolant boil. although i've only seen this with people using just plain tap water as coolant.
you dont have to have 50/50 mix it varies with weather and conditions the car is driven in.

[SeverAMV]

i had a similar problem with my ed6 civic. replace your thermo and see if thats the problem. mine was a combo of the thermo, radiator and fan. its stopped overheating since i fitted a koyo radiator, a bigger but slimmer fan and a new thermo.

oh and if theres steam, your radiator cap could be leaking. my cap was leaking out the side a little, then the coolant would land on my extractors and vaporise.

[squish85]

just curious... my mechanic put 100% coolant without diluting it.. The instructions on the coolant bottle indicated that no water was to be added. Would this affect the way my engine runs ? I hav a VtiR....

[krogoth]

lolz

imo, it simply means that the coolant is premix, trust me ud no if it was purely coolant...

the water has been mixed in ther already

if ther was no water, ur block would crack pretty quick, lol

coz its the water that cools, not the coolant, the coolant raises the vaporisation temp of water so it water stays in liquid phase and doesnt turn into steam

[RAYRAYCIVIC]

To all the people who have changed their thermos in a carby 1.5, how did you get to the second thermo housing bolt?? It is in the worst place and my water return hose will not budge off!! Im considering cutting the hose and changing the thermo and then hoping there is enough slack to put it back on later!!
-Rayray