By Farfignugen (205.188.197.178) on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 10:29 pm:

Hi guys. Well I've had one crappy week. Car problems galore. I drive a 78 civic 1200 5spd.
Let me sumarize.
1)Some buggers picked my (classic low-quality) door lock and swiped my cd deck. Insurance will cover that pain, but now the problems are mounting for real.
2)Exhaust pipe is busted - I've patched it for a temporary hold, but I'm going to replace the exhaust manifold, pipe and muffler. Generally this won't be a problem for me - just a pain. I've looked high and low for a header, nothing to be found. Does ANYone out there have one??????
3)Heater core is shot. Does anyone have experience replacing these? I'm going to grab one of a parts car and swap it, but this is one thing I've never done before. Anything special I should know first???
4)THe big problem. Tonight the car died when I pulled off the highway. My temp gauge was telling me earlier in the day the car was overheating. So I figured I'd replace the thermostat and thermoswitch soon. Well, on the highway the guage told me the temperature was fine, even a little on the cold side. But the truth was the guage was lying to me. My car was overheating and I didn't know it until I started to smell a burning stench from the engine. I pulled over, the car died. Open the hood to see a smoke-like cloud billowing from the engine around the carb area. I figured oh crap I've blownt the head for sure. Damn those thermoswitches! Anyways I'm going to have it towed home, and do the usual checks: oil, rad fluid, replace the thermoswitch and thermostat. But I suppose it'd be best to get a compression test done after that. I have no idea if it'll run again. I just left it there on the side of the road for now. I'll get it towed home later tonight. Life is the shits! Please, could someone tell me if it could possibly NOT be a blown head/gasket??
Also would it be just more benefical to find a replacement engine somewhere? If anyone has an extra GOOD engine, lemme know ASAP.
So I'd really appreciate if somebody, ANYbody could reply and give me some help/tips.
Thanks alot guys,
Austen Bach

By oblivion (216.78.167.28) on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 06:43 am:

sounds like a good time for a bigger engine . I burnt a valve in my 1.5 and made it the excuse to drop a 1.8 in, heh. See, i just think, well i can fix it..... or i can make it go faster!! whatever you do, good luck.

By Zippy (Zippy) (64.12.107.162) on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 06:45 am:

Austen,

We're here for ya. As for the engine, one step at a time. You're on the right track. Headers, they're out there. Put a $$ on the wanted board and if it is good enough someone will bite.

Roger

By Bruce Harmeling (66.20.228.54) on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 05:49 pm:

well, sounds like another day in paradise, first thing I would do is make sure your fan motor is working, unplug the thermoswitch from your radiator, looking from the front it should be on the bottom left of your radiator, take a piece of wire and cross the plug, fan should come on, if it does maybe just run a couple of wires to a switch and mound it in the console, just remember to turn it on, sort of nice on cold days, just don't turn the fan on, helps with heat inside. change the sensor for your gauge, make sure it works right, I bought a new one and still was hosed. As long as it was running when you shut it down most everything should be fine, (you hope) probably going to have to have the head looked at, you may have warped it, try it before you get into it to deep, check the oil make sure there is no water in it. Have to look at what it takes to do heater core, they are up there under the dash, should really not be hard, just time consuming, might be part of your overheating problem, see if it is leaking, be careful of the heater hoses, they go thru your firewall and have to be a specific size to fit, only place I found one was the dealer and they raped me for about $50.00 for one of them. Also check your bypass hose, small hose under distributor, only about 4 or 5 inches long and has a 90 degree bend, they have a tendecy to leak, you can go to auto parts store and get a hose same diameter with bend and cut it down. ggod luck on the header, check the for sale ads here, best place for parts, I run a 77 cvcc hondamatic, right now it sits in the back yard, fuel pump went out, waiting for it to warm up a little before I get into it.

By Anomalous (24.70.95.203) on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 07:46 pm:

By Anomalous (24.70.95.203) on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 07:53 pm:

The heater core hoses run to alloy transfer tubes(#1 in the pic) through the firewall.Remove the blower as a unit and then remove the heater core.You must remove the glove box.It is a time consuming process.You can buy new hose by the foot at Crappy Tire(don't forget new clamps also)Good Luck!

By Anomalous (24.70.95.203) on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 07:56 pm:

By Farfignugen (12.110.136.93) on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 09:22 am:

This heater core advice will be of great help, thanks alot. I'm going to pull one from a buddy's parts car sometime this week.
Hondastuff, if this other heater core is no good either, I will be looking to you for one.

As for the head, I haven't got a chance yet to check any of it out, cus its a half hour drive away right now and I don't have any wheels of course. I'm really hoping I didn't crap/warp the head. If it is the head gasket, that I can do myself, but I'd have to get the head checked out of course.
Question: Is there any way the block could be damaged as well??? What would I check?

By angus (205.188.201.203) on Thursday, January 17, 2002 - 04:11 pm:

i've got almost everything from a '78 1200 i stripped a few years ago, including the heater core and a head with manifolds and carb. in the northeast u.s. angus

By Farfignugen (12.110.136.90) on Thursday, January 24, 2002 - 05:38 pm:

Well I've got more questions...
Yesterday I finally got out to check my car. Fluids seemed fine from any mix - I didn't see any oil/rad fluid mixed at all. I did a compression test on it, with one of those hand held ones. At first the tester told me this:
#1- 85psi, #2- 55psi, #3- 55psi, #4- 120psi
So... naturally I'm thinking, I've found the problem. But then I thought, well, I've had it sitting here for a while, perhaps the oil is low. I took a turkey baster and squirted oil into the spark plug holes and tried the compression again. All 4 read 120psi!!
So, now I'm really wondering, what the heck IS the problem? I'm definetly wondering why the outside of my carb and intake is covered in what seems to be oil. Where would've that oil came from?? Since its all dirty at the moment I can't tell if there is a leak around there or not. But how does this relate to my car overheating and not starting again?
PLEASE HELP.
A few more points: I checked the spark, it looks good. Perhaps I'm wrong, but since its so close to starting, but just won't, its not a timing issue. Yes, the car ALMOST starts, it turns over, gets the spark, but just doesn't want to actually start and run.
PLEASE HELP.

By Anomalous (24.70.95.203) on Thursday, January 24, 2002 - 07:26 pm:

Sounds like rings to me.

By Farfignugen (12.110.136.90) on Friday, January 25, 2002 - 08:13 am:

quite possibly one of the problems is the rings it seems.
The oil all over the outside of the carb, I have determined to be from the blow-by out the top of the valve cover. But what would cause it to suddenly puke out a whole bunch of mucky oil thru the blow by? One opinion is that I could have a minute fracture in the wall between the coolant jacket and the cylinder, and somehow the coolant may have got in and the sudden vapor caused by this could have pushed the pressure up thru the valve cover blow-by. Does this sound reasonable???
Please give me some ideas on what to do?

By Darrell --Maryland-- (12.91.138.180) on Friday, January 25, 2002 - 12:56 pm:

I think your right Farf.

The PCV tube may have blown oil into the air filter housing. The oil could have dripped out of housing, on your carb, then on your manifold.

Why does blowby occur? I thought it was from bad rings.

Darrell

By Anomalous (24.70.95.203) on Friday, January 25, 2002 - 03:33 pm:

I think it's rebuild time Farf!Or,better yet(in my opinion)find yourself an 82-83 Civic with the EN1 and 5spd box and swap that combo in.You should have no trouble finding a good affordable donor car close to home.(You are in Vancouver correct?)Good Luck with whatever you do.