Overheating problem

D15, D16, D17 and Mini-Me swaps
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Overheating problem

By dinkoy
- Wed Apr 20, 2016 2:24 am #358931 Guys, I need some help. My D15B VTEC was overheating a few weeks back. I had the head gasket, thermostat, radiator and oil recently with new ones. After all of the replacing was done, it is still overheating. What am I left to do? Please help.
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Re: Overheating problem

By TrailerTrash
- Wed Apr 20, 2016 3:11 am #358932 is the fan kicking on?

Re: Overheating problem

By dinkoy
- Wed Apr 20, 2016 4:02 am #358934
TrailerTrash wrote:is the fan kicking on?


Yep, both for the AC and the Radiator are good. The radiator fan is direct wired by the way so it kicks in as soon as I turn the car on.
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Re: Overheating problem

By Driv-it-hard
- Wed Apr 20, 2016 1:12 pm #358935 Did you bleed the system before placing the cap on ?
If you drain the system , can you blow thru one end of the hose and your air and liquid should come out of the other end ?
Are you still running a thermostat ? Is it in correctly ?
Answer these .

Re: Overheating problem

By dinkoy
- Wed Apr 20, 2016 1:30 pm #358937
Driv-it-hard wrote:Did you bleed the system before placing the cap on ?
If you drain the system , can you blow thru one end of the hose and your air and liquid should come out of the other end ?
Are you still running a thermostat ? Is it in correctly ?
Answer these .


Yes, I did bleed the system before placing the cap. I haven't tried blowing through the hose though. I also have the thermostat on and it's new.
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Re: Overheating problem

By teal_dx
- Wed Apr 20, 2016 1:45 pm #358938 Is the thermostat OEM or autozone etc? I've seen faulty autozone ones out of the box. A good test is throw it in a put of boiling water on the stove and see how much it opens.
Also, depending on how bad it originally overheated, the head could have warped. You'd most likely see some smoke or low results from a compression test if that were the case though.
How old is the radiator? Is it the 5/8" thick one original to the dx/lx/cx, or the 1.25" one for the ex/si?

Re: Overheating problem

By dinkoy
- Wed Apr 20, 2016 1:56 pm #358942
teal_dx wrote:Is the thermostat OEM or autozone etc? I've seen faulty autozone ones out of the box. A good test is throw it in a put of boiling water on the stove and see how much it opens.
Also, depending on how bad it originally overheated, the head could have warped. You'd most likely see some smoke or low results from a compression test if that were the case though.
How old is the radiator? Is it the 5/8" thick one original to the dx/lx/cx, or the 1.25" one for the ex/si?



The thermostat is working since after a few minutes, both upper and lower hose get warm. How do I know if my head got warped? If it is indeed warped, can I replace it or do i have to replace the whole engine? God forbid.
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Re: Overheating problem

By Driv-it-hard
- Wed Apr 20, 2016 2:13 pm #358945 You'll have to pull the head off and place a straight edge on the block and see if that is straight and also on the head. When you pull the head off, you can almost always eyeball if its is straight.
Have you tested the engine with out the Tstat ? Before you pull the thing out.
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Re: Overheating problem

By TrailerTrash
- Thu Apr 21, 2016 3:24 am #358953 yeah pull the thermostat out and hook the hose back up. fill it and start it and see what happens.

when you started the car and bled the system, did you have the heat on?

Re: Overheating problem

By dinkoy
- Thu Apr 21, 2016 6:50 am #358954
TrailerTrash wrote:yeah pull the thermostat out and hook the hose back up. fill it and start it and see what happens.

when you started the car and bled the system, did you have the heat on?


Nope, I did not have the heater on. I had the AC instead. Okay, will try removing the thermostat.
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Re: Overheating problem

By Driv-it-hard
- Thu Apr 21, 2016 12:56 pm #358955 Make sure you before turning on the motor, you flush everything out. If you have to let the water run for a minute or two with the heater core open. It is best to let all the dirty fluid out before trying to examine a new problem.
Are you running coolant or straight water or 50/50 ?
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Re: Overheating problem

By TrailerTrash
- Thu Apr 21, 2016 11:06 pm #358957 since the fan is hardwired, is it possible the wires are reversed? so the fan isnt forcing air in the right direction?

dinkoy wrote:
Nope, I did not have the heater on. I had the AC instead. Okay, will try removing the thermostat.


you need to have the heat on when you fill and bleed the system. if not then air can get trapped in the cooling system

here is what i would do.

drain the coolant as much as you can and save it to strain and reuse later

take the heater core hoses off, flush them out both ways(in one hose then in the other) and leave them unhooked

then pull the thermostat out and take the lower hose off the radiator

take the upper hose off the radiator and engine

flush the radiator out really well

flush the engine out from the top hose inlet and do what you can from the thermostat housing area

hook everything back up and put a new thermostat in.

fill it with coolant and turn the heat on(not the fan just slide the lever to heat) do not turn the AC on

start the car and bleed the system and see if it still overheats

Re: Overheating problem

By dinkoy
- Sat Apr 23, 2016 5:18 pm #358967 So I went to the local shop to have my car checked. Didn't have much time to figure it out on my own. After some tuning and timing adjustments, I am now 180 to 200. Hoping it stays that way under the Philippine weather. :)
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Re: Overheating problem

By brandoff88
- Tue May 31, 2016 5:44 pm #359197 I had an issue with that as well...my heater also stopped working, turns out I had forgotten to fully tighten a hose clamp on a coolant line, it would be fine for like two weeks, then the heater would slowly stop working and then it would start getting warm...fill it up and fine for like 2 weeks again...never saw any obvious leaks, so that might be something to check into
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