i went to the shop last monday and had the car fixed. they noticed that
there is a very high pressure coming out from my radiator even when the
cooling fan is turned on! they believed that the cylinder head gasket
has some leaks. so the car went top overhaul and finally the
temperature gauge never increases near the max limit and the high
pressure is gone. however, they observed that it is too long for the
fan to turned on. and when it turned on, it stops immediately. they
have not fixed this but instead bypassed the fan's circuit. Everytime i
turned on my car, the fan also turns on. But this did not solve still
my problem. what i wanted is for the fan to turn on only when it reach
the midpoint or below the temp gauge.

by the way, the cooling system has no longer a thermostat (since we
don't experience snow here).

some history:
1.0 the car already overheated twice, the second overheating was last
april and went overhaul.
2.0 i have replaced the old radiator with a new one (two row system so
the capacity is bigger)
3.0 recent repair done was the replacement of the cylinder head gasket,
an asbestos and no longer the rubber coated metal gasket. the
technician believe the rubber coated metal gasket will no longer work
so it needs an asbestos type.

some questions that i hope you can help me answer:
1.0 Is the asbestos type will help that the cylinder head gasket will
no longer leak?
2.0 For how long do you think an asbestos type will last?
3.0 Why does a cylinder head gasket leaks? What are the red X or root
cause?
4.0 Is this car hopeless already and the cylinder head gasket will leak
for the rest of the car's life?

hope you can share your thoughts. thank you so much for all the help.

regards,
jeff





jim beam wrote:
> Jeffrey D. wrote:
> > Hi Guys!
> > Need all your help and expert opinion.
> > My second-hand (or used car) honda civic 97 vtec model has a new
> > radiator but the engine gets hot when my aircondition is turned on for
> > quite sometime. I just had the aircondition system "overhauled",
> > meaning all have been refreshed, and also have a new motor fan. Though
> > the fan is not original honda, but it works really fine. The fan of the
> > radiator turns on when the engine is hot. When I drove around 50kms,
> > the reading at my meter starts to increase from midway to close to the
> > highest temperature allowed so I have to pull my car in the shoulder
> > everytime this happens.
> >
> > There are no leaks I can observed from all hose lines and I observed
> > that the radiator fan does not turn on too long, only around a minute.
> > Is this normal?
> >
> > I do not have problem with overheating if the aircondition system is
> > not turned on while driving for an hour, this only happens when i turn
> > the aircondition system on.
> >
> > Other known fact was that the previous owner of the car (I just
> > recently learned) have experienced total overheating twice but the
> > engine was not damaged.
> >
> > I still don't want to dispose the car and all i want is to fix it.
> >
> > Looking forward for all your reply and comments. Please email me at
> > this address: jeffrey.t.dellosa@philips.com
> >
> > regards,
> > jeff
> >
> 1. check coolant level inside the radiator - looking at the expansion
> bottle doesn't work because leaks break the seal that allows it to
> operate correctly.
>
> 2. replace the thermostat - maybe it's defective - it's 9 years old.
>
> 3. test for leaking head gasket. there's a couple of recent threads
> here, one titled "Proper Radiator Cap Pressure Rating for 1994 Honda
> Accord EX". read them and check your car in the same way as described.
>
> 4. report back with your findings.