The head gasket is most likely torn or burned and also there may be a tiny
crack in the engine block or warping due to heat. The Civic's have been
having a lot of these types problems and I personally know someone who had
to replace the engine in his 98 because of a crack. Because of other
problems he had to sell the car and lost a whole bunch of money in the
long run by doing the repairs. The Hondas are not the only make cars
suffering these type problems and it seems the auto companies have
cheapened engineering and quality of parts to save a few cents here or
there.
I would recommend you ditch the car as is by selling, maybe give to
donation to Red Cross or something like that and get a tax deduction. Use
the money you would have spent on the repair and then buy or lease a new
car. Try to buy an inexpensive car and run it into the ground.
It's sad but cars with these types of problems usually become deep money
pits. Other's may disagree but that has been my experience with both
foreign and american branded cars.
Good Luck to You,
Rick


On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 09:07:57 -0400, Michael Pardee
<michaeltnull@cybertrails.com> wrote:

> "Elle" <honda.lioness@nospam.earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:3FJQg.752$o71.483@newsread3.news.pas.earthlin k.net...
>> From reading here, and working with a friend's car this past summer, the
>> oil-in-the-coolant and coolant-in-the-oil indications do not seem to
>> always appear. My friend's Civic was experiencing regular overheaing.
>> Ultimately she had to have the coolant tested for exhaust products at
>> the
>> local dealer. That nailed it. Her 99 Civic, about 115k miles, needed a
>> new
>> head gasket. Years before she had had one overheat episode. But it might
>> have just been the very hot summer this year that put too much strain on
>> the gasket.
>>
> Definitely - failure from the combustion chamber to the coolant passages
> is
> pretty common. I imagine it has something to do with extremely hot gasses
> under high pressure hammering on it ;-)
>
>> If the car is not overheating, then from what you say, I guess I'd
>> change
>> the oil and monitor for a few weeks. Or consider having the coolant
>> chemistry tested for something like $50.
>>
>> With the recent overheat episode, I would not be optimistic.
>>
> That's the part that worries me, too. Even a single serious overheat can
> warp the head (and it's not just a Honda thing), causing the middle to
> lift
> up from the gasket. The repair is the same as head gasket replacement
> with
> the addition of having the head planed at a cylinder head shop or machine
> shop. In any event, the head will have to be checked for flatness and
> should
> be looked over by an expert before reinstalling, if you (the OP) do have
> to
> remove the head.
>
> Mike
>
>



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