Honda Car Forum

how can i tell if i have a blown head gaskit

By driving it by a Repair shop and asking the mechanic to look at it.....seldom do hondas have head gasket troubles but yours may have one...seek help

are you losing coolant?is your coolant brown or beige like a milkshakehow many miles?

Check the oil. If it has coolant in it or looks gray and slimy, then you have a blown gasket.

I know that this is front and straightforward. let me edit it all.First off, there is a slew of hondas that will overheat from aftermarket thermostats, the ones you buy at any given parts store, NO matter how good they say they are, are built bad. The clearance in the center is usally 10 mm smaler. like if you buy a 10 inch pizza and a 16 inch pizza. also, honda oem thermostats are a completely different design, designed by honda. If you take the thermostat out if it is aftermarket and compare it to the honda thermostat, you will grow big eyed. Away from the thermostat. There are 2 things hondas are known to overheat from and it isnt head gaskets.lets slew the head gasket theroy right now, take the radiator cap off, start it , dont rev it, hondas naturally will puke coolant revving with cap off. if it doesnt instantly look like mount whatchmacallit spewing, its not a head gasket, also to note, if indeed the head gasket was the source, you ould have bigtime white smoke no matter what from the tail pipe. Start the car, turn on ac, the fans should turn on,if yes, proceed if no, check power going to fan at plug.allow the engine tempature to rise no more than 3/4 on gauge (honda gauges arent known in the 90s as being faulty) if the fan comes on proceed, if not, check the coolant temp sensor located at the thermostat (again)...#2 honda overheating problem. the thermostat and design.to note, i have never replaced a water pump for this issue, hondas dont use plastic impellers in 80-90s like american cars do. haha Im going to try to make ascII head gasket design here lol every dot is a passage and such. . . ! . .{ O}{O}{O}{O }p . . . . pkinda like that, the big O is cylinders. the .! is oil pressure feed up head bolt to head . is headbolts. the p is oil return passages and the } and { are coolant passages. hondas were designed well, they do not have combustion to coolant leaks without white smoke. Usally to boot if the head gasket is bad, in the corners of the p and ! you will visually see oil running out.you put an aftermarket thermostat in it didnt you? you must buy a thermostat from the dealer, a whole different design. hope that enlightens you. Honda mechanic 15 years.

If you had a blown head gasket, you would notice a milky color in your engines oil. You would also probably notice a whitish smoke coming from your exaust pipe which is your engines attempt to burn the coolant off.