I have 98 Honda Civic and for the past year I have been having problems with it over heating. At first we tried fixing a bunch of small things like the radiator cap, thermostat, fan, and the radiator hoping that it was an easier fix than the head gasket. My brother does all of my car work which is nice. Well after we did all of that, it was still over heating but I didn't have coolant in my oil and I didn't have smoke coming out of the exhaust. I drove it for another month, and the head gasket finally went bad. I was blowing smoke out the exhaust and there was coolant in my oil. The car sat for a while before it got fixed. My brother had a manual for replacing the head gasket when he was replacing it. He followed the correct torque pattern and torque specs. We also got the head resurfaced, did all new belts, water pump, and serveral other things. The first time I drove it, it was idling really rough, but it finally wasn't over heating! This time we figured it was idling rough because of a vacuum leak, so I just decided to take it to a mechanic and have it looked at. The mechanic said then Iac was cracked and this probably happened because the car sat for a while. Anyways, I got this fixed and the car was running good and was not over heating. This was about a month ago, and today I drove it and it started to over heat and blow smoke out the exhaust. I checked the oil and there was coolant in it. There isn't oil in the coolant if that matters. Is there any reason that this could have happened again? Any tips? Is my head probably warped again? I'm just debating whether to go through everything again or just sell it as is. I've put a lot of money into the vehicle so it would be hard to take that big of a loss. We rented the torque wrench from autozone so I hope it was accurate. I'm trying to think of all the possibilities that could have led to this happening again. I bought a head gasket fixer from the store hoping for a temporary fix but I'm not sure if it's even worth it. Thanks!!

 

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welcome to the forum. when you got the head resurfaced, did anyone check to see if there might be a crack in the head?

 

Did you use gaskets from Honda? You will likely need to replace the head gasket again. Use OEM gaskets and replace all of the head bolts. If the head was not resurfaced properly, you would have experienced problems almost immediately. Cheap gaskets risk not sealing properly (especially under load) regardless of torque specs. Honda SOHC engines are notorious for blowing head gaskets, but the best way to prevent head gasket failure is to keep up on oil changes and not rev the engine past redline.

Side note: Head gasket sealer can ruin your heater core and block up your radiator!

Hope this helps!