1994 honda civic chuggin and lost power
Asked by rnagal Jul 17, 2010 at 12:46 AM about the 1994 Honda Civic
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
so i have my uncles car to daignose. i cant figure it out, first of all, the coolant is just dissapearing, and the coolant resoivior is dark muddy looking, smells like mixed exhaust and coolant. and the chuggin noise when its running and has lost power. at first i thought 2 spark plugs were dead, so i changed all 4 and i thought the timing was off aswell., im thinking the cylinder head is warpd and not holding compression? no leaks of coolant found anywhere else. any help will be good thanks :]
4 Answers
Joseph Anthony answered 14 years ago
check for leaks... there's also an instance that the water or coolant mixes with the engine oil during idle and when the engine is hot...is the cooling fan working? it's supposed to suck in cold air that will pass through the radiator...
check if the alternator is good. mine just went out. mines a 95 so not much of a difference. and i have neons so that takes some extra power. my coolant was also disappearing but i used that liquid aluminum stuff to clog any leaks. i suggest trying it. if that doesn't work. its about time to just replace the radiator
it is probably that you have a worn out head gasket you can verify that by opening the radiator cap with a cool engine and starting the car, observe the radiator to see if theirs any sings of bubbles or coolant pouring out of it if its does thats your problem it all depends of how fast your coolant is gone and if theres no leak.
head gasket for sure! older civics were known for it. you can run compression on it but an easy way is to hook a coolant pressure tester to it hold 13-15 psi on it for 5 mins. start the engine and if the head gasket is leaking as bad as you describe it should blow out alot of white smoke. Be careful when you do this because if its leaking really bad you could hydro-lock the engine!
