Hey guys, I have a 92 civic with a 96 1.8 dohc in it. It has run perfectly for about 10k miles now. I just recently had some rust removal and a paint job on it. As soon as i got it back i noticed it overheating. Fan is working, coolant is full and healthy so I threw a new thermostat in it and let it run for a half hour to see what it would do. No problem, didnt overheat at all and was running fine. So I assumed everything was cool, but it overheated again the next day. The gauge seems to go up and down a lot faster then you would expect. It almost seems to follow the rpms after 4k. Is it possible that the coolant temp sensor is reading the pressure instead of the actual tempurature? How do I test the temp sensor? Is there anything else i should be looking at? Help me out here guys

 

hm...sounds like it could be a headgasket problem. is there any coolant leaking at all?

 

Temp sensor isn't worth testing IMO. They're like 15 bucks, just go get a new one

 

Souds like the guys who did your body work may have drove your Civic a little hard. Anyways, maybe they left some masking materialand its restricting the airflow around your radiator.

 

I replaced ect, coolant temp, and gauge senors. The gauge reads hot but the actual engine temp is ok so i dont think its actually overheating. Is it possible that the gauge in the dash is bad??

 

Anything can go bad man... (heres a little sumthin to cheer u up) boost the bitch xD and see if boost is kicking in fully lol thats a sexy way to tell if its over heating..


BOOST FTMFW!!!!!!! lol

 

How do you know that the engine temp is normal if your gauge is reading sky-high?

 

K k here's the latest. I tested the system for leaks, none. Tested the compression of the engine, great. Let it heat up again and tested the engine's actual temp with a gun and its normal. SoI assumed it was the gauge in the dash. I bought one of those stupid looking aftermarket gauges and hooked it up. Im not sure how acurate that gauge is but it idles at about 240~250. I have an obd1 ecu installed right now and im thinking about doing a full obd2 conversion so i can hook a snap-on diagnostics machine up to it... This problem is driving me crazy!! Also whenI swapped the engine in I took out the a/c condensor and the fan assembly for that side. So i only have one fan and the civic radiator. Is this sufficient enough to cool the bigger engine? Ive heard people say both, but ive driven it like that for over 10k miles with no problem.