I'm telling ya, most people have problems with bleeding cooling systems. My buddy josh who is great with cars and does tons of engine swaps was in your position one time, this honda he worked on was overheating constantly, so I took a look at it, and I put my coolant bleed bucket on it. (these are the ----) And sure as ---- it just had a huge *** air pocket in the cooling system. It's all I use at work and its kinda tricky bleeding without one. Try this..

Jack the front of the car up slightly, maybe 2-3 inchs. (the engine is cold) so take off the radiator cap, start the car up and hold the revs to about 25-3000 to get the engine warm. Have someone squeeze the hoses upper/lower radiator hoses to get the bubbles out, keep topping off the fluid in the radiator so its right at the top. Keep holding the rpms until that thermostat opens, How do you know when the tstat works? both the upper and lower radiator hoses will be hot as hell. If the top hose is hot and the bottom one isnt, keep holding the rpms to open it up. This can take 5-10 mins or so. If for any reason your fan is coming on before the tstat is open unplug it. Ok once the Tstat is open and coolant is flowing through the engine just let it idle down, you should be able to look at the coolant and see flow. Just let it idle for a bit (make sure your fan is plugged in). Now rev it up again, make sure the fan kicks on, hold the rpms high. After the fan kicks on, turn the heater on full blast in the car on hot. make sure you have heat inside. Put the radiator cap on and go drive it.

If this isnt done right you can easily have a huge air pocket in your system. Be patient, because its the simpliest things that really ---- you over in the end sometimes.

Jeff

 

what about that nipple right in the front where the upper rad hose is ..can you use that to bleed the air in your system?

 

Did you check to make sure your temp gauge isn't broken Prolly a stupid question, but ya never know....

 

the only time you ever use that is when you are filling the cooling system, crack the bleeder dump the fluid in, and tighten up the bleeder screw when coolant/water is flowing out smooth. Thats only half

Jeff

 

I just tryed bleeding the system again but it looked fine. While I was doing it I noticed that I kept getting little bubbles in the coolant but the coolant level wasn't dropping. It bubbled constantly for 20min until I shut it off. I think I'm gonna get a Compression tester tonight and see what's up. Btw, I didn't get the head shaved before I put the new headgasket on. I also torqued down the new headbolts to 70ft/lbs which someone told me I might have streched them.

 

Ahhhh, so the thermostat opened right? both bottom and lower hoses were hot? it bubbled for 20 mins?

Shitty, take the head back off.. a compression test isnt going to tell you ----. You must not have cleaned the head/block surface good enough, or you put the head gasket on upside down or something. Because its blown again. I really dont think the head is cracked, Definatly take the head back off and take it to a machine shop for pressure check and surfaced. Clean the ---- out of the block, and use a brand new head gasket. Be sure to torque your head bolts in the correct sequence too.

Jeff

 

I once had an issue like this and found that when I took it to the "Profesinal" dealer to find a problem that they missed a hole in the gasket on the termostat housing.
It continualy was leeking air into the system but I never saw water leaking out.

Made me overheat all the time.

 

Check your ignition timing. It might be off by 180 degrees.

 

ok, did a compression test and as abaz said it doesn't tell me anything. 190 on all four cylinders. I hate this. But it's probably my fault.
I didn't clean the block to a beautiful shine when I did the headgasket and I didn't get the head surfaced. I was just ready to feel some turbo power. The only thing I don't understand is I'm not losing any coolant and not overflowing. And I just put my full size radiator back on it yesterday and it took a full night of abuse without overheating.

 

i didnt loose any coolant either when i had my overheating probs
guess what it was...headgasket
your head and block arent perfectly flat and your gaskets leaking
jman