Ok with my car, when something goes wrong , its never something easy, its always something weird as ---- that i have to figure out and takes time and money so here is the problem, My car is overheating but only doing it at certin times, i drove it like 3 miles and it was fine, parked it for 20 minutes, then drove it half a mile to taco bell and i look down and it is almost in the red on the temp gauge, so im like WTF and i turned on my heater and it went down, It was fine the rest of the way home, The next day i drove it to work it was fine, I checked to make sure the fan was coming on, it was, I replaced the thermostate and gasket just to be safe, Drove it 10 miles home, and drove it 20 miles to my gf's house on the freeway, itw as fine, parked it at my girls house for a hour, then drove to the store, im come back me and my girl are talking in the car, i look down and its almost near the red again, so i think maybe my temp gauge is fucked up, i turn the car off, and i can hear the coolant boiling in the resvoir, then i let it set for a hour, drove it home it was fine, today, i let it run at work for 30 minutes, it didnt over heat, i drove it hard down to the circle k, came back, let ir run more and it didnt overheat, the coolant temp level is good, it has plenty of coolant, fan comes on, new thermostate, so the only thing i can think of is that my radiator is getting plugged up, im gonna pop a new one in, but what do ya guys think, anything like this ever happen to ya, its a 96civic by the way, thanks

 

sounds like something blocking the water passage, perform a flush, check for leaks. is timing in check?

I would have pulled out the thermostat by now and run it without just to help control it, don't want to warp a head.

nothing like being broke down on the interstate and having a "race" thermostat make your sbc overheat, that ****** is still along I95 somewhere I think.

 

yea i can do a flush but my ------- boss will charge me so i i think im just gonna get a new rad, i can get one for cheap, there are no leaks what so ever, and its not overheating all the time, just tha 2 times so far and i let it cool down the minute i see it doing it cuase i dont wanna warp the head

 

Could be the fan isnt turning on all the time when it needs to. Very common I always just run a switch so I can run mine from start up helps out living in vegas with the heat.

 

boss charge you? what the hell. you don't need him. Got a garden hose? Got a grassy area to park the car over (or a drain pan)? Got a $11 to pay for a bottle of flush/gallon of antifreeze? Got an hour of time?

Do the flush yourself, if the problem is not within your radiator then you're wasting your money on another one. Inspect all the coolant lines, check your timing then pursue from there.

While you have it in progress, pull the radiator out and flush it directly, look at it, check the fins out. Oh yeah, take that thermostat out your car will live without it, it's summer.

 

Check for hot/cold spots on the radiator. Did you bleed the system? I bleed the ---- out of mine so there isn't even a fart of air in them.
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if that aint ur car farting then it must be u

 

My car would do the exact same thing yours is doing....

Take the radiator cap off... if there are what apears to be oily deposits on your cap... then you might have a leaky head gasket.... thats what was happening to my car.... anytime i would drive it hard. it would overheat. and i did everything... thermostat, new hose, new 2in. radiator and it would still overheat... eventually i just got another engine... but yeah... might be a leaky headgasket...

I know for a fact thats what happend to mine cause i took the head off and saw for myself.... the exhaust gas was blowing through the gasket and finding its way into the coolant passages.. and cause excess pressure and i would just rev it hard for a second or 2 and the needle would drop back down to a safe level.

 

I had the same problem a while back. I just replaced the thermostat, never happend again.

 

---- it, it hasnt dont it the past 3 days while ive been driving back and fourth to work, so im not gonna worrie about it, ill just keep a eye on it, im gonna sell it soon anyways, if it starts acting up, ill fix it before i sell it