I was driving my dad's 88 prelude and it all of a sudden started overheating. I got it home and put in some ani-freeze because at the time I thaught it was just low. I started driving it again and it overheated and ati-freeze was coming out of the lid of the overflow. I think it may be the head gasket but, the car runs just fine.

 

idle the car with the rad cap off, and look for bubbles. if you see small bubbles, it's the hg

 

Well that could just be air in the system. Compression test the motor is your friend in this situation. Get low #'s across the baord your hg is gone. You also should see water/coolant in your oil making it have a white color to it.

 

I looked under the hood when the engine was hot and noticed the fans where not on. I am replacing the sensor in the radator that turn the fan on tonight.

 

the fan is not on because either the thermostats is stuck closed not circulating or the headgasket is blown causing u to lose coolant and therefore the switch wont work.

 

take out the spark plugs and examine them... obviously if they look like they are soaked in coolant or if there is any green coloration to the plug, it may be a blown head gasket. be careful, but take the spark plugs out after running the car for a little, and smell them to see if they smell like coolant. You can also let the car run and smell the exhaust fumes for coolant. i'm not saying you should sit there an huff your exhaust pipe, but if there is coolant leaking into the cylinders, you'll be able to tell.

 

if i have my fan on constant, is it bad to run without a thermostat?

 

I use to have no thermostat. i guess it sucks because the engine coolant flows in a cyclic way.
It means that it doesnt keep on rotating.
it stays in the block, move to the radiator then stay and cool down and move again.
The problem is that when you start overheating for some problem, its a vicicous circle because the coolant does not stay long enought in the radiator to cool down and come back mto the block as hot as it was.

Better get a big radiator

 

My overflow was getting backed up and eventually overflowed itself. Waterpump... :P