I just recently bought thia car and i absolutely love it. Although i was driving down the road yesterday and the car starting overheating rapidly.Every time i hit the v-tec the cars temp gage would go down though. i had no loss of power either. i pulled off at the nearest garage and told the mechanic what the problem was. he ran some tests this morning and told me that it was a blown head gasket. he also told me that the thermostat was opening normaly but that also the 4th and 6th cylinders were mis-firing. he told me that it would be more than $2500 to fix!!! is he ripping me off or is it worth it. the car only has 90000 miles and still runs great. i was about to replace the automatic transmision with a standard which is also slipping baddly. whos' doesent?? any help would be apreciated.

 

well on the auto tranny swap the best thing to do is just sell your car and buy an 03 six speed b/c from what i can tell it is expensive hard to do and takes awhile oh and dont buy a tranny for dr. evil price range for the swap was around 10k

 

Well since you have a 1st gen CL you should post this on the 1st gen board, which is here...
https://acurazine.com/forums/motorsports-news-7/

This section is for 2nd gel CL's.

 

not possible with the 3.0's. IMO id get a second opinon on that.

 

get it towed to someone you trust, it could just be a simple matter of a fan gone out or a blocked radiator.


Don't trust the 1st opinion of someone you don't seem to know.

2nd, don't try the auto to manual swap, you'll be spending more money that what it would cost to just go buy a manual car. From previous attempts, it's a pain in the ass.

 

I had similar problems in my integra. The overheating can be caused by your thermostat not opening correctly or a water pump problem. Do you know if your timing belt was replaced yet at 90,000 miles? if not, change that along with your water pump. If the temperature outside is cold enough and your driving at a high enough speed for vtec to kick in, then the drop in temp can be attributed to the cold air hitting the radiator and cooling your engine. When you drive at higher rpms, you cause the water pump to work harder and force coolant through the engine faster. Heres a test, start and warm your car, remove the coolant cap and have someone press the acceleration pedal at different rates. Observe once the fans kick in and try to see if coolant is flowing freely through the radiator if not, then your thermostat might not be opening or waterpump is starting to malfunction.

 

well when the car is started cold and it runs for a while, as usual for the first few minutes air bubbles come out of the radiator but they dont stop. this is why i think there could be a leak somewhere. if i leave the radiator cap open the car doesent overheat but as soon as i close it it starts to build with massive pressure. the mechanic is tellin me its a blown headgasket but i deff dont believe that n i think hes tryin to rip me off. but like u said when the v-tec hits the car cools down to normal but as soon as i stop the car to a dead stop it rapidly overheats again. although i dont know if my v-tec has been tweaked with cause it engages at 3,400 rpm's. my buddy has a v-tec civic and he said hes never seen a car come stock like that and have it engage anywhere near 3,400

 

Not the headgasket it would be smokin

Change the thermostat, that's a cheap fix, then look to the radiator

 

Ok i just picked up the car today from the mechanic. i told him not to do the work cause i wanted to go to east coast honda and get a second opinion. ive been driving it with a loose radiator cap so the pressure doesent build up and overheat the car. there is no smoke and no loss of power than i can tell.

 

if your mechanic tested antifreeze for co2 presence and got positive ,it's head gasket 100%.Smokin from tail tail pipe is not likely in acuras as hg starts to leak with entire surface and no water is sucked into combustion chamber. i have acura legend that developed bhg a while ago and was quoted $2700 to fix. i did it myself and i tell u i wouldnt do it for less than that - basically entire overhead should be rebuilt head hg kit contains well over 100 gaskets and seals. Idea of replacig tranny for manual is nearly imposssible : tranny, ecm , main harness, linkage, just too much stuff

 

yeah i have a blown headgasket, but no smoking from the tail pipe. check under your oil cap for a milky/bubbles stuff. and if your anti-freeze needs to be filled every couple of weeks you have a blown headgasket. but i think your problem is the radiator. i had similar problems as you. it would over heat then go back down if i drove it a little hard or fast. but there was a leak in my radiator that caused it to overheat and build pressure, if you dont get it fixed right away then its gonna just get bigger.