Does burning cooland always = bad headgasket

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caboose

caboose

USDM to the bone
Does burning coolant always = bad headgasket

I have a 1989 CRX HF and it has the signs of burning coolant (Idles rough, steam from exhaust, "sweet" coolant smell, low coolant). I recently replaced the head gasket on it, so I would hope that the hg wouldn't be leaking.

I know that a cracked head or block would cause something like this. Is there anything else that I should check first (Intake gasket)?

Thanks,
Tony
 
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you could have a hole from a water jacket into a cylinder..
did you clean the mating surfaces well and install the gasket correctly?
 
MthaFuknGreen said:
you could have a hole from a water jacket into a cylinder..
did you clean the mating surfaces well and install the gasket correctly?
Click to expand...

I thought that I did, but if the gasket is already bad, maybe I did something wrong... hopefully it is not a cracked head.
 
It could be a intake manifold gasket but i doubt it. If you wanna change it id say go ahead.
Its not gonna hurt anything to change it.

(1) How long ago did you change head gasket?
(2) How much did you pay for the head gasket and what brand is it?
(3) Do you run the car into high rpm's and how often?
(4) What engine do you have?
 
1. Between 6-9 months, less then 10,000 miles.
2. I don't remember what brand (was from ebay). It was part of a complete gasket set.
3. The car redlines at 5k, I almost never rev that high. I usually shift with the shiftlight (2-3k).
4. d15b6

I did a compression test not to long ago and I wasn't seeing any inconsistencies across the cylinders. My big reason for maybe trying an intake gasket was because when I was installing the intake after doing the hg I was having some trouble getting it aligned for some reason. I have a feeling that I might have tore the gasket a little bit or something.
 
There is a spot where the coolant goes through it if its not sealed it could be you problem. Id say change it.
 
I had a D15B2 hatch and I blew 3 headgaskets. I bought a real Honda headgasket and I never had a problem with it again.

On my D16A6 it has a Fel Pro headgasket and I put a D16Z6 head on it and it sealed fine on that second head.(the headgasket has been on two different heads) It's been about 6000 miles.
 
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90civicboy said:
I had a D15B2 hatch and I blew 3 headgaskets. I bought a real Honda headgasket and I never had a problem with it again.

On my D16A6 it has a Fel Pro headgasket and I put a D16Z6 head on it and it sealed fine on that second head.(the headgasket has been on two different heads) It's been about 6000 miles.
Click to expand...

wurd... you do get what you pay for.
 
thats not a good test to see if its a blown head gasket.

are you sure youre burning coolant?
have you checked the coolant level lately?
 
Wouldn't there also be bubbles coming up if there was air in the system like a hole in one of the coolant hoses?
 
Just install all oem Honda gaskets... :D lol
 
Ok, so now I'm sure that it's a head gasket. Walked out to the car yesterday and saw a puddle of antifreeze about 4' in diameter under the car. Looks to be coming from #4 between the head and the block.

Why is it that things like this happen when you are trying to sell something?

Pulled the CRX back in the garage where it's going to have to sit for a while. Does anyone know about how much a honda hg runs? I'll probably have the cylinder head checked for warp too while it's out.
 
when you replaced the headgasket before was it because it was blown?? or did you do it just to do it... if it was blown, did you have the head resurfaced before you put it back on?? did you torque everything to spec? .. what you've described is a blown headgasket.. if the steam/smoke from the exhaust smells sweet you're burning coolant
 
I had a suspicion that the head gasket was going out on me, so I replaced it. The one that I took out was not the factory headgasket either. I did not have the head resurfaced. I did torque all of the head bolts. I also put them on and took them off in the correct order.

At this point I'm sure that the one that is currently in there is bad.
 
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