Oil in radiator - 1998 Accord

I have 85,000 miles. 4 cylinder & 5-speed manual. I take good care of

the car and never had any problems. Did the maint and a few small
repairs like CV boots, etc. The radiator fan must have failed an it
overheated rapidly. I shut it down fast.

The car was fine but I had oil in the radiator. I took it in. I had
the head rebuilt, new head gasket, new radiator, radiator fan, changed
the timing belt, hoses and other things. I spent about $2700.

I got the car back and drove it for about two weeks then saw coffee on
the driveway. I checked the radiator and had coffee again. I took it
back to the mechanic and now he is pushing a rebuilt motor at cost -
$900 and $600 in labor. He obviously is feeling a little guilty. The

car is in good shape. Sadly, we did not go down the replace the engine
path first. He thinks there might be a crack in the block.

Any suggestions? I doubt any stop leak stuff will help. I can flush
the radiator but the oil can get back in fast. I am not sure if the
oil or water is under more pressure.

The oil leak prodicts that swell gaskets will not work. I spoke to CRC

who make nano technology stop leak products going in via the radiator
but they said if the oil comes into the cooling too fast - their
product will not work.

I loved my Honda but I never had a car have a catastrophic failure like

this.

No dealers have Accord VPNs with 5 speeds and the price went up. I am
pretty disgusted with Honda.

> wrote in message
ups.com...
> I have 85,000 miles. 4 cylinder & 5-speed manual. I take good care of
>
> the car and never had any problems. Did the maint and a few small
> repairs like CV boots, etc. The radiator fan must have failed an it
> overheated rapidly. I shut it down fast.
>
> The car was fine but I had oil in the radiator. I took it in. I had
> the head rebuilt, new head gasket, new radiator, radiator fan, changed
> the timing belt, hoses and other things. I spent about $2700.
>

OK, right there you made a bad decision. If you had come here and
asked BEFORE spending that we could have advised.

Your dealing with a car here that has a book of about $5-$6K. You
let it overheat and the cost to get it going again was quoted at probably
50% of book. That isn't a bad deal IF you were going to replace the
engine with a rebuilt one. But it's a rotten deal if your just going to
do a head job on an engine block you don't trust.

Head jobs that you pay someone to do are only legitimate in 2 scenarios.
The first is if the head has known design problems, has failed, and you
know the bottom end is strong. The second is if you know the valve guides
are
leaking and the rings are still good. Such as the famous cloud of blue
smoke at startup, but no smoke at idle and running.

For overheated engines, you don't pay someone to do the heads
unless you have an ironclad guarentee the block is good. And nobody
competent is going to give you that on an overheated engine.

> I got the car back and drove it for about two weeks then saw coffee on
> the driveway. I checked the radiator and had coffee again. I took it
> back to the mechanic and now he is pushing a rebuilt motor at cost -
> $900 and $600 in labor. He obviously is feeling a little guilty. The
>

OK, now your going to be in at a total of $4,200. What is the warranty
the mechanic is offering? 12 months? That's a **** poor deal.

> car is in good shape. Sadly, we did not go down the replace the engine
> path first.

No, there is no WE here. Your mechanically inept. Nothing wrong with
that, a lot of people are. That's why your taking it to a mechanic. But
because of that, your utterly dependent on the mechanic. And the mechanic
made a bad call on the engine.

If I had been your mechanic I would have told you upfront that the
head job was NOT guarenteed to work. It's a cheap way out. When
your dealing with an overheated engine that a customer brought in
you don't know what the hell you have. The ONLY way to be
absolutely sure the engine survived is to pull the entire engine out
and rebuild it.

> He thinks there might be a crack in the block.
>
> Any suggestions? I doubt any stop leak stuff will help.

Oh please. There's only one place for cracked engine blocks.
The furnace. To be melted down and remade into new blocks.

At this point your screwed. Why are you even bothering us?
There's only one option you have, and that's to have your mechanic
put in a rebuilt, and try to use his guilt at making a bad call to
argue down the price. You know this perfectly well. Your too
far financially sunk into this car to do anything else.

If you really had any respect for the expertise in this group you
would have come here in the beginning. You don't. All you
want is a sympathetic shoulder to cry on and for us to tell you
what you already know you have to do. Well, OK, we will tell
you what you have to do. But hell with any sympathy. Next
time come here when the problem first happens, not when you
have already decided to blow $2700 on it.


Ted

> wrote in message
ups.com...

> I loved my Honda but I never had a car have a catastrophic failure like
> this.

Unfortunately, Ted's assessment of the situation is pretty much spot on.
You have so much money tied up in work that didnt pan out that further
expenditure needs to be evaluated carefully.

By the same token, if you dont fix it, your total value in the car is pretty
much lost.

In this part of the country, you can buy a junkyard engine for some
Honda 4 cylinder applications for in the range of $600. ( I might prefer
a decent wrecking yard engine over a 'rebuilt' of questionable quality.
Again, a judgement call)

IF you could get a good one, and IF you could do the work yourself,
it might be a minimum cost way out.

wrote:
> I have 85,000 miles. 4 cylinder & 5-speed manual. I take good care of
>
> the car and never had any problems. Did the maint and a few small
> repairs like CV boots, etc. The radiator fan must have failed an it
> overheated rapidly. I shut it down fast.
>
> The car was fine but I had oil in the radiator. I took it in. I had
> the head rebuilt, new head gasket, new radiator, radiator fan, changed
> the timing belt, hoses and other things. I spent about $2700.
>
> I got the car back and drove it for about two weeks then saw coffee on
> the driveway. I checked the radiator and had coffee again. I took it
> back to the mechanic and now he is pushing a rebuilt motor at cost -
> $900 and $600 in labor. He obviously is feeling a little guilty. The
>
> car is in good shape. Sadly, we did not go down the replace the engine
> path first. He thinks there might be a crack in the block.
>
> Any suggestions? I doubt any stop leak stuff will help. I can flush
> the radiator but the oil can get back in fast. I am not sure if the
> oil or water is under more pressure.
>
> The oil leak prodicts that swell gaskets will not work. I spoke to CRC
>
> who make nano technology stop leak products going in via the radiator
> but they said if the oil comes into the cooling too fast - their
> product will not work.
>
> I loved my Honda but I never had a car have a catastrophic failure like
>
> this.
>
> No dealers have Accord VPNs with 5 speeds and the price went up. I am
> pretty disgusted with Honda.

Is this an automatic with the transmission cooler in the radiator?

D

They don't rebuilt engines with over 40k km on them, at least not the
place I called, too risky. So if you're going to the junkyard make sure
it's a low milage engine.

Are U sure it is oil and not just gunk [rust, sediment, etc. from a
poorly maintained system] that U are seeing? The "coffee" color
description may be just that, gunk, sediment, etc.? I don't see much
in your post that really helps anyone pinpoint or lead you to a
reasonable fix.


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wrote:
> I have 85,000 miles. 4 cylinder & 5-speed manual. I take good care of
>
> the car and never had any problems. Did the maint and a few small
> repairs like CV boots, etc. The radiator fan must have failed an it
> overheated rapidly. I shut it down fast.
>
> The car was fine but I had oil in the radiator. I took it in. I had
> the head rebuilt, new head gasket, new radiator, radiator fan, changed
> the timing belt, hoses and other things. I spent about $2700.
>
> I got the car back and drove it for about two weeks then saw coffee on
> the driveway. I checked the radiator and had coffee again. I took it
> back to the mechanic and now he is pushing a rebuilt motor at cost -
> $900 and $600 in labor. He obviously is feeling a little guilty. The
>
> car is in good shape. Sadly, we did not go down the replace the engine
> path first. He thinks there might be a crack in the block.
>
> Any suggestions? I doubt any stop leak stuff will help. I can flush
> the radiator but the oil can get back in fast. I am not sure if the
> oil or water is under more pressure.
>
> The oil leak prodicts that swell gaskets will not work. I spoke to CRC
>
> who make nano technology stop leak products going in via the radiator
> but they said if the oil comes into the cooling too fast - their
> product will not work.
>
> I loved my Honda but I never had a car have a catastrophic failure like
>
> this.
>
> No dealers have Accord VPNs with 5 speeds and the price went up. I am
> pretty disgusted with Honda.

I would ensure that the cooling system , radiator and engine block are
completely flushed.
I would check for water in the oil and see how much oil is being lost .


Then you can decide if the block is cracked and what to do next.

A motor from a wrecker yard seems your cheapest option at this time .

wrote:
> wrote:
> > I have 85,000 miles. 4 cylinder & 5-speed manual. I take good care of
> >
> > the car and never had any problems. Did the maint and a few small
> > repairs like CV boots, etc. The radiator fan must have failed an it
> > overheated rapidly. I shut it down fast.
> >
> > The car was fine but I had oil in the radiator. I took it in. I had
> > the head rebuilt, new head gasket, new radiator, radiator fan, changed
> > the timing belt, hoses and other things. I spent about $2700.
> >
> > I got the car back and drove it for about two weeks then saw coffee on
> > the driveway. I checked the radiator and had coffee again. I took it
> > back to the mechanic and now he is pushing a rebuilt motor at cost -
> > $900 and $600 in labor. He obviously is feeling a little guilty. The
> >
> > car is in good shape. Sadly, we did not go down the replace the engine
> > path first. He thinks there might be a crack in the block.
> >
> > Any suggestions? I doubt any stop leak stuff will help. I can flush
> > the radiator but the oil can get back in fast. I am not sure if the
> > oil or water is under more pressure.
> >
> > The oil leak prodicts that swell gaskets will not work. I spoke to CRC
> >
> > who make nano technology stop leak products going in via the radiator
> > but they said if the oil comes into the cooling too fast - their
> > product will not work.
> >
> > I loved my Honda but I never had a car have a catastrophic failure like
> >
> > this.
> >
> > No dealers have Accord VPNs with 5 speeds and the price went up. I am
> > pretty disgusted with Honda.
>
> Is this an automatic with the transmission cooler in the radiator?
>
> D

No. 5-speed manual.

Knifeblade_03 wrote:
> Are U sure it is oil and not just gunk [rust, sediment, etc. from a
> poorly maintained system] that U are seeing? The "coffee" color
> description may be just that, gunk, sediment, etc.? I don't see much
> in your post that really helps anyone pinpoint or lead you to a
> reasonable fix.
>
>
> --
> Knifeblade_03
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Knifeblade_03's Profile: http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...?userid=262826
> View this thread: http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=656188
>
> http://www.automotiveforums.com

It was coffee looking after flushing a few times. It was losing about a
1/4 of a quart of oil in 2 months after repair.

Update. I went to the shop today. The mechanic was able to get the
leak slowed dramatically. The coolant looks very clean after driving a
few miles with just a few tiny flecks of coffee looking oil in the
coolant that you can barely see. He flushed it repeatedly and used a
sealer that he said was safe. He suggested the best bet would be to
buy a used/wrecked car engine with low miles. He would install it for
around $600.

"Wm Watt" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> They don't rebuilt engines with over 40k km on them, at least not the
> place I called, too risky. So if you're going to the junkyard make sure
> it's a low milage engine.
>

Just curious, why would that be risky? In most cases, I don't see anyone
would rebuild an engine with less than 40k km.