Headgasket? Thermostat? Some questions...weird symptoms

[S13xCrazy]

Alright guys, so recently i sold my 1993 hatch to a good buddy of mine, so i have been driving my 1991 coupe again.

So it was like 0degrees out, my car had not been started in a while (3 or 4 months) and i started er up, and boom right on first try.Got what i needed, took her for a drive and i had heat for a little while and then all of a sudden no more heat.

Watching my temp gauge, i noticed that it went to the middle and then would drop, and stay down.

So I checked the radiator fluid, seemed a little low not to bad, topped it off, added some to the tank and let it sit for a bit while i was gathering other materials.

Went outside, and noticed it was almost to the top of the gauge(as in overheating).

I Drove it a little bit, and she started to go back down,

And this happens back and forth to me, no heat, and shes been wanting to overheat now more then underheat.

Think it is the head gasket? The coolant didn't seem to brown from what i could see, but my brothers buddy pointed out some water in the top of a cylinder.2 of my 4 plugs were WHITE.

Thanks guys,Tony

[James@CI]

I would do a compression test first or just take off the radiator cap and start it up and see if it bubbles and raises out.Then if you do not have a blown head gasket and still having a heating issue that would sound to me like you have air in the system some were.

[S13xCrazy]

yeah the coolant bumps up and down.so from that i figured head gasket right?

[James@CI]

That is a very good sign of it but just to make sure I would do a compression check just to be sure.

[S13xCrazy]

eh last night we already decided to rip the head off, i just wanted to get more of an idea here today.

It only takes an hour or so to get the head off, so we went for it. I'm just checking, because now with the head off its probably easier to get at the other items.

[James@CI]

HAHA I tell you a funny fix that I did one time.The guy had a KA24E well he was getting coolant in his oil and into the cylenders.Well I thought it was head gasket and well it wasn't he ran the timing for so long that the chain cut into the front cover and the coolant was getting into the cylenders through the blow by.Yea first time I saw that one.

[goeatpaiste]

if it was really cold it could have been that your coolant doesnt have enough antifreeze and there are ice chunks in there. happened to me one time.

stevo

[4cefed]

HAHA I tell you a funny fix that I did one time.The guy had a KA24E well he was getting coolant in his oil and into the cylenders.Well I thought it was head gasket and well it wasn't he ran the timing for so long that the chain cut into the front cover and the coolant was getting into the cylenders through the blow by.Yea first time I saw that one.

Interesting. Mine has about 150k miles on a KA24DE and it uses coolant. I've never seen signs in the oil or the coolant. I haven't seen any leaks either. In a month it uses about a quart or so of coolant. But I've had temp control issues like what Crazy has. I think it's usually air trapped behind the thermostat. I've noticed with this car it can take a few cycles to get all the air out.