v tec overheating

[CB3]

MB6 1997 B18
when driving its ok. when come to stand still it begins to overheat. carry on driving its normal again. Warm air through heaters comes no problem'
rad fan works. every single part has been changed. can not see any leaks.
its pressurising at stand still & pushes the water out from the overflow bottle when engine switched off.
i assume its taking air from somewhere ?
its dam well pissin me off like!!

[Dracoro]

When did you replace the thermostat?

[Qube]

CB3 said:

MB6 1997 B18
when driving its ok. when come to stand still it begins to overheat. carry on driving its normal again. Warm air through heaters comes no problem'
rad fan works. every single part has been changed. can not see any leaks.
its pressurising at stand still & pushes the water out from the overflow bottle when engine switched off.
i assume its taking air from somewhere ?
its dam well pissin me off like!!

Can you provide answers to the following:

1. Have you got white residue inside the oil filler cap ?
2. Check the colour of the oil, has it seperated and looks brown in colour ?
3. Is the water in the expansion bottle bubbling ?
4. Have you notice white smoke coming out of the exhaust ?

[CB3]

thermostat changed last week (78 centigrade)
no white residue inside oil cap
engine oil fine. no water mixture
no bubbles from expansion bottle
no smoke at all from the exhaust pipe instead a little spitting of water

[Qube]

CB3 said:

thermostat changed last week (78 centigrade)
no white residue inside oil cap
engine oil fine. no water mixture
no bubbles from expansion bottle
no smoke at all from the exhaust pipe instead a little spitting of water

That's a good sign.. the only other possibility comes to mind is an airlock in the system (but you say the heaters are working fine).

Have you checked that the thermostat is working in a cup with a thermometer ?

[CB3]

heaters are fine unless i dont top up the radiator water then i will begin to get cool air.
thermostat changed twice & checked both by throwing them in a kettle with boiling water. they open & close fine.
its complicated situation. i cant figure out what it is
could there be a crack in the head ?
am going to get an engine pressure test this week

[MrFlibbles]

sounds like a problem i had with my mr2, same symptoms which turned out to be a warped head.

[westmoorfarm]

Sounds somehwat familiar - 1989 CRX would overheat at idle, all fans working, no white stuff in oil. Turned out the radiator was clogged up with scale (garage used tap water when changing coolant I suspect - Cambridgeshire hard water!) - try getting radiator flow tested. If its blocked a refurbished radiator is usually a reasonable price and carries the same warranty as a new Honda one.

Edited by westmoorfarm on Monday 26th October 17:22

[CB3]

problem fixed!
would you believe that i was told that the head bolts need tightning up more'
had done a complete engine re-build 10k ago.

[Kozy]

I've got a similar problem in my EK4, temperature creeps up on idle in traffic, holding it at about 1500rpm brings it back down again.

Noticed the heaters are taking a long time to get up to temperature now, considerably longer than it takes the engine to get warm, is this an airlock problem?