99 Civic Dx Overheating!! HELP

okay I've read some post already but i need to explain my prolbem.

First of all my fans not working. What i mean is that the fan does not turn on when the temp. rises. The fan, if powered manually , does turn on. I've AREADY replace the temp coolant sensor-- and the fan still does not work. And the relay fuse is not broken because i switched the relay with the ac fan and it stills work.

So right now i have a bypass with switch for the fan. i have to turn it manually on with a switch from the battery to the fan.

BUT the prolbem doesn't end there-- even with the fan on and driving with air flow, the temp will rise almost to the top and then goes down. I've also changed the thermostat as well.

is my head gasket blown? and if it is... is it hard to replace?
any help would be much appreciated.

if you have good heat inside the car rarely is the head gasket blown.. i'd go to a shop that can do a combustion test if you don't have heat

Hi, let me start of by asking how many miles you have on the car?? I have a 97 HX just past the 110XXX marker and I had to replace the head gasket because mmy car was overheating, its really not that hard of a job, i did it in about 3 hours. The fan problem your discribing sounds like the FAN SWITCH, is teh problem, its the sensor looking thing on the thermostat housing, the only one there.. Here is how you test that, with the car turned off, unplug the sensor, put a little jumper wire in the harnes and turn the key to the run position, if the fan comes on, replace the fan switch 100% at fault, they do go out after a while, I've had to replace them twice on 2 different cars that I own (95 hatch and a 93 integra)

The head gasket!! If your coolant smells funny or is not bright green, or it keeps going into the overflow bottle, then its definately the head gasket, the factory head gasket has a coating on it that will peal off agter a few years of abuse, (everyday driving) what happenes is that the cylinders pushes some of the compression into the cooling system and with air/fuel in there now, sometimes oil, the coolant cannot do its job to maintain engine operating temp so the temp rises.. When this happenes defenately time for a new head gasket, and since your there, miight as well replace the T-belt and waterpump like I did, at autozone the belt was 34.99 and the water pump was 26.95. It can all be done in a day just remember to tourq the head bolts down by the book and in the sequence and you'll be just fine.. Good luck.:)

Hi, let me start of by asking how many miles you have on the car?? I have a 97 HX just past the 110XXX marker and I had to replace the head gasket because mmy car was overheating, its really not that hard of a job, i did it in about 3 hours. The fan problem your discribing sounds like the FAN SWITCH, is teh problem, its the sensor looking thing on the thermostat housing, the only one there.. Here is how you test that, with the car turned off, unplug the sensor, put a little jumper wire in the harnes and turn the key to the run position, if the fan comes on, replace the fan switch 100% at fault, they do go out after a while, I've had to replace them twice on 2 different cars that I own (95 hatch and a 93 integra)

Is this the sensor you where talking about

http://i996.photobucket.com/albums/af82/sentoyang/DSC00925-2.jpg

if so what is it called? and where can i get it?