'87 Accord LX-I ??'s

Hey.

New member. I got an '87 Accord LX-I. Lots of rust, and a few problems. Biggest one is overheating. Gotta keep the heat on high to keep it in noral range. Ive been told its a cracked head, but somone else said that cant be, cause the car wouldnt have run as long as it has if that were the case. Powersteering leaks alot, so it doesnt work. And the alternator sucks :) Also, the car wobbles a bit when i brake at 55+



Now heres the question.

Ive got a friend who said, if i could find a replacement engine for a reasonable price, he would help me get it.

What type of engine should i get/look for? Right now its got a 2.0L SOHC, M/T. I dont know all the specs on it, just the basics. Its also got quite a few miles on it, but since i wrecked my '94 Mitsubishi Mirage LS, i had to get a car fast, and this one was cheap. $400.

If anyone could help me, that would be great.

I know ill get the usual, that car sucks, its got too many problems, but right now, its all i got, and i want it to go for a while.


Even with all the problems, it still moves quick :) I beat a Camaro of unknown year in a stoplight to stoplight race. I dont think he was totally serious until i took off, but i still beat him :)


Any help is appreciated. Thanks guys.

Another possibilty why it is running hot is a clogged radiator. Your heater is doing what your radiator should be doing if you do not have a broken head. Symptoms of a head problem is water in the oil, water in the exhaust, water loss. excessive pressure in the radiator etc. Working on the radiator is the cheapest place to start. Radiator cleaner/flush will clean out some of the clogged ones. On others, you might have to take the radiator out and test and clean it out outside the car.

I had an old Chevy with a 231 V6 that my dipstick brother overheated real bad cuz he wouldn't fix the water pump, cracked both heads but still ran fine.

He gave it to me for some money he owed me, and I just drove it, wasn't interested in fixing it. Just had to run the coolant level low, and leave the radiator cap loose, or else it would try to blow everything out. Drove it for over a year that way, no problems.

Easiest way to see about the radiator core being hogged up would be to fill the radiator with the engine cold, leave the cap off, and start it, letting it warm to operating temp. When the thermostat opens, the upper hose will suddenly get warm, and the water will begin moving from one side to the other in the radiator. When you give it a little gas, the coolant level should drop down, and start moving faster. The radiator should then rapidly become evenly warm throughout the whole core, with no cold spots. The coolant level will begin to surge up and down in the time preceeding thermostat opening, that's normal. If it starts pushing coolant out right away with a cold motor, and just pushes it out in a steady flow, there is probably a compression leak in the head or head gasket.

Also, you didn't mention, does the rad fan run almost all the time? It should, running that hot. If not, that's part of the problem. Both fans should be running hard once it starts to overheat.

If you swap motors, do like for like. PTA trying to do a swap with a different motor, even with simple cars.

Personally, I'd put a new head on that one if it runs that well, before I'd swap an engine.

I'm betting you have nothing more than a fan or thermostat problem.

Those were great motors, I'd keep it if I could. 130,000 is nothing for them. The one I'm working on has almost 200,000 on it, runs strong, no smoke, doesn't use oil, I've seen 'em go over 300,000 with no major problems.

Ill sure check out the radiator. I hope its that simple of a problem. :)

Anyway, the car has 226k miles on it. So its getting close.

The car overheats only when its moving. Not when its idling, so thermostat i dont think is it. once the RPM's go up, its not long after that the heat goes up, depending on the weather.

Thanks for the help guys, ill check it out one of these days that i have off of work.

Edit: Checked the radiator thing. The coolant in the radiator didnt move at all until the car got a little warm, then it ran over. Also, i noticed that neither radiator fan was moving. I checked the fuses, and the fuse marked cooling fan has a 15A fuse, which is fine, but there is no fuse in the Subcooling fan slot. There is one in the other slots marked Subcooling fan relay and one other thing, but there is none in the main subcooling fan slot. Could that be? Maybe a disconnect thats making the fans not work?

I checked all the fuses, and they are all good, i even replaced them all with the spares in the car. Even when i run hte AC, none of the radiator fans turn on. Is it possible that either the relays are bad, or that the fans are blown?

If so, how can i check? And if the fans are blown, how much does it usually cost to get that fixed?

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

I have an 87 DX and came accross this same problem, I can tell you that if fan motors are working, it can be either the sending unit under the radiator, or my problem which is the cooling fan relay, this is located in the relay box in the left of the engine compartment, one way to tell is to take out the relay and try jumping two of the terminals, this worked for me, I currently have them jumped with wires because the part is hard to find, since only the orginal manufacturer makes the part.
I recently had to replace my radiator because it blew because of overheating, after replacing that after the water pump went, I changed the thermostat and clean the hoses, clogged hoses was a cause of over heating aswell, after all that the car runs with no more overheating, just some food for thought. :)

If it turns out to be the relay, the relay is a 4-pin Mitsuba RC-2203, after some recent checking around, I think advance autoparts has it online, a Niehoff Ignition RL37641 it looks similar to the mitsuba and is fairly cheap.

P.S To check the relay, take off the compartment cover, remove the relay and refer to the diagram on the relay http://oem.overnightautoparts.com/parts/overnightautoparts/viewImage.jsp?image=img.overnightautoparts.com/live/P2020130506OEA.JPG
And jump terminals 1 and 5 with a wire, then turn the key and see if the fans turn on.

Usually when the fans are the cause, it will over heat when NOT moving, and cool off as the car starts moving. You seem to have the opposite happening. A thermostat that is stuck partly open can cause this, as it won't allow enough flow to cool the motor at driving speeds, but may be sufficient for idle speed, so don't rule it out.

I can't remember if one that old has bleeder screws on the cooling system, but an air lock can cause the same type of problem that you are seeing.

There are so many things that can cause problems like this, you have to be able to systematically rule out each and go to the next until you arrive at the cause.

Thinking back, I've seen engines behave like that when the impeller in the water pump stripped it's press fit on the shaft, and would turn slowly at idle, but at higher speed would slip and not move, stopping flow.

All kinds of stranges thing can happen. You have to verify

1. Proper coolant level, no air if system has bleeder(s)

2. Start engine cold, radiator cap on. Feel upper hose. If pressure builds right away, compression leak (head gasket, cracked head) is suspect

3. Theremostat opens, and good flow is observed in the radiator

4. If flow is weak or none, system blockage or bad pump, faulty themostat

5. If themostat opens, good flow is noted, run until fans come on.

6. If temp goes hot without fan operation, check fan electrics

Note: It is not uncommon for the fans and thermostat to not operate properly with a compression leak. Compression leakage forces air into the cooling system that will find it's way to the thermostat. If a sufficient pocket of air is backed up against the thermostat's element, it can't directly sense the coolant temp, and will fail to open. Since fan temp switches are usually in the thermostat housing, it will effect them as well.

It sounds like someone might have been switching fuses and relays around, attempting to get the fans to work. From what you describe, I doubt that the fans are the cause (like I said, it should overheat when idling and NOT moving, if that were the case).

It may well be a compression leak, the faster the engine runs, the more air is pumped into the cooling system, and everything goes haywire. We used to have a tool at the shop that was just a glass cylinder with a rubber stopper at one end, you'd push the stopper into the radiator neck and fill the cylinder with coolant, so you were in effect looking directly at the top level of the coolant. Then you start the motor and watch for bubbles. Any indicates a compression leak.

You can do the same thing with the coolant resevoir, if the radiator is full you can leave the radiator cap loose one notch and watch the resevoir as you run the motor up. If you see an endless stream of air bubbles coming out of the transfer hose, you've got a problem.

Okay, thanks. Ill check on that.

The sub cooling fan now turns on. But that really only helps when the car is off and needs to cool down fast. I hope its something simple like a thermostat stuck. Cause i dont wanna have to replace anything major like the heads or even the whole engine.

But ill check the coolant. Thanks for the advice.

you have the a20a3 engine if you are looking into replacing it. i have an 1989 lx-i with 216430 miles or so. when i got it last year, i had it sent in for check up and all and the mechanic told me he removed the original timing belt (had about 212000 miles then). so the engines are true champs. check www.3geez.com for stuff about the car and maybe more fellows who could help you.