I have 2000 accord ex 2.3 vtec. Coming home the upper radiator hose blew and stayed to overheat. Replaced hose and put antifreeze in and still overheated. Replaced thermostat drove around and still overheating.antifreeze in the head was thick sludge looking Brown color. Thought maybe head gasket so did compression test and compression was identical on all 4. Dipstick looks good with no sign of water. Any clues what to check

 

Compression is 180 on every cylinder like I said no water in the oil but appears to be oil in radiator and is blow back in the radiator into the reservoir

 

Compression test frequently won't show a bad HG. Do a leak down test.

 

I'm now having similar issue minus the busted radiator hose and over heating. But getting the blowback into the radiator and reservoir did the compression test too and didn't really tell anything

 

we had the radiator top hose blow, replaced hose and coolant, then three weeks later the car had an overheating problem again. We took it to a shop and they said the thermostat was okay but the water pump had leaked out all the coolant. $900 later we had the timing belt, water pump, tensioners and seals all replaced. I will get to the thermostat later -- they say it's still fine.

I can imagine the water pump was pushed to its end-of-life by pressure of the first overheating. However I wonder if the thermostat was sticking at all to cause that first overheating, or if it was just a weak aging hose.

 

Assuming you have an automatic, I would drain the transmission fluid into a clear container and check to see if there is fluid in it. I see on occasion the radiator failing internally between the engine coolant and transmission cooler located on the bottom portion of the radiator. This allows the transmission and A/T fluid to mix. The problem becomes if that is in fact the case did it fail just because or is there another underlying issue. Thus check that and post back. You can try checking the tyranny dip stick but sometimes it can be hard to tell, thus draining is recommended.

If you have a manual transmission then oil in the coolant would have to be from the engine/bad head gasket, or, less likely, if you had work done at a shop they put a bad coolant in.

 

Thanks for the help guys. It is a manual so guess I will be doing a leak down test to check it before I tear into it taking the head off

 

Starting on putting new head gasket on. What is the best way to get all this oil out of the cooling system? Will a regular radiator flush work? Does it need to be pressure flushed at a shop?

 

You can fill it run it and drain it with soapy water, then flush with clean water then add new coolant.