Engine overheating on a 1998 Honda Civic LX 4 door sedan
I have a 1998 honda civic lx. It's overheating. I replaced my thermostat & gasket. It's still overheating. The upper radiator hose is hot when the engine is warm, & the engine warms up as usual. The only other obvious thing I see is that I didn't have my coolant reservoir attached (the reservoir where excess coolant would go into) and where the hose would connect to the coolant reservoir, it's plugged with a screw (my mechanic did that when my car had gotten into an accident awhile ago. It was working fine when I got it back except that the engine would get hotter than normal, but then would get to normal operating temperature, and it was like that for awhile. I started getting sick of it fluctuating and wanted the engine to stay at normal operating temp. and stop fluctuating from normal to really hot, which is why I decided to change the thermostat. Ever since I changed the thermostat though, my engine would get really hot up to overheating and wouldn't fluctuate back down to normal.) Today, I'm getting a hose to reconnect my coolant reservoir to the radiator - could this be the culprit? As I mentioned, my car was operating fine, although it kept fluctuating from normal to hot, until I changed my thermostat, then it kept on getting hot to overheating. My upper radiator hose is hot, I see no coolant leaks... could the lack of the coolant reservoir be the culprit? If not, what else could it be? Thank you & have a good day.