My son bought a second hand civic. It needed a new rad and thermostsat. My friend and I replaced them and the car ran great... until I had to put it back in the garage and now it will not start. The battery is great, car has gas but still will not start. We didn't do anything but the rad and thermostsat. I checked for code errors and I get only the one blink. Any ideas? I appreciate any help I can get, thanks in advance.

Chris from Halifax N.S

Does the engine get gas now?

Does it get spark?

There is spark and it is getting gas. My friend thinks it is airlocked as we put in the new rad and thermostat. He told me to try to start the car with the rad cap and resivoir cap off. I just did this and it wants to turnover but doesn't. There wasn't any air build up in the rad lines, so am not sure what to do now. I have even tried to bleed the line from the thermostat, bled some air but wouldn't start. It worked no problem after we replaced the rad. I am stumped.

The car should even start without the radiator... I don't think that's your problem.

Are all fuses OK? Is timing OK? Is the timing belt OK? Is your distributor OK?

I have my friend coming to look at it on Wednesday. We will look at those items and let you know. Thanks for your help.

Well my friend and I were working on the car again, and had it running, not good, but running. He opened the oil cap and it was a light brown colour and frothy... am I looking at a head gasket replacement? Do you think the engine coolant flushed through the engine? Finally, is this a job a un-tech like person could do or is it a major repairshop job? Thanks for your info.

I have no idea if you're looking at a head job... I am not familiar with symptoms of a bad head gasket (visually).

What I can tell you is that in order to replace the head gasket, you must not be afraid to work with tools, and that's about it :) I'm just dissasemblying my first engine in my garage, and everything is really quite easy... you just have to have quality tools and it's all easy.

Replacing the head gasket (in general) requires you to:
- flush coolant
- flush oil
- disconnect intake and exhaust manifolds
- disconnect all vacuum and coolant lines and electrical connectors from the head
- take the head off
- clean any head gasket remains off the engine block
- have your engine head surface (where it touches the block) "shaved" (just to make it straight) by a machine shop
- put the new head gasket on (preferably OEM)
- put the head on
- torque down the head bolts to specifications, watching out to torque them in a criss-cross pattern
- connect everything back
- replace oil filter and put in new oil
- put in new antifreeze mixture
- disconnect the spark plug wires and crank your car until the "oil pressure" light goes off (do not crank for more than 10 seconds at a time), so that you're sure the oil has circulated around the engine head again
- connect the spark plug wires back and start your car

Thanks so much for your help. My son called a civic speciality shop and quoted him $800.00 Canadian for the job, and $900.00 for a refurbished engine installed. In the end his decision. Again, thanks very much for your help.