If what I described happens, then you have a blown head gasket that is letting the engine compression on at least one cylinder leak through to a cooling passage.
it's not an "overflow tank" it's an expansion tank and is an essential part of a sealed cooling system and should always be 3/4 full, try retorqueing the cylinder head bolts it probably will not work but if it does it will save a huge amount of time and money
sounds like it need a new head gasket. It really isn't that hard to do on a D motor. Go replace the timing belt also since one is there already.
The sooner you have done an inexpensive *cooling system pressure test you will find ant external or internal cooling system leaks. IF an internal leak is found, a cylinder leak-down test will show exactly where the internal leak is.
Harley Drive the non-mechanic is incorrect! A non-pressurized plastic coolant recovery reservoir is NOT an expansion tank. No way in heck do they expand!
Bad head or intake gasket.
head gasket, whether you like it or not.
I have a 98' Honda Civic LX. I have had it for 6 years and I have done an extensive amount of work on it. A couple of months ago, my car was over heating so we started trying different fixes. My brother does all of my work. First, he replaced my fan because it was not working which was a small start. Next, he pulled my radiator out and noticed it had a crack I think so we replaced the whole radiator. Unfortunately, it was still over heating so he checked for leaks and could not find any. At this point he was starting to think it was my head gasket but no liquids were leaking out of my exhaust, my coolant did not look milky, I was not blowing out white smoke.
I was losing coolant really quick but the head gasket was something neither of us wanted to do because of the labor and cost. I was driving one day and noticed my hood was steaming so I pulled over and popped my hood just to see where the coolant was going in my car. I noticed it had sprayed everywhere so I went and got a new radiator cap. I was happy because I was not completely losing coolant anymore. The last dealership gave me a wrong cap which was awesome. The problem now is all of my coolant is going into my overflow tank. Every few days, my car is over heating again and I have to open my hood and dump the coolant back in from my over flow container. Today I smelled the coolant in the overflow and it smelled faintly like gasoline. Does anyone have any ideas? Thank you for everyone who takes the time to read
