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So I just bought a 96 Honda Prelude Si (H23A1 Engine) manual transmission from an Auction but since the car was hot I didnt have a look at the radiator so when I eventually drove it home and opened the radiator cap I saw ALOT of white gooey stuff all over it and also in the overflow reserve I mean its just on the walls of it real thick..So yeah I thought great, HG problem. But there is no sign of water in the oil(although they have over filled the engine with oil!?!) so I did a compression test on all 4 cylinders and they are all at 198-210 PSI and upon further examination it seems the head has been taken off at some point in the past and at least hot tanked (its alot cleaner than the engine both inside and out) so that leads me to believe the HG has already been replaced but they didnt flush the radiator...OR the white gooey stuff is an after market HG repair chemical that they went crazy with to hide the HG problem? would those really stand the compression test and everything? I went on a 10 mile ride back to my place and also had the car idle for 30minutes without it over heating or smoke out of the back...

and most important of all, how do I get all that crap out of my cooling system now.. I was thinking of draining the coolant, opening the bottom of the radiator and taking the top hose out too and putting a garden hose in it and flushing it out until clear water comes out.. and than turn the heat switch to hot and put the hose in the top radiator hose and wait till clear water comes out at the bottom!!?? would this get everything out?

any help appreciated,
thanks

Mañana

Congrats on your purchase, gotta love the Prelude.

Clearly you know a bit about cars, so the first thing I think you should do is download a factory shop manual, goes under the name Helm. A few guys have been kind enough to upload to the internet copies of various manuals, you’ll soon recognize the names. SpoonerTuner.com - Free downloadable Honda Acura Factory Service Manuals by HELMS .
For easier searching you can add to the contents information from Definitive Guide To the helms Manual.
Hopefully I’m not mixing 4th and 5th gen stuff here.

Another priority would be to drain some of that oil out, certainly if it’s a lot higher than it should be.

I’ve found that those chemical treatments can be quite effective for small problems, and if they stopped the original issue they would easily stand up to a compression test. That written, I would suggest flushing out the cooling system, probably with a chemical flush. I suspect the 4th Gen are the same as the 5th in that it’s a pain because you can’t easily drain the entire system. There are some write-ups in this forum for modified techniques (basically just repeating the procedure multiple times) - as following the procedure in Helm will only replace about half the coolant.
Once it’s clean you can determine if you still have a problem or if it’s been resolved. Obviously also keep a close eye on the oil level and for contaminants.

Lastly, many Prelude issues have already been discussed on this forum (and others), so get familiar with the “search” function and do a little looking before posting questions, some of the guys here understandably have little patience with repeated questions.

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions. And let us know how things turn out.

skyyskyy

My moms neon had a plastic trans cooler connected to the radiator and it cracked causing the trans fluid to leak into the water side. When i was changing everything the trans fluid had turned into a white mucus state in the cooling system. Took a few hours of flushing to get it all out.

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