Yesterday my 87 Honda Civic CRX started overheating, and ended up redlining before I could make it to a safe spot. The coolant tank has been needed to be refilled occasionally since I bought the car almost a year ago. Today it was discovered that there was a hole in a hose that carries the coolant. The radiator had a weird sludge in it rather than coolant, though it was topped off today. The car hasn’t been idling at its normal temperature since the overheating yesterday, and the heat is blowing ice cold air despite the high temperature gauge reading. Also, the radiator fan hasn’t been turning on today. I am wondering if perhaps the thermometer needs to be replaced, or maybe something more went wrong like a blown head gasket or maybe the radiator needs to be replaced. Any help on this will be appreciated, we’re stumped over here.
The coolant temp was red-lined for a while, there’s a sludge in the radiator, it has no heat, and it doesn’t idle normal?
That’s a blown head gasket.
Tester