2001 accord no start issues

Disclaimer.... I apologize in advance for being wordy.....

Howdy. I had a no start issue w/ my accord on the way home from work and wanted to get some opinions on it. I work about 30miles away( all highway ) and stopped at the Target near my house on the way home. Out of the blue, the car acted like it wanted to "bog down" and cut off when I tried to start it after I left the store. It started on the 3rd or 4th try and then ran fine. So, I decided to push my luck and make one more stop before I got home. It took even longer to start the next time and then the check engine light came on. Stopped by local parts place near the house to have the codes pulled. The store was packed and it took about 30min for someone to get freed up to pull the codes. After two attempts at pulling the codes w/ the ign. switched to "on", the clerk asked me to start the car. This time, it never did.

The car is a 4cyl 2001 accord with about 267k miles on it. I've been nursing a cooling issue on and off since last winter-ish( maybe longer ). I recently gave up on the temporary radiator patches and decided to replace the radiator, upper heater core hose and radiator cap. I didn't replace the rad hoses, thermostat or water pump because they had been replaced last winter. Its been about 1wk and about 500miles since I did the repairs.

While I was checking things out under the hood, I noticed that the upper rad hose was swollen, the bottom was very firm and the coolant overflow was empty. They were fine when I left work, b/c I checked the rad and looked around b4 I left work. I added a few ounces of coolant to my radiator and everything else seemed ok. A guy at the store said that he used to race hondas. He thought that my no start condition could be temp related. He said that if the t-stat fails closed, a signal is sent to the computer to tell the car not to start. As a side note, the car has gotten above 3/4 on the temp guage once or twice due to low coolant levels, but its been several weeks since the last incident, and I cut the car off asap.

1) Has anyone ever had this happen and does his theory make any since at all? 2) If not this, what should I look it? The car turns over fine, and I smelled gas once while starting it. Also, the timing belt is only 9-12mnts old. I had to pull the distributor to replace the heater hose, but the car has run fine since that repair.

The car is at the store now, but I have a way to work tomorrow. Does anyone have any ideas about what to check next?

I would be concerned about the head gasket. If it's putting coolant into a cylinder or two while shut off that would explain the hard start. Verify that you have spark and fuel pressure. If so check the head gasket. You could check for bubbles pushing out through the coolant when cranking, or check compression.

Thanks for the advice. The good thing about breaking down in the parking lot of an auto parts store is that you can easily get stuff you need. The bad thing is that you spend most of your time answering questions and "brainstorming" with well-meaning, random strangers. I can't verify fuel pressure, but I did get enough fuel to smell while I was starting the car once. I didn't get a chance to check for spark. I also think that the compression is ok enough to at least start the car, just from how it sounded.

My first thought was BHG as well, but was trying to rule out other stuff first.