diff --git a/webclient/http1/src/main/java/io/helidon/webclient/http1/Http1CallChainBase.java b/webclient/http1/src/main/java/io/helidon/webclient/http1/Http1CallChainBase.java
index 3f616060f3d..ca0b0e9320d 100644
--- a/webclient/http1/src/main/java/io/helidon/webclient/http1/Http1CallChainBase.java
+++ b/webclient/http1/src/main/java/io/helidon/webclient/http1/Http1CallChainBase.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2023, 2024 Oracle and/or its affiliates.
+ * Copyright (c) 2023, 2025 Oracle and/or its affiliates.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -277,7 +277,7 @@ private static boolean mayHaveEntity(Status responseStatus, ClientResponseHeader
             return false;
         }
         // Why is NOT_MODIFIED_304 not added here too?
-        if (responseStatus == Status.NO_CONTENT_204) {
+        if (responseStatus.code() == Status.NO_CONTENT_204.code()) {
             return false;
         }
         if ((
diff --git a/webclient/tests/webclient/pom.xml b/webclient/tests/webclient/pom.xml
index 7af7e955858..a2f62a32936 100644
--- a/webclient/tests/webclient/pom.xml
+++ b/webclient/tests/webclient/pom.xml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!--
-    Copyright (c) 2020, 2024 Oracle and/or its affiliates.
+    Copyright (c) 2020, 2025 Oracle and/or its affiliates.
 
     Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
     you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -109,6 +109,11 @@
             <artifactId>junit-jupiter-api</artifactId>
             <scope>test</scope>
         </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
+            <artifactId>junit-jupiter-params</artifactId>
+            <scope>test</scope>
+        </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.hamcrest</groupId>
             <artifactId>hamcrest-all</artifactId>
diff --git a/webclient/tests/webclient/src/test/java/io/helidon/webclient/tests/ReasonPhraseTest.java b/webclient/tests/webclient/src/test/java/io/helidon/webclient/tests/ReasonPhraseTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e7a06a219ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/webclient/tests/webclient/src/test/java/io/helidon/webclient/tests/ReasonPhraseTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,174 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) 2025 Oracle and/or its affiliates.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package io.helidon.webclient.tests;
+
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.OutputStream;
+import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
+import java.net.ServerSocket;
+import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+import java.time.Duration;
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
+import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+import java.util.regex.Matcher;
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+
+import io.helidon.http.HeaderNames;
+import io.helidon.logging.common.LogConfig;
+import io.helidon.webclient.api.HttpClientResponse;
+import io.helidon.webclient.api.WebClient;
+
+import org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.AfterAll;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeAll;
+import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
+import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.ValueSource;
+
+import static java.lang.System.Logger.Level.DEBUG;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.is;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.startsWith;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertFalse;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertThrowsExactly;
+
+/**
+ * Reason phrase is optional, but space behind status is mandatory.
+ * <pre>{@code
+ *  Status-Line = HTTP-Version SP Status-Code SP Reason-Phrase CRLF
+ *  Reason-Phrase  = *<TEXT, excluding CR, LF>
+ *  CR = <US-ASCII CR, carriage return (13)>
+ *  LF  = <US-ASCII LF, linefeed (10)>
+ *  SP  = <US-ASCII SP, space (32)>
+ * }</pre>
+ */
+class ReasonPhraseTest {
+
+    private static final System.Logger LOGGER = System.getLogger(ReasonPhraseTest.class.getName());
+    private static final String CUSTOM_STATUS_LINE = "Custom-Status-Line";
+    private static final Pattern CUSTOM_STATUS_LINE_HEADER_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("Custom-Status-Line: ([^\r]*)");
+    private static final String CRLF = "\r\n";
+    private static ServerSocket socket;
+    private static WebClient client;
+    private static ExecutorService executor;
+
+    @BeforeAll
+    static void beforeAll() throws IOException {
+        LogConfig.configureRuntime();
+        socket = new ServerSocket();
+        socket.bind(new InetSocketAddress("localhost", 0));
+
+        client = WebClient.builder()
+                .keepAlive(true)
+                .readTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(1))
+                .baseUri("http://localhost:" + socket.getLocalPort())
+                .build();
+
+        executor = Executors.newVirtualThreadPerTaskExecutor();
+        executor.submit(ReasonPhraseTest::startMockServer);
+    }
+
+    @AfterAll
+    static void afterAll() throws InterruptedException {
+        try {
+            socket.close();
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            throw new RuntimeException(e);
+        }
+        executor.shutdownNow();
+        executor.awaitTermination(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+    }
+
+    @ParameterizedTest
+    @ValueSource(strings = {
+            "HTTP/1.1 204 No content",
+            "HTTP/1.1 204 Custom reason",
+            "HTTP/1.1 204 "
+    })
+    void allowedStatusLines(String statusLine) {
+        HttpClientResponse res = client
+                .delete("/test")
+                .header(HeaderNames.create(CUSTOM_STATUS_LINE), statusLine)
+                .request();
+
+        assertFalse(res.entity().hasEntity());
+        IllegalStateException e = assertThrowsExactly(IllegalStateException.class,
+                                                      () -> res.as(String.class));
+        MatcherAssert.assertThat(e.getMessage(), is("No entity"));
+    }
+
+    @ParameterizedTest
+    @ValueSource(strings = {
+            "HTTP/1.1 204"
+    })
+    void badStatusLines(String statusLine) {
+        var e = assertThrowsExactly(IllegalStateException.class,
+                                    () -> client
+                                            .delete("/test")
+                                            .header(HeaderNames.create(CUSTOM_STATUS_LINE), statusLine)
+                                            .request());
+
+        MatcherAssert.assertThat(e.getMessage(),
+                                 startsWith("HTTP Response did not contain HTTP status line. Line: HTTP/1.0 or HTTP/1.1"));
+    }
+
+    private static void startMockServer() {
+        while (!socket.isClosed()) {
+            try (var s = socket.accept();
+                    var os = s.getOutputStream();
+                    var is = s.getInputStream()) {
+                ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+                ByteBuffer bb = ByteBuffer.allocate(1024);
+                int bytesRecevied;
+                while ((bytesRecevied = is.read(bb.array())) != -1) {
+                    baos.write(bb.array(), 0, bytesRecevied);
+                    if (is.available() == 0) {
+                        break;
+                    }
+                }
+
+                String requestContent = baos.toString();
+
+                // parse out custom status header value
+                String customStatusLine = Arrays.stream(requestContent.split(CRLF))
+                        .map(CUSTOM_STATUS_LINE_HEADER_PATTERN::matcher)
+                        .filter(Matcher::matches)
+                        .findFirst()
+                        .map(m -> m.group(1))
+                        .orElseThrow();
+
+                writeLine(customStatusLine, os);
+                writeLine("Content-Type: text/plain;charset=UTF-8", os);
+                writeLine("Keep-Alive: timeout=20", os);
+                writeLine("Connection: keep-alive", os);
+                writeLine("", os);
+                os.flush();
+            } catch (Exception e) {
+                LOGGER.log(DEBUG, "Error in mock server.", e);
+                break;
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static void writeLine(String line, OutputStream os) throws IOException {
+        os.write(line.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
+        os.write(CRLF.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
+    }
+
+}