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took my car for a drive on australia day. it was stinking hot. usually the temp gage stand on the 1/3 but with a/c it went up to almost the red. if the a/c was off it went back down again. took it to the mechanic today and he recon it's the head gusket. he said there was carbon deoxide in the radiator??? the car doesn't use any water or any oil. it's a bit powerless.

subaruesh wrote:took it to the mechanic today and he recon it's the head gusket. he said there was carbon deoxide in the radiator??? the car doesn't use any water or any oil. it's a bit powerless.

Sounds like your mechanic could be right. It seems with the good ol' EA82's there are various stages of a blown head gasket -> blows exhaust gas into the radiator a tiny bit -> uses some water and blows exhaust gas into the radiator -> uses oil and water, blows bubbles in the radiator, gets hot quick...

Looks like you have the first one. You can live with this, but don't stress the car out too much.

It would be good to check the condition of the heads when they're off. I've got heads that have cracked between the ports, and my pick a part engine is in an un-known condition after two serious over heating episodes (makes whistle/pop sound with oil cap off, and blows loads of smoke out there too).

How far has this engine gone? Has it been over-heated before? Blown head gaskets are a common problem with these engines after being over-heated...

I'm sure someone else could help you out more here, my edu-guess-amication is that the mechanic is right and a change of head gaskets is needed.

the car has 190,000 km on it. I bought it from the first owner 20,000 km ago. don't know what it's history but as I said. never had to add one drop of oil or water. how hard is it to change gasket DIY? is that why the car is underpowered?

I wouldn't be too keen to rush out and replace the head gaskets. It may be worth checking out some easier items first, such as: Does the electric fan run when the aircon is on? Is it running the right way... yes I've seen an L-Series where someone hooked the fan up the wrong way around and it was blowing rather than drawing air into the radiator and this did increase engine temperatures. Thermostats are known to get lazy as they get older and might not be opening fully, and also L-Series radiators are known to clog up as they get older and not flow properly. Also the engine driven fan has a hydraulic clutch on it and these can also start slipping excessivley when they get older causing the fan to operate in-effectively. It would be well worth your while (and for your bank balance) to make sure these items are OK before pulling the heads off.

thanks for the advise. I don't think it's the fan as the temp rose at high speed so there should be enough cooling wind. how can I check for a cloged radiator? and how to replace thermostate?

remove radiator and lay it flat on ground leave cap on and shove garden hose in one hose fitting and see how easily it flows out the other end. should almost give no resistance to water flow and you might see some muck flow out.
a radiator shop might be able to test it for you and give their professional opinion.

20,000k and no oil added ? I hope you've changed it in that space. I can see the previous owner thinking ..."170,000 k and not even an oil change"

replace radiator cap is cheap first option

of course I changed oil.
cheers for the advise