Car overheating?

indy · Post by **indy** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 11:41 am

I have a 88 L series, last weekend i did a 3 hour journey on the freeway, and noticed the car started to get really hot, pulled over and coolant was spirting out of the resevoir and out of a tiny hole in the top radiator hose.
Ended up replacing the hose, and its still was getting very hot. would have to sit on 80-90 the whole way home, when i hit say 100 it was right near hot.
Got home replaced the radiator cap and then thermostat.... and its still doing it. theres no leaks and plenty of water, but its getting really hot?

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 11:56 am

Maybe you have an air lock.

Park the car facing up hill and take the radiator cap off and top up the radiator with the engine running. This will force all the bubbles to the top of the radiator

spike · Post by **spike** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:21 pm

its a subaru they run hot............

check for an air lock.
flush the radiator, either professionally or by yourself, not really hard just take the radiator out and put the pressure washer on though it. pros have a cap that goes onto and washes the whole system if you can get one do that.

check for a head gasket leak, may be blocking pipes.
check for water pump use.
and are you just using water?? coolent is a lot better. in our old race car we ran straight tectaloy no water at all.

or put a bigger/ secondary radiator in, even a new radiator might do it.

subarus theyre the hottest cars around =)

indy · Post by **indy** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 11:13 am

Okay so today ive put it on some ramps, and topping it up while its running, its just spitting water back out, does this mean its getting too hot, or is that normal?
i checked the radiator for a leak by undoing the bottom hose, and running a hose through the radiator cap and the water flowed out freely.
Also the water pouring out of the radiator when i was filling it was really foamy and had lots of bubbles??

Post by **TOONGA** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 11:23 am

Indy from what you are describing it sounds like you have a blown head gasket or a cracked head, the best thing to do is a compression test. all cylinders want to be around or above 150 psi, lower than 100 normally means a gasket has given way.

another sure indicator is taking off your oil filler cap and looking under it, if there is white or gray gunk under the cap then your engine is in trouble.

TOONGA

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 11:44 am

I'd definately do a compression check.. yes.. it's my no.1 job

I'd also try and put the water/coolant in whilst the engine is cool/coolish as when the engine is hot and you try and put cold water in, it will boil instantly and spew out. The first thing I would do is take the radiator out of the car and back flush it. Which means run a fast water hose through the bottom outlet (passenger side) and out through the top oulet (drivers side) making sure you have the radiator cap on.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 1:54 pm

Is it spurting out the rad cap or overflow bottle on start up or only after warm up period? If you have access to an ifra red thermo device point it at various points of radiator to see if any hot spots indicating blockages

Dave72 · Post by **Dave72** » Wed Oct 06, 2010 12:20 pm

My 92 L-Series was doing exactly the same thing. It was spewing water out the overflow as soon as I did highway driving and the temp was going up to 3/4 on the gauge. I checked that the thermo fan was cutting in normally and tried a new thermostat. In my case, the radiator needed replacing.

I found flushing out the old one myself just wasn't effective. Water "appears" to flow through it, but a large proportion of the tubes must have remained blocked, because the new radiator solved everything.

soobs_rule_m8 · Post by **soobs_rule_m8** » Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:01 pm

Had the same deal last month. The good old heater core sh*t the tin and leaked coolant over the floor. I bypassed the heater and when I refilled the coolant it did the same as yours. When the car ran hot, it killed the thermost which stayed open. New thermostat and all good now for the past month.

phillatdarwin · Post by **phillatdarwin** » Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:14 pm

blown head gasket or a cracked head may be i will have to try a New thermostat in my car as not die yet but a very slow death ..
as has had a blow head gasket 4 Nelly 2 years and it a pach he and there to keep it going
has been hot lots and runs very hot if u can keep the water in there u can drive it all day every day at no more then 80km as over that it cooks

Tone · Post by **Tone** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 7:47 pm

G'day Everyone,

I have just bought a 93 Liberty Automatic Wagon. I think I may have bought a few problems

I have posted another question about the Centre Diff not working in another thread.

This Question follows this thread:

Drove from Gosford to Newcastle, temperature was fine until halfway along the freeway. Stopped and checked (in the pouring rain). Surge bottle was full, and radiator cap was cool enough to safely remove. Radiator was very empty. Engine didn't seem to be overheated. Topped up with some water drove again for a while. Temp gauge was up and down all over the place, I think because of steam or air locks. I stopped at a servo near home and filled up again, this time I left the engine running and the coolant bubbled out when I opened the cap. Once it stopped bubbling out I refilled and there weren't any bad signs of bubbling (as if blown head gasket). There are no signs of oil in water or water in oil.

I am wondering if there may be a leak in the pump or elsewhere and the bubbling being the result of steam rather than compression leakage.

Any thoughts?

If it is head gasket, can these be done with engine in car?

Thanks,

Tony

PS: Have owned heaps of Subaru's, this will be the first that requires anything other than routine maintenance and replacement of wear items. A bit dissappinting, but then, it was a cheapie.

DanTheMan · Post by **DanTheMan** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 8:15 pm

Hey guys I have the same problem with the gurgle in the resevoir. I checked the thermastat and its fine. I flushed the radiator with a hose top and bottom with the cap on and off.... It seems even after it was bone dry I filled it up again and I couldnt get more than about 3 litres in. The core on the radiator looks brand new with no rust and the pipes included. I ran it on a ramp and the coolant just seemed to bubble out after about 2 minutes from start up. The coolant in it before I had drained it had no signs of oil. I tried a new radiator cap as well it just seems to heat up to about 3/4 and jump all around the guage. Yesterday it was the worst I have seen it and it almost reached the red. I have read the other posts and seem to be stumped on what it could be.. I dont think its the pump because when i filled up when it was running it seemed to be circulating the coolant until it got semi warm. The only thing i can think of is the radiator itself.

Tone · Post by **Tone** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:45 pm

Hey DanTheMan and anybody else that this might help,

While grabbing some other parts for the car from Cardiff Automotive, our local Subaru dismantler, they gave me the tip that this type of thing can happen if the radiator isn't bled properly. I thought it was enough to run the engine and top up the radiator and surge bottle, but there is also a bleed screw on the other side of the radiator that needs to be opened to bleed the system properly.

They did this for me while fitting a muffler and re-gassing the A/C and advised that now I keep an eye on the level daily for a while (in both the radiator and surge bottle) and keep an eye on the temp to see how things go. They didn't guarantee it was the fix but they said that it is important to do this properly first and eliminate the possibility of a very simple issue before looking any further.

spike · Post by **spike** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 7:03 pm

im planning to make up some little toys for keeping the L seires's