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Just getting a new radiator installed in my liberty today...

##as always there was some other problem....

thermostat kept blowing up. drivers side would heat up and the rest of the engine is cool.

He just suggested i go to a mechanic and get them to look at it.



But a while ago someone said to me that with Libs at about 10 years old they get heating probs, and i should go to the subaru shop and get a heater bypass adapter.... no idea what that is!!

and get the header tank on the drivers side replaced.... once again no idea what that is!... he said that the over heating may be caused by an airlock that occurs and starves the thermostat or pump pickup (one of the two)

Im not sure if what i said makes sense, but anyone else had constant thermostats that dont open.

Old Libs don't develop heating problems due to any design faults. The heater by-pass can be bought from Subaru but is a bit of a band-aid approach in my opinion. The reason older Libs heat up, which is the same with any car, is they have 15 year old radiators in them that have never been cleaned out. The radiator may look fine from the outside but I will garrantee that the bottom third of it will be locked with crap that has built up over the years.

Take the radiator to sshop and get them to remove the tank and rod the core.

Who-ever told you that they can get an air lock is correct in a fashion but it is not the cause of the thermostat failures. The thermostats have a small "tickler" in them that allows water to trickle past. This in our opinion is bad. We always, with out fail, remove this and drill a slightly larger hole there. This allows the water to actually circulate through the motor so the warmer water can get to the thermostat. It is a stupid idea to have an 85 degree thermostat "after" the radiator. The water coming in to the radiator out of the motor must be far hotter than that.

As for the air lock - when you put your radiator back in and you are filling it up, have the car running and loosen the screw in the top of the radiator on the drivers side near the top hose. Don't take it out but loosen enough for the water to spit all its bubbles out there.

I also suggest putting a hose (garden) on to the heater core inlet and giving it a blast. All that crap that can build up in your cooling radiator can and does build up in the heater radiator.

well problem still not fixed, i gave the heater a blast, even bypassed it .. still no good.

back to square one.