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G'day folks,

My beloved scoobs is a rather unhappy fellow at the moment, with a very sick engine.

From what I've managed to peice together, the story runs as follows (I started a massive essay for you all but figured i'd give the abridged version!):

A radiator hose split while in the mountains, used duct tape to seal small (<3mm) split in upper radiator hose. Heat melted tape's glue after 200kms back on freeway. Let engine cool, topped up coolant with water and re-taped hole. Made it to seymore on the Hume to subi dealer, replaced hose and bled system. Made it 15ks out of seymore all good, then no power in acceleration, temp guage spikes with steam coming from below engine and radiator cap cool to the touch. RACV flatbed back home

The cause:
From what I can figure two things happened. 1) a massive airblock was stuck in the engine after replacing the hose and 2) the water pump seal and/or gasket died. A combination of these things led to no coolant/water getting to the engine, thus a super-fast boiling/dry overheating of the engine.

Known damage:
Failed water pump.

Suspected damage:
Leakey head gasket and likely damage to the heads. Hopefully no bore damage.

Inlet manifod is off and I'll soon have photos up of the inlets, and will post pics once the engine is out and heads are off.

Still looking at options, will likely replace whole engine.

Thinking about replaceing with an ej25 if i can't find a good ej22.

Will keep everyone posted!

Cheers,
Owen.

aye.. Not good yeah. I can see where you're coming from above. You can fit EJ25, But problem is, the chances for you to find EJ25 is harder than EJ22. Are u after SOHC or DOHC EJ25?
Cheers
AP

Badly cooked/boiled dry aluminium head/block engines are a worry so if you can replace it do so .

I was speaking to Gareth recently (original Mr CrossBred) and he was saying that every EJ engine he buys gets belts/tensioners/water pump and water hoses from the start .

For me I don't trust composite tank radiators either so I try to fit a new one ASAP in cars I've bought . Can be cheaper in the long run .

Based on my and it seems everyone else's experiences cooling system failures are the biggest killers of Subaru engines .

I check my engine for water level and leaks every time I drive it , I carry 3L of "drinking" water everywhere .