legacycentral bbs

Hello Everyone!

I am new to this forum, i have been lurking for a good 2 weeks now.

here's my situation, someone gave me a 1990 subaru legacy with a blown headgasket. it has the symptoms that everyone seems to talk about, overheating with coolant loss.

the engine has only over heated once on me so far and it caused the car to shut itself off(this may have somthing to do with the carppy battery and coolant spraying all over it)

I'm about the replace the headgaskets on it (EJ22) and i was wondering if it is common to have the head or block warp from overheating. I'm used to the toyota 4age and the blocks rearly warp. i will have the heads checked for straightness, but i want to know what i'm getting myself into.

I would definatly check both the block and the heads with a Straight Edge. I wouldnt worry about too much though.

Hello Again everyone!

sorry for the late reply but i am only just getting started on this project.

as you know I was givin this car by a family member. she had problems with it over heating on the highway. she took it to the local dealership to have it tested out. after doing a compression test they told her it was the headgasket.

So now that its time for me to do the work i decided to redo the compression test (at this time the car has been sitting for about 3 months). I warmed it up and went a head with the test. I tested each cylinder twice just to make sure. the results were rather good!

Cylinder 1 - 180 PSI
Cylinder 2 - 180 PSI
Cylinder 3 - 180 PSI
Cylinder 4 - 180 PSI

what the heck is going on here? to me this does not indicate a blown headgasket. could it be that its blown between a cooland and oil passage? I dont know what the liklyhood of this is because both oil and coolant are'nt under that much pressure?

can anyone shed some light on my problem??

BTW: when warming the car up i noticed that the check engine light came on. it threw code# 22, knock sensor. I thought id mention that just in case it meant anything.

thanks in advance!

Try clearing the ECU, and see if the knock sensor code comes back.

Do you know where coolant is spraying?

Have you bled the cooling system properly? There is a bleed screw on the passenger side of the radiator that must be removed in order to properly burp the cooling system.

great Idea, ill clear the ecu and see what happens.

coolant is spraying from the overflow tank when it over heats

Could your fans not be turning on?

Maybe the thermostat is stuck?

Do you get bubbles out of the radiator? HGs can and do go between head passages, too, but coolant spraying indicates a bad pump, collapsing hose (though generally at high speeds due to vacuum), or HGs at the fire ring causing air bubbles to fill the water pump cavity and prevent it from doing anything. You could try pulling the lower hose and removing the t-stat to relieve the air pocket. Shouldn't overheat for a longer period, though the air will get back in there. Compression check doesn't always show a problem even when the HG has a problem near the cylinder and won;t make a difference if it's elsewhere. Do you have any oil in the coolant or does it look like chocolate milk? You usually don't get coolant in the oil since the oil's under higher pressure. I wouldn't doubt it if you have a bad pump, though overheating it may've caused a HG issue.

Steve

I wouldnt worry to much about having a warped block or heads, but checking is definately recommened( with straight edge). Like most of the others have said it could be a sticky thermostat, but if you began to find oil in your overflow tank or coolant begins to dissapear- its most definatley the gastket. The first thing I would do it test you exaust or the overflow tank for the carbons associated with coolant burn . However you look at the problem its not going to be an easy or inexpensive fix. Depending on your financial situation and mechanical "know how" I would recommend that you either replace the engine( for a reliable runner) or just perform the typical tear down and rebuild

Like Josh said, make sure you have all the air out of the cooling system. You might even want to jack up the front of the car a little to help get it all out. Pop the bleeder until coolant comes out. I've had a string of Legacys with clogged radiators in my shop lately. Even my own suffers from the problem. Right now if I shut the heat off for to long it will overheat and it took me forever to bleed the air out. I had a nice unit to replace it with, but some crack head stole it

Could just be a stuck thermostat too.

thats for all the replys!
I didnt find oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil. I finally got it insured and drove around for a good hour. i let it cool down to check the coolant. the coolant level was quite low, i had to put in atleast a litre.

as far as repairing it I'm sure its somthing I can handle. any tricks or tips for the gasket replacment?

just search for "gasket" or one of the swap threads that was written up awhile ago my one of the members... ...both searches should help next time search first and ask later

I did search and I searched and then i searched some more, then i asked questions. the posts I found didnt answer my question completly nor were the situations close to what I am experiencing.

thanks for the help guys