HELP!!!, engine overheating, think it's bad :(

[skid542]

Okay, so I'm finally out in CDA Idaho and tonight my car finally made it out. I picked it up at 2.30 in the morning/night from the carrier. They got it off the truck without much hassle though the guy did stall the engine at one point and had a little trouble getting it started back up. He finally got it to fire and gave it a few high revs, like around 5k - to which I wasn't really cool with since the engine was cold as hell. Outside temp was about 5 deg. F. So I let it sit and idle while I go take care of the rental car. The truck drives off and I get ready to roll away and the trouble begins.

I notice that my heater isn't working even though my temp gauge is showing operating temp. I'm a bit curious but decide that it's just because it's so cold outside that the incoming air isn't getting warmed and procced down the road slowly. I get about 1/4 mi. and notice that my temp gauge is rising. I pull over and sit and it starts dropping some. I pop the hood and the top radiator hose is pretty hot and the lower one is warm but definately cooler than the top. I check the resovior and it's got some green fluid down in the bottom. As I sit there and let it cool it never gets down to regular temp. After about three minutes I start checking things again and all the sudden I see coolant start dripping down onto the snow. I half freak out and start looking at everything and find that the resovoir is filled to the brim and it's got a murky color to it. There was a thread a little while ago about deposits on the oil cap, it had that kinda color to it. I limp it back to the parking lot 1/2 mi. away and so it sits currently. The temp got pretty high but was still a good 1/4" below the hashed markings on the temp gauge at it's highest.

So now I'm left trying to figure out what's wrong and can I fix it without all my spare parts and my usual tools as they haven't made it out yet. My most optimistic thoughts are that the thermostat just got stuck closed. My worst thoughts are that the block is cracked and I have oil in my coolant - though I didn't have any white smoke coming out the exhaust. I've also seen plenty of deposits the same color of the coolant in the radiators that I've pulled from working/solid engines. Tomorrow I'll go back during the day and check things in more detail when my fingers won't freeze off and I have light to work with.

Any and all suggestions/comments are more than welcome. Help!

[skid542]

So I went and got myself the cheapest set of tools I could since my others haven't gotten here yet and went to see what I could do.

I tried to bleed the coolant system, took out the bleed screw and took off the cap and started filling it up. Kept putting more in until it 'seemed' full and then capped it all off, this was with the car running.

The top radiator hose was nice and hot and the bottom was still cold, even when the temp gauge read properly. Check engine light is on and once again I am coming to hate OBII systems for their lack of user friendliness.

And more bad - while I don't have lots of white smoke coming out the back it does seem to smell a little sweet .

So I figure either the waterpump is broken, the thermostat broken, or there's a blockage in the system somewhere. Everything ran great back in VA. So something's clearly broken and I'm now worried that there may be even worse troubles since I don't know why it'd break while sitting on a truck for 5 days.

And all my spare parts and spare engine and a half are all back in VA. Damn.

[scuzzy]

So I went and got myself the cheapest set of tools I could since my others haven't gotten here yet and went to see what I could do.

I tried to bleed the coolant system, took out the bleed screw and took off the cap and started filling it up. Kept putting more in until it 'seemed' full and then capped it all off, this was with the car running.

The top radiator hose was nice and hot and the bottom was still cold, even when the temp gauge read properly. Check engine light is on and once again I am coming to hate OBII systems for their lack of user friendliness.

And more bad - while I don't have lots of white smoke coming out the back it does seem to smell a little sweet .

So I figure either the waterpump is broken, the thermostat broken, or there's a blockage in the system somewhere. Everything ran great back in VA. So something's clearly broken and I'm now worried that there may be even worse troubles since I don't know why it'd break while sitting on a truck for 5 days.

And all my spare parts and spare engine and a half are all back in VA. Damn.

the murky color coolant and oil makes a headgasket suspect. the second generation subaru's are known for blowing headgaskets.

sorry bud

[skid542]

Yeah, that's the feeling I have too . It is the 2.2 and not the infamous 2.5 but all signs still point to a HG and whatever it is that is keeping the coolant from circulating.

[Legacy777]

You need to do a more thorough analysis before jumping to conclusions.

I'd pull the thermostat out and check it, and/or run the car without a thermostat and see what happens.

It is a little questionable why the car worked fine before you left and now it's having problems.

Did you record the mileage that was on the car when it was loaded? How many miles are on it now?

[skid542]

I definately agree Josh that my analysis was pretty minimal but I was trying to prepare myself for the worst case senario. I wasn't really able to do much trouble shooting since I didn't have many tools and more importantly any jacket other than my nice ski jacket.

Here's the final low-down. Last night I pulled it into the heated machine shop where I work and left it the night. The consensus among my co-workers was that there was a frozen blockage in it somewhere and just needed thawed. I got there this morning and got it fired up and up to temp with no problems. There were no puddles of any fluids on the ground either. I ran it down the road and up to speed, ran through the gears, etc. and all was just fine - just a CEL. So at lunch time I took it to the local Subaru shop (which owns, I felt right at home there) and had them do a coolant flush/refill and check my CEL.

Everything checked out and the CEL was a knock sensor. I suspect the sensor has been on it's way out for a while since I've had a CEL come and go a few times with no apparant cause. So I think that when I did my clutch in October I didn't get a full 50/50 mix back in the radiator and it was a little heavy on the water and so when my car went through North Dakota and Montana the radiator froze. The milage was right on the car when I got it back so I don't suspect foul play. So tonight it'll sit outside and if all's well in the morning then I think I made it out of things alright and got lucky I didn't crack anything major. I'll be keeping a sharp eye on my coolant levels though just to be sure there's none getting out.

I'll keep you all posted and thanks for the help/assurance/etc.