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Sorry to be so drawn out. Trying to cover everything. year and a half ago we replaced the radiator in my car. A few months later we pulled the engine due to a blown rear transmission seal. In Febuary (exactly a year after the rad was replaced) it over heated. It couldn't have been hot for long, and I noticed it before the car cut off. June-july It went through a spell of overheating frequently and I replaced the thermostat. All was good for a month and a half but I went to visit some friends 45 minutes away and about 7 miles from their house on the way home I noticed the gauge was on H. I called my guy friend up and he came to check the car out. The fluid was low and he said we needed a new rad cap. But he pointed out that the engine wasn't even hot. He stood there with his hand on the manifold. Replaced that and all was good for a week. Now the car keeps overheating again. It looks like coolant is sprayed from somewhere on theg right side front of the engine.. Almost like it might be coming from the rad cap. But coolant is everywhere. The car never picks fluid up from the resivour. Tiny bubbles are actually venting in and there is a frothy tan/brown film floating on top. The exhaust doesn't smell sweet. It smells like gas.

Where should I go from here? The car has just over 127k on it. Any suggestions for proving/disproving the blown HG? How difficult is it to replace? My father just replaced the tranny in moms outback as well as the engine in his f150. He is pretty well mechanically inclined.

Another option is getting a junkyard engine. The 90 engines I have seen around here are all an oily mess. I'm not sure what else can be swapped. But we have the pick your own parts places and a 4 cyl would be $145

I would say with the brown froth in the reservoir and the tiny bubbles pretty much answers the question. With out a doubt, blown head gasket.
Personally I would change HGs because I know my engine and know what condition it's in. Its always a gamble when you buy a wrecking yard engine. As cheap as they are in the lower 48 that might be worth the gamble. In my area a 180k engine is about 700$ though the mileage doesn't scare me if it was taken care of, I personally have a car that has 370k and only had valve cover gaskets changed, I would not hesitate to put HGs in if I had blown one, even with that many miles.

Yeah, I would agree it's likely the head gasket.

I'll ask though, was the thermostat you used a Subaru thermostat? Also when you filled the coolant up did you remove the bleeder screw on the passenger side of the radiator?

I have mixed opinions/recommendations regarding replacing the head gasket and getting a used engine. If you are handy, have the space, and time to do it, replacing the head gasket on an engine you know is probably the better option. If you don't have a good mechanic or the know how to do it yourself, I honestly think you'll spend more money having the head gasket replaced. The head gasket failed for a reason and at a minimum the heads should be resurfaced to minimize the chances of it happening again. Those folks that just replace the gasket without any machine work have a greater chance of having issues again in the future. So as you can see....if you run into this issue again....going with a used engine (assuming you can find a good one) is a better and cheaper option.

So yeah....that's why I have mixed opinions on what I would recommend.

Thermostat was not a subaru thermostat. Just an advance auto parts buy. When filling with coolant I always use the bleeder screw.

My father suggested doing rent a tool and said something about a cylinder compression tester. It is currently out on loan but we got a coolant system tester and found a hose with good steady drip. We tightened the hose up. Pressure held up well and the coolant tank is no longer bubbling. I will try and check the plugs tomorrow to see if there is any signs of coolant on them.

My father is fine with replacing the head gaskets. It's just a matter of finding the time to do it. In reality we really probably need to replace the timing belt too. My uncle has a fully stocked shop where we can do the work but it is an hour and half away

We're going to replace the gaskets. Any tips for removing the timing belt? Couldn't get it off before. We already have the belt laying around. What else is manditory to replace? Aside from the rear seal? The car has 127,000 miles on it. We replaced a few of the major seals last year. There are some small ones that leak but we aren't sure what they are, is there a diagram for that?
Money is tight so trying to keep spending to a minimum but I know some things are better done now before issues arise.

Thanks

Check out this thread for factory manual scans on the timing belt replacement.

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=52588

Are you planning to pull the motor to do the head gaskets? If not, you won't be able to get to rear main seal.

Check out the parts book, it has blow ups of all the parts, which will help you identify things.
http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=30531

Thanks Josh.

We are planning on pulling the engine. It may not be the easiest option but we do need to replace some little seals in there. I know the only way to replace the rear main seal is to pull the engine. It doesn't need to be replaced but I know it should be any time the engine comes out. I heard that the bearing on the timing pulley tends to go bad. Is that true? If so my father suggested taking it to a friend who can press and replace the bearing.

I checked the compression of the cylinders and they are all around 198 except for one which was 168. That is also the one with oil around the plug. Is this low enough to indicate a crack? My father said is is probably a bad valve cover gasket.

I'm going to start pulling the engine tomorrow hopefully. I need to get it done and over with. Head gaskets will be OEM. We have a dealer up the road from us. Other parts will depend on the price difference.

When you replace the rear main seal make sure to install it at the same depth the old one was at. It is common for folks to press it in too far, and then it will leak. The bearings on the timing belt tensioner and idler pullies can fail, but I don't think I'd say they're prone to failing. I would be cautious of just using any old bearing if you go that route. They are going to see high speeds, so need to be the appropriate type, preferable the same bearing.

You really should do a leak down test to see if you can determine what has failed, piston or piston ring or something valve related. However, if you're pulling the head, you should be able to find out then.

We pulled the engine and had the heads machined.. The guy told me they did .0006. We could tell that one of the gaskets was definetly flown. We checked the timing pulleys and they were ok. We replaced the timing belt, valve cover gaskets, intake manifold gaskets and spark plug (old ones were fine but I forgot to remove them before taking the heads to the shop. They trashed them)

As of last night everything is back up and running.. It runs smooth but sounds horrible. Here is a video
http://youtu.be/ayOOwDvpau0

Oil is up to full. My father did the timing belt and said the timing may be off. Does this sound like bad timing?
I have ran the car for maybe a total of 10 minutes. I haven't driven it except from one driveway to another. I'm just worried about messing something up.

Just desperate to figure this out. We're going out of town this weekend and need the car to work.

It's just a lash adjuster that not pumped up. Your not hurting anything the timing is good, it will pump up, just run it. I just replaced my cams and even bled the flat lash adjusters and sounded like that. Drive it around it will quiet down.

Yeah, you can drive it around to get the lash adjusters bled, or if you want you can remove the valve cover gasket and rocker assembly to pull each lash adjuster and bleed them manually.

Thanks for the replies. I took the car for a spin and the temp started trying to climb over half. I cut it off and parked it. Reeeealy hoping it is just the blasted thermostat. I am going to buy an oem locally tomorrow.

Just got word of a house for rent. I'm probably moving 20 minutes into the mountains. This car needs to be reliable

Besides an OEM thermostat, make sure you remove the bleeder screw on the passenger side of the radiator to properly bleed all the air out of the cooling system. Once you start getting coolant out of the bleeder screw, put the screw back in and continue filling normally.

I always use the bleeder screw when I add coolant. I replaced the thermostat last week and drove the car over 400 miles during the weekend.. Temperature never got over half and I had zero coolant or oil loss. The noise from the lash adjusters vanished within the first 50-100 miles or so. The car is back to running like new.
Thanks for all your help

Maria, glad to hear everything is working like new!

What would cause the lash adjuster noise to return? The car has between 3-4 thousand miles on it since the head job and oil change. My mother's outback finally bit the dust with over 500,000 on it so my parents have been using my car. My father drove it last and swore it wasn't making notice but I went to go to work and heard it. Having to put 100 miles on it every other day or so because I am working out of town.

As a side note I am getting around 25 mpg combined compared to 16-17mpg that I had been getting.

Low oil pressure or a stuck lifter could be causing the noise.

How do you drive the car? Do you typically rev the engine to the higher rpms at least once during driving or do you drive more sedated and the rpms stay lower?

My oil light has never come on. My rpm gauge was never fixed but I don't drive like a granny. Plus I frequently "climb" mountains in the car. Going up the valley or heading to West Virginia where truck climbing lanes are required for big Rigs.

Maria,

Is the noisey lash adjuster still making noise and are you still getting the poor gas mileage? Has anything changed after driving it for a little while longer?

Something definitely isn't right if your mileage has dropped that significantly. Are you positive the noise is a valve lash adjuster?

I think I can still hear it but it seems very faint now. My gas mileage has improved, not gotten worse. I used to get around 17 but I'm around 22-25 now. I'm not sure it was the lash adjusters but the sound was pretty much exactly like what I had heard before.

Ok, well it may have just been a collapse valve lash adjuster that pumped itself up again.