coolant issues

[Miggs]

right, this is driving me nuts now and i have spammed that poor fellas welcome thread enough with my problems so heres the new one by me

 

my car developed an oil leak which was getting to the point of ridiculousness so i did something about it, i was getting 10 miles to a gallon, of oil, i stripped the front end down as i thought it was the front crank seal, i got the belt and the seal ready to do the job and found the pipe for the oil return looked dodgy, i jet washed the entire car underneath and on top of the engine then after leaving to dry over night i ran the car for a minute and inspected the oil leak with the rad and bumper removed, turns out it was a minute split in the oil filter, so i cured that problem but

 

the car had murky water in the header when i got it so i flushed it to find it was radweld, since flushing it i haven't had any heat through the blowers, everything else has been spot on, temp gauge bang in the centre but no heat, coming into winter i decided to sort it, i poured radweld back in as i can't afford a rad right now despite no visible leaking i was using a tiny bit of water, since filing i still couldn't get heat, i googled it and despite the header being higher than the rad i thought i may have an airlock, i pumped the top rad hose for half an hour to make sure i got all the air out, checked the 2 fuses for the matrix then ran it on the school run, half way there and it was belting out heat, i was proper chuffed, then later that evening on a drive i spotted the temp gauge going through the roof, i stopped the car and the fan was going, first time that's happened, once the fan had stopped i had a good look round and spotted the top of the header was wet where the cap has released pressure as well as the tube at the front near side with the cap saying coolant on it being full of bubbles and wet, i left it over night then yesterday i used an old trick i learnt a while back of how to release air locks from systems that have no header, i cut the bottom off 2 2litre bottles and taped up the ends to fit one in the top of the header and one in the coolant pipe, this creates an air tight seal and allows you to fill the system to that above the rad, i then ran the engine with the bottles half full of water and in position, after a while the header bottle spewed lots of bubbles and the heater was blowing hot, i left it for a while, about 20 mins to half an hour to get the fans to kick in but it didn't go past half way on the gauge so i assumed that was it fixed, i went for a drive around under boost as well as gently and all was well, this morning after dropping the kids at school i saw the temp gauge shoot up again, by the time i got back the fan was going so left it for a while, i have been out this morning to see if theres anything specific causing it with my driving style but i took it as easy as i could changing gear between 2-3k revs, it shot up again so i came home, when i got back the water had boiled out again and the heaters were blowing cold on the entire drive out

 

sorry for the massive write up but i want to paint as good a picture as possible, i've only ever had VW's before this and if the header on a VAG car boils over that's usually the sign of the headgasket having gone, there is no oil in the scoob's header or mayo on the cap, obviously due to the design of the oil filler theres not likely to be any on the oil cap, there doesn't appear to be water in the oil system either with the oil still being thick and golden

 

please help me

[savage bulldogs]

I filled mine after the engine change by starting to fill the system through the header tank with the engine off ,heater controls in the hot position ,pumping bottom and top rad hoses (and any other coolant hoses) as I filled .

I made sure that there was coolant in the header tank at all times (didn't let it suck dry) .

Once I couldn't get anymore coolant into the header tank I ran the car for 5 mins with the header cap off topping up with coolant as needed but, again making sure the header tank had coolant in at all times .

Are you getting any steam (excessive white smoke ) outta the exhaust as it might be head gasket (although I hope not )or you could try checking the spark plugs for any sign of water in the bores .

Hope you sort it soon fella

[Miggs]

I ran it for a good half hour with water topped up at all times, it didn't use any excessive amounts in fact it barely changed, of the head gasket had gone surely there would be issues at idle as well as driving? It idles fine, no high temp, no water loss, no steam from the exhaust, driving it and it shoots the temp gauge right up then goes down just above half way then up and so on, pull up somewhere and as it's idling it steadies back in the middle, I'm prepared to invest in a new rad, stat and header cap if one or all 3 will fix it but I can't afford to spend all that and find its the gasket as I just can't afford to get it fixed or do it myself, my wife's out of work as of last week, I'm not able to work, we have 2 cars to keep on the road and 2 kids so if it's going to be the head gasket(s) I'll strip the car down and sell the parts and buy another when funds allow, if it's an easy fix then I can borrow money to keep it

Just in a real dilemma

[savage bulldogs]

The gasket might have gone pressurising the coolant and therfore you wouldn't loose much fluid , but I don't understand why you would loose the heating . (Mabey get a coolant sniff test done to be safe .)

Might be a blockage in the water system , try flushing the oil cooler , main rad or heater matrix (anything with a pipe either end) with a hose . Check the thermostat or header tank cap isn't faulty/sticking .

Hopefully it's a cheap fix fella

[Tlag]

Unfortunately, it sounds like classic Subaru head gasket problems. Due to the design of the engines, it's very rare to find the oil and coolant mixing when the head gaskets go.

Is far more common for the gasket to go, between the water jacket and the combustion chamber. The water system gets pressurised and the escape route for the coolant is through the expansion tank.

[Miggs]

I've resigned myself to the thoughts of it being a gasket, worse case scenario expected I'm no more bummed than now if it is, if it's better than worst case then it's a bonus lol

Cheers guys for the tips, looks like I'm gonna cut my loses on this one, appreciate the help despite it being bad news

[Gambit]

:( I did think Head gasket but like you thought oil and coolant mixing would have happened. So learn something new every day as they say :)