Sawspa Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 Dang, that takes a bit. I still don't have it. Gonna try again tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bushwick Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 You should always turn the heater on full blast while adding coolant from scratch. Unsure what setting to use on these, always leave mine on panel and set to heat. I've typically removed the actual radiator cap, filled the radiator directly until full, started car, then continue to top off. Once holding a high level, close the radiator cap, then start adding to the overflow reservoir. Done this several times now and haven't had any issues with air pockets. Ideally, you'd want an opening in the upper radiator hose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikaleda Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 You should always turn the heater on full blast while adding coolant from scratch. Unsure what setting to use on these, always leave mine on panel and set to heat. I've typically removed the actual radiator cap, filled the radiator directly until full, started car, then continue to top off. Once holding a high level, close the radiator cap, then start adding to the overflow reservoir. Done this several times now and haven't had any issues with air pockets. Ideally, you'd want an opening in the upper radiator hose.Heater position doesn't matter in these cars, but normally your right.The vent bleeder is right in front of the upper radiator hose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawspa Posted December 18, 2014 Author Share Posted December 18, 2014 I opened the bleeder vent and finally got it filled up to the top and put the bleeder vent screw back in. Still didn't get me any heat though. The PO has put a flush port in one of the heater hoses. I am gonna open it up tomorrow and see if that helps get any air out. Do I need the car on very much of an incline? It's being finicky I guess. Most likely, it's operator error! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikaleda Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 An incline does help get the air bubbles out. These cars can be tricky to bleed properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawspa Posted December 18, 2014 Author Share Posted December 18, 2014 It had sucked the puke tank dry overnight. I put it on a steep incline and burped it again. It seems to be working correctly now. Full heat and no leaks!!! Stay tuned.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almijisti Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Curious about your outcome. My subaru (1997 2.5l DOHC) was overheating and missing as well, but did not have CEL because PO apparently disabled the light or it just went out. On Torque app, showed the miss. Started blowing white smoke after a flush, indicating coolant leak, though I am sure it was leaking prior to that as I had a couple random overheats prior to that. A slow leak will not show up as white smoke or be noticeable, especially in winter. After blowing smoke, it would not start, and I checked plugs only to find that there were drops of coolant on 1 and 3. Hoping it was not enough to cause hydrolock, I took off radiator cap and cranked engine, only to see puffs of steam/smoke come out of radiator. All together, this is a 100% internal blown head gasket, from coolant to exhaust. If it were just bubbling while running at op temperature, that could possibly be a bad thermostat, but to bubble while just cranking can only be a blown head gasket, afaik. Coolant in the cylinders would definitely cause missing in your case (did in mine) and possibly worse (pre ignition, detonations, worst case=hydrolock) So I would check that out. If your gaskets are blown, you'd be wasting your time doing timing belt stuff separately now as you will just have to take it all off again to replace the gaskets. I would be very careful, and if you are not getting exhaust or bubbling in radiator during crank, but only at op temperature, it could just be bad thermostat, but a chemical test at radiator is also pretty foolproof. Lack of cabin heat probably just indicates airlock in the heater core. Finally, if the coolant is occasionally blowing out of the reserve tank, that will spray onto other components, such as sensors, plug wires, ignition coil, etc.. I have been filling and burping constantly since things went bad, just to keep it running till I am able to get a space to work on the gaskets and do a total breakdown of at least the top end (plus I have to replace the Duty C solenoid as well). A fill and burp makes things look like everything is fine for a little while, but you will soon get a sudden overheat it will start to get worse and more frequent. If you do a flush and fill, chances are it will show up very much then, which was the case for me and also seems to be consistent with others' experience. While you may be able to deal with controlling the overheating through constant filling, if the failure gets worse, you will eventually get coolant in the crankcase, which will deteriorate the oil and lead to crankcase bearing failure, essentially totaling the car. Do yourself a favor and confirm whether gasket is failing or not asap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawspa Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 It ran fine for two or three days. Then it started again, today it overheated twice, then the third time it seemed to be running fine with only letting it cool off for about 10 minutes. It gets a miss or something when overdrive kicks in or you let it idle down while driving. It also happens at the same time the overheating starts. Could this be a bad coil or spark plug? If it was a head gasket would it get better all of the sudden like this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvsarge Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 The miss definitely could be coil/plugs. I would have severe hesitation and missing when I had plugs that were bad. Though it does not explain overheating. Could be two seperate issues. Could have a bad or sticking thermostat along with bad spark plugs. Those would be the two most basic things to check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almijisti Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 It ran fine for two or three days. Then it started again, today it overheated twice, then the third time it seemed to be running fine with only letting it cool off for about 10 minutes. Kinda figured this would happen. It won't overheat if you refilled the coolant and your leak is not external (which usually means fluid loss is more rapid). You will be burning coolant as it enters the cylinder and once you burn about a cup or more, it will start to overheat. Plus, I don't know where you are, but the ambient temp this time of year is pretty cold so your heater is on and the engine won't overheat as quickly anyway. It gets a miss or something when overdrive kicks in or you let it idle down while driving. It also happens at the same time the overheating starts. Could this be a bad coil or spark plug? If it was a head gasket would it get better all of the sudden like this A miss at overdrive by itself is not significant; it will throw a code only if the miss endangers the catalyst. That said, coolant in the cylinder will cause a miss and the overheating itself will affect everything about the operation of the cylinder. Another thing to check is see if the radiator hose (top) is very firm and full once engine is shut off--it might not even be warm to the touch. This would indicate exhaust gases are pressurizing the coolant system. Open the reservoir and see if it is overly full, as in way above the full mark. If it is bubbling while running, that is either gasket failure or bad thermostat. A more risky test is to touch the radiator cap when car is overheating; if it is not hot, then again, this means there is exhaust pressure in the coolant system, which can only be caused by a gasket failure. As I said before, a very easy check would be to start car cold with reservoir cap off and have someone look to see if it is bubbling. Bubbling while cranking or cold, as opposed to bubbling at operating temperature, afaik, can only be caused by head gasket failure. Yeah, you could have bad plug or coil, but that's an easy check with any of a number of tests, which you want to do anyway, of course. But finding fouled plugs or a bad coil (especially if coolant was spraying out from reservoir) would not prove that it isn't gasket failure as those can be caused by blown head gasket and coolant spray. If you pull the plugs that are missing and find coolant on them, or they appear super duper clean (or occasionally have whitish film) then you are likely getting coolant in the cylinder and you have a blown gasket. Again, a chem test is easy and if you don't do it yourself, it's still relatively cheap (the kit is about $40 and a shop will charge you not much more to do it, though they will probably want to do all sorts of other irrelevant tests). IMO you have a blown head gasket causing coolant to leak into the exhaust and vice versa (exhaust is going into coolant). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawspa Posted January 6, 2015 Author Share Posted January 6, 2015 I'll sell it if it's the head gasket. It's got brand new tires and a full timing belt and water pump replacement. What's it worth? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawspa Posted January 6, 2015 Author Share Posted January 6, 2015 I'll sell it if it's the head gasket. It's got brand new tires and a full timing belt and water pump replacement. What's it worth? 1990 legacy loaded( air don't work). Sunroof 171,000 miles auto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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