subiekid Posted January 6, 2004 Share Posted January 6, 2004 My sister was driving her 1987 GL Carbed wagon home from a friends (about 15-20 miles away) at about 2:00AM this morning. Right after she left his house, she called me and left a message complaining that her car wouldn't start but that she finally got it running. Then at about 3:00AM I get a phone call from her saying that the car over heated on the off-ramp into town. I went and rescued her and the car and upon inspection of the car today, I realized that the heater return hose was blown completely apart. I would guess that she drove the car at least all the way home on the freeway with no coolant because when I picked her up, the car was still very hot and smelled of burnt oil. Today I replaced the hose and inspected and changed the oil, there was no sign of any water or frothing so I thought I was going to get lucky and not have big problems. But I noticed that there seems to be coolant dripping very little at a time off of the timing covers. The car run great in the upper RPM's, but it will hardly idle (like 200rpm) or if you lug it, it won't want to run very well. My main question is what do you guys think the problem is? How much damage could I be expecting? Thanks a ton and sorry for the long post!! Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnW Posted January 6, 2004 Share Posted January 6, 2004 Sounds like its time to do a compression test and see if you have blown head gaskets or cracked heads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subiekid Posted January 6, 2004 Author Share Posted January 6, 2004 How low will the compression be if the head gaskets are blown? What about for cracked heads? Thanks!! Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subiekid Posted January 6, 2004 Author Share Posted January 6, 2004 bump!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4FOR4 Posted January 6, 2004 Share Posted January 6, 2004 I recently had a problem with a coolant leak and it turned out to be a hose running into the bottom of the carb. It had a small rip and I couldn't see it unless the engine was revving. It looked Like the leak was coming from the front top of engine but I couldn't tell until I started moving stuff around and happened on it. I hope someone else can explain better what its for but I believe there is some kind of sensor that the coolant passes by to control some carb function associated with engine temp. I couldn't find it in Chiltons. If thats not seeing proper temp or is sucking air it could be an issue. By the way, it's quite a pain to get at. Its tucked up behind a bunch of rigid vacuum lines, in front of engine, right side of carb as you look from front of car. I was going to change the hose with a new original (its got a couple bends formed in it) but the other end runs behind alternator mounting bracket so I trimmed and reconnected. Just postponing the inevidable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subiekid Posted January 8, 2004 Author Share Posted January 8, 2004 bump!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skip Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 The distributor is very close to the heater hoses, if it took a big hit of coolant it could have moisture trapped inside of it. Pull the cap and dry it out (hair drier would be kewl) check the wires and the sp. plug areas also. If you do want to do a comp test. just look for one cyl to be much lower than the others. The spark plug in the cyl with the failed gasket will also look "steam cleaned" Is the car loosing coolant? As for a cracked head, you must have a coolant system leak down test performed at a place that has a leak down tester. This devise consists of a pump that connects to the rad in place of the cap and pressurizes the coolant system. The crack is normally in the exhaust port and will allow coolant to leak out of the exhaust pipe near the head. Hope this helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnW Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 Compression test on a Subaru when good compresssion ranges around 120-160 if I remember correctly....just depends on altitude, and age of the engine. Normally you would have 2 bad and 2 good on a not so horribly overheated Subaru and the 2 bad would of course be on the same side most of the time but not always. Anything under 100 is definately bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.