dadob

I've driven 12,000 more miles for that 49 dollars so far. Usually city driving only. Longest trip i've dared is 130 miles round trip to the cheap airport in Dayton, Ohio. No problems. I'm in cincy. Still using same hoses. To answer another post I use brake fluid in brake lines not antifreeze but it's an interesting idea. If the antifreeze has zero drops of water in it, it would work in a pinch, but generally not worth the experiment 'cause it wouldn't save much money. I figure I got another 800 dollars of use out of it so far. I told everyone at the beginning not to do this at home. I risked myself for the cause and got a lot of satisfaction out of it. Crazy ideas is what progress is. And admittedly those ideas have risks and a high price sometimes. I never liked hearing something couldn't be done. It just get's the gambler up in me. That's what men are, risk takers. thanks for the fun dadob. p.s. I'm going to sell the car cheap cause I got a windfall replacement for free. There will be full disclosure to the buyer. I'll tell them if you put a cup of water in this radiator it will overheat. No doubt about it. I'll sell it to some young guy who wants to put a head gasket on it. And I'll give Him or Her a 1 month money back warranty to boot.

I'm still around. Subaru running fine still. I tried it on another car too and it didn't work. I think the suby head gasket problem was so specific it responded to this mad attempt. In other words it's a gamble that paid off for me. I'm 60 and just don't want to do a head gasket anymore especially on that car and with 270,000 miles on it. Cost of experiment 6 guarts of dot 3 brake fluid 49 dollars so far. With tax. I'm satisfied. I love this car. Dadob

Still running fine on brake fluid as coolant. April 6th will be four months. I think bubbles are increasing but not alarmingly. Thinking of taking it on a 2000 mile trip. Prepared to buy another car if it doesn't make it. We'll see. dadob

8 weeks still running great. Stopped leak using bargs leak stop. Level steady mostly brake fluid 80% some water and some straight out of bottle undiluted anti freeze. Haven't had to add any for a weak. Took out 1/2 cardboard coverage in front of radiator because weather warming but think I'll put a little back about 1/4th. Running too cool. No hose damage or flimsy feeling hoses yet. dadob

So it's 5 weeks since my experiment. Still cooling and running fine. I am experiencing a slight loss of fluid about 8 sometimes 12 ounces per day. So because break fluid (ethylene glycol with di ethylene glycol) is 4 bucks a quart and antifreeze is 2 bucks a quart I'm using pure undiluted antifreeze (ethylene glycol). It's winter and pretty cold in cincy but I figure brake fluid doesn't freeze and antifreeze I've heard freezes so maybe brake fluid and antifreeze won't freeze above 20 below. I'll keep an eye on it. I definitely want to avoid adding water which would be chemically compatible but might lower the overall boiling point of the mixture which has been my main goal. Keep it as close to the 490 degrees Fahrenheit boiling point of straight brake fluid. So water's out. I have a suspicion that straight antifreeze has water in it. Anyone know how much? I put bargs sealer in the brake fluid to try and slow down the coolant loss. I'd be happy if I could slow it down to topping it off with a 1/2 quart of straight antifreeze per week. That would cost me a buck. Right now I'm loosing about 40 ounces per week. It's all still an interesting experiment for me to see what I can get away with. So far no signs of hose degradation. The pieces I put in a bag with brake fluid have not changed nor the color of the brake fluid. thanks dadob p.s. It seems the heater works better.

I like it. It's going in my folder of secret lost knowledge. dadob I am still running with bake fluid as coolant, no obvious rubber degredation yet, and gutted thermostat. Just drove 75 miles with no fluctuation. To combat engine running too cool I am using cardboard covering lover half of radiator. Drove with perfect normalcy and descent heat. Question is how long can I do this. I'm not doing the head gaskets, so as long as it lives. If I get 6 months I'll be happy. a year exstatic. I definitely would try this method if I had to limp a car home from a distant vacation. dadob May put a manual valve in the big radiator hose to control heat that way, from inside vehicle. One good thing about this is it's training me to keep an eye on my temp guage.

i.m thinking you're right about the antifreeze being okay with the gutted thermostat. I may end up trying that. So far the brake fluid experiment is interesting enough to proceed. dadob I can't remember if tried the gutted thermostat with the antifreeze before I got deperate and tried the brake fluid. The joke would be on me. dadob

hi dakwing on my subaru there's rubber gasket that stretches over the edges of the gasket. i didn't know any other way to seal it depedably. Also if you want maximum flow which is I wanted, gutting it is better.

took thermostat out and put in my gutted thermostat dummy and seal. No spiking today but runs cooler than I want. Might put cardboard in front of half of radiator. GeneralDisorder do you know for sure the water pump has a rubber seal or could it have a metal on metal close tolerance bearing seal? dadob. I'm watching it.

Thanks Miles fire extinguisher good idea. Will do. Block sealed twice no effect. I even tried block seal for 500 miles with only water no antifreeze this recent summer. There's someone on the web who wrote a long piece about that method of block sealing. I like his idea but it didn't work this time. Antifreeze can burn too. Has similar properties to brake fluid. Of course the 50% water probably helps that. Anyway I'll watch it carefully. dadob

subaru360 quoted The brake fluid will cause the rubber hoses to soften, swell and burst, spraying heated fluid everywhere. It's a matter of when, not if they fail. If anyone doubts this, get a section of rubber coolant hose, put it in a container of brake fluid and let it sit for a week. You'll see how soft it gets and how much it swells up. You're also going to ruin the seals in the water pump and that is going to fail. subaru360 You may be right. I'm hearing you and watching close. I did put some pieces of radiator hose in a bag of brake fluid. So far no discoloration of liquid, nor softening of rubber. But it's only been a couple of days and then hot brake fluid is probably harder on the rubber. But I still figure ethylene glycol and diehtylene glycol ought to have similar effects on radiator hose. Lord have mercy. thanks dadob

GROSSGARY EDITED ....since you're willing to experiment there's also a $4 radiator cap you could use to alleviate the issues and keep the car driveable without overheating. it has a special valve to release the exhaust gases in the coolant and allows coolant to flow normally and not overheat. still a band aid but probably the best bet if this is a DOHC EJ25. - you don't mention what vehicle or engine this is? GROSSGARY where can I get that cap???? I like it. TYPE 1 ENGINE I THINK 97 OHC LEGACY OUTBACK "brake fluid is rather corrosive but you know that." It's possible the corrosion was caused by water in the brake fluid. Brake fluid is like a water vacuum. Just opening the cap to inspect the master cylinder can add a tiny bit of water if it's humid. dadob

Well I made it back. Remember two days ago I was over heating driving less than 10 miles. 80 more miles highway driving, it spiked a couple of times but came down when the fans came on. I’ve decided to run the fans constantly. I turn on the air conditioner and pulled the right ac relay when the ac clutch is engaged. Have to be quick. Fans stay on compressor goes off. update: this trick resets every time you turn off the car. You folks have any other ideas how to make this happen? dadob Answering a few questions: Etheylene glycol antifreeze and diethylene glycol brake fluid are cousins. Hoping the hoses won’t suffer any worse than from antifreeze. I am watching for coolant loss, I should see serious smoke out the tailpipe if I’m burning some. I was hoping all my antifreeze loss was unseen reservoir overflow while driving. The reservoir often topped out with antifreeze. Not getting much in reservoir with brake fluid. But coolant was a few ounces down. Hoping that’s just from left over trapped air coming out. I expect that the head gasket leak will heat the brake fluid just as much as before but it shouldn’t boil if it stays under 4 or 5 hundred degrees. The anitfreeze can’t take 300. Boiling is my target. Stopping it. Wether the engine can take 4 or 5 hundred is unknown. So far temp guage is normal except for spikes. I did try it un pressurized (loosened the cap) didn’t work too well. Pressurized definitely better so far. It should raise the boiling point too. If I need to I’m going to put my gutted thermostat back in with the seal to increase fluid pumping speed. I snipped the guts out of a thermostat and put the skeleton back in so the seal would work. I may get the better water pump I’ve heard about and change the timing belt if this makes it to spring. Not very hopeful but gonna try. That’s why I haven’t popped for do it yourself head gasket repair. I figure it’s gonna be a 4-6 day slog removing the engine and being tempted to do more stuff while it’s out. Too cold, can’t face it. Trying to limp it along till spring. Maybe in the spring I’ll do the gaskets. I love this car. Spikes may be caused by intermittent head gasket heating that’s been reported by others. So far I have been able to handle it. I have noticed best effect using heater on high in vent/floor vent mode. I open the windows cause it really gets hot in here. WARNING OFF THE SUBJECT A MINUTE. In my research a found out a lot of people have suffered horrible kidney failure deaths in the last hundred years from foods, syrups, gelcaps etc. when unscrupulous manfacturers use cheaper brake fluid instead of bonifide more expensive non poisonous glycerine also called glycol. Glycol is used as a food sweetener, it’s a sugar alcohol. So don’t buy sweet food and medicines from third world countries or dollar stores in new york that had counterfeit Colgate for a buck with DEP (brake fluid) in it and listed on the label!!!!. I’ll post in a week or so with update. Thanks for the encouragement and the warnings. That's why i posted. Your opinions are important to me. I'm listening. dadob

Dear managers and members please delete this thread if you choose, ignore, or otherwise deny or place in the appropriate forum. If so, please let me know where, so I can update my findings. Assuming anyone is interested. Re: notorious subaru head gasket failure coolant overheat problem. I thought I’d let you know how desperate I am and how using brake fluid for coolant worked the first and only time I’ve tested it so far. It didn’t over heat for an hour and a half continuous multi speed driving with one stop to idle at wendy’s. I’m not recommending it but thought you would find it interesting. After I post this I’m going out for another hour and a half mostly highway. I'll let you know what disasters if any happen and whether I’m still alive. If I don’t post again you know what happened and how to act accordingly. Even if I post again you shouldn’t try this. I beg you not to try something this crazy and foolish. But, if I've entertained, something good came out of it. My loss your gain. I mean it, don’t do this!!!! You might be exploded, you might die or be crippled, maimed and blinded for life and everyone around you for a 15 mile radius. This is extreme experimenting. So, I had typical head gasket failure overheats and bubbles in the reservoir. Intermittent over heating. But finally it would over heat after about 15 minutes local street driving. In desperation ‘cause I’m broke and I love this car I decided on the apocalyptic method of survival, since lately it’s been feeling kind of apocalyptic in the world, thought it was appropriate. Instead of throwing the car away because new head gaskets are so expensive and such a cost benefit gamble I decided to experiment with brake fluid as a coolant. As opposed to mineral oil. I dried out the system with a hair dryer and warming the engine without coolant to about the normal temperature to get as much moisture out the system as possible while running the hair dryer stuck in the thermostat hole on high heat and high volume. I took it out for an experimental drive with brake fluid for coolant today and it worked fine for an hour and a half drive. Hasn't gone more than 20 minutes without overheating previously. Just enough time to get to work. I drove the experiment at highway and street speeds. It took a long time for the fans to finally come on after the temp gauge went above normal but not too far. When the fans came on the temp came down to normal. It only peaked twice and generally stayed normal. I’m willing to drive it even if the gauge is above normal a little but I didn’t have to. Don’t know why it didn’t spike again. Could be there was some water in the block and it boiled off. But really don’t know but am very happy about no overheating when yesterday it was overheating every ten minutes. Overheating meaning serious high temp spike which ‘causes me to stop, kill engine and open hood and cool engine for 15 minutes. Why brake fluid? Brake fluid is similar to glycerol and it has a high boiling point and flash point and autoignition temperature. Better than mineral oil in that regard. I’m iffy about how the brake fluid will treat the aluminum but the master cylinder is aluminum so what the heck, brake fluid is supposed to have corrosion inhibitors for steel, at least, maybe it will work for aluminum too. Concerned about Aluminum in in the engine and the new radiator core and nylon might suffer from brake fluid too for that matter, and also rubber heating hoses, and aluminum in heater core. I figured there's rubber in the brake lines and cylinders so chose that over mineral oil because I think mineral oil is likely to hurt the hoses. Also radiator hoses handle antifreeze, ethylene glyclol, break fluid is diethylene glycol. Might treat radiator hoses just as well. Don’t know for sure and may try mineral oil if the brake fluid worries me that way or for other reasons. Also may abandon the whole experiment and the car. We’ll see. I also decided on brake fluid over mineral oil because it has a higher specific gravity than water and antifreeze, oil has a lower gravity. I reasoned more density would transfer heat better. And a higher boiling point would keep the boiling down which kills heat transfer. Plus I'll keep it pressurized and thermostated which should raise the boiling point even more. I hope there will be no explosions which is why you should never ever try this hair brained idea. Let me do it for you. I’ve always been a risk taker. Brake fluid is flamable and has an flashpoint. But, so does antifreeze. And mineral oil. Brake fluid is higher. And again I think what the heck. While I was filling it before I took it for the hour and a half test drive. I ran the engine and heated up the brake fluid I'd gotten in there. I got a very high spike in the heat gage after about a half hour idling while slowly filling to top off the brake fluid. I wanted the thermostat to open. Fans came on but spike did not come down disappointing, but I did notice the engine did not sound over heated. I turned off engine and kept filling with microwave heated brake fluid figuring what the heck I’m in this far. I stopped the microwave every minute and opened cap to release any pressure. I warmed a quart of it to about 100 degrees in 4 minutes. Used that to top the radiator to the brim. It took a while but I got there. I have reservoir in line as is typical so took that out to get all moisture out and rinsed it with a little break fluid and dumped that with any moisture the couple ounces of brake fluid could grab, and reinstalled. Dot 4 Brake fluid $4.50 a quart loves moisture so I will have to deal with that if I keep the brake fluid in. I figured if I put the cap on the first click in wouldn’t hold pressure and the water might steam off into the reservoir before the break fluid does. Otherwise I might let the over flow dump on the ground for a trip or so once a month to get moisture out. Haven’t decided yet. Don’t even know if the experiment will last for month or not but I’m encouraged by today’s foray. I’ll keep you posted. dadob