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mutant_dan

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  1. Mine did the exact same thing as well. The hydrocarbon tests didn't show anything. I replaced the entire cooling system hoping that I could avoid the HG. Have the cylinders pressure tested and I would be willing to bet you have a leak. Find a good Scooby mechanic to service your car. There is a Subaru Only or Strictly Subaru type mechanic in Oakland. I don't specifically remember the name. I like to stay away from the dealer, but that is just me...
  2. Find the reciever unit under the dash to the left of the steering column. It is a small black box about the size of a deck of cards. There is a small reset button on this unit. Place all of your keyless entry units on the floorboard and press the reset button. This cleared up all my problems with the keyless entry...
  3. Mine was delaying going into drive. Sometimes it would be as long as 30 - 40 seconds before D would kick in after backing out of the garage or pulling out of a parking space..
  4. Could be a solenoid. I had to replace the front pump in my transmission to fix the low pressure/slow shifting into drive problem.
  5. Is there a difference between a coolant reservior and coolant overflow? I am assuming they are the same thing! Here is the only swirl pot reference I have found so far... http://www.msport.co.uk/acatalog/bailey_swirl_pots.html Looks like the coolant would pass through while air would vent out the valve on the top. It would have to maintain pressure while doing this..
  6. I am in Sacramento and would love to come the the meet and greet but the wife has to go to a funeral tomorrow and I have the kids. Their schedule dictates that I drive them all over the place and wait while they play soccer etc.... Anyway, the Swirl Pot is a mystery to me as well. It might be a British term or aircraft thing. I have e-mailed Al Wick for more details..
  7. I just picked this advice up from another forum. I know that the airplane application would have the engine running full throttle for extended periods of time compaired to normal highway driving. Here is a link to the Aircraft conversion to Subaru engine. http://www.maddyhome.com/canardpages/pages/alwick/engine.html In the link he discusses running the bleeder tube to the overflow tank. I think since he posted this on his web page, he now runs it to the swirl pot (whatever that is). Here is a more recent reply concerning running the bleeder to the overflow tank: ----------- 1st.Only air in the block and higher power settings will cause the head warpage. Every single occurrence (per my mechanic source) is traced back to the owner changing the coolant and not knowing how to purge the air. 2nd. It's a design oversight by Subaru. Due to sloping hood and vehicle height, the air in block can't move to radiator. It stays in block. The radiator isn't mounted high enough relative to engine. There are a number of other manufacturers that have this problem, without the head warping. They just overheat until customer takes it to dealer and he burps it. Some place a bleed valve at the engine block. Just open valve until water starts coming out, close it. True, you would not want to run the tube to overflow. Your cooling system would then no longer be under 7 psi it normally is during operation. You just want the air in block to move higher and out of the coolant flow. My bleed line is the most robust approach, but you could also just make sure you loosen hose clamp until fluid comes out. That's what dealer does. ---------------------------------------- Meanwhile, my Outback is in the shop for some transmission work. I am going to present this info to my mechanic later today to see what he thinks. He specializes in subaru and I am very interested in his take. If we go ahead and make the modification I will be sure to take pictures.
  8. Here is a head gasket solution I picked up from another board that I thought might be appropriate to post here... ___________________________________ From: Gene Goldenfeld <genegold@h... Date: Thu Jan 13, 2005 8:06 pm Subject: Re: [outback] Head Gasket failure info on Subaruvanagon mailing list dyerlytle wrote: There is an interesting discussion about head gasket failure in 2.5L Subaru engines over on the subaruvanagon mailing list. (This is a mailing list for people with VW Vanagons who have swapped in a Subaru engine to replace the VW water boxer.) Indeed. In the interest of getting the discussion over here (and providing me a copy to archive), I've copied Al Wick's posts on head gasket failure from the Subaruvanagon group. I let him know. Gene ------------- I was in unusual situation where I was able to find the head warp "gasket fail" problem before the dealers were getting any failures. Many years ago I adapted a new 2.5 (10k miles) to my airplane. I have sensors galore on the plane, so when the head first started leaking, I was able to look at the data on my laptop and see that the head leaked pressure to coolant system 3 seconds after I hit full throttle. It then dissipated 5 seconds later. I really learned a lot and deliberately operated at full throttle for long periods (hour or two). All the time logging the pressures and temps every few milliseconds. So here's the deal. All failures are caused by air in the cooling system. No air, no problem. If you have air bubble AND you operate at high throttle settings, the head will warp. It takes a long time to show up. So if there was trapped air 6 months ago, then you might now start to see discolored coolant, overheating. Or it might only occur climbing a hill in hot weather. Only the 2.5 has this marginal condition. All other Subaru's bullet proof. My flying partner makes a living replacing gaskets on 2.5's these days. Number one repair item. It appears that the 2.5 has an area at center of block/head interface which doesn't have enough coolant flow. When a bubble passes by, it boils locally. This eventually causes head to warp, gasket to give out. Subaru has tried 3 different style gaskets, even adding coolant conditioner to improve heat transfer. Still a problem. But absolutely all failures caused by trapped air in system. All models of 2.5 liter the same. The solution is very simple. Just drill and tap your coolant crossover pipe and add a fitting that allows air to leave engine and rise to your swirl pot. You will never have a problem. I operate my engine full throttle for hours at a time. Fabulous engine. -al wick -------------- I got a couple other private messages regarding the same. I'll try to clarify... The crossover tube is the aluminum coolant tube that lives under the intake manifold. It's rectangular in shape and the main coolant hose attaches to one end of it. It's the one everyone reverses. I'm unable to say there is a "best place" to add a fitting to the tube. Likely it does not matter where you place the fitting. Just somewhere in the top of this tube. The fitting needs to be on this cross over tube because this is the highest point in the ENGINE cooling system. Your goal is to purge any air that happens to be in the engine. This is different than purging air from your radiator or from your heater core. Air in the engine causes head warp. Air in other components just reduce their efficiency. We imagine that air flows with the moving coolant, but actually it only does to small degree. Drill and tap this tube. Install a fitting, and run hose from that fitting to your swirl pot. No dips in hose, it must gradually rise to swirl pot. As long as the swirl pot is above the engine it will automatically purge all air from the engine. This results in a "robust" cooling design. Robust meaning it handles unusual conditions. If your brother in law borrows your vehicle, blows a hose, and doesn't realize he needs to bleed air, no problem. Because your system automatically purges all air from engine.
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