I have a carb. 85' GL 4wd wagon, stick, that gets a little hot. EA82 engine. Here's whats happening. I'll start it up cold and start driving it. The temp gauge will rise all the way to the red and then fall to normal temp and stay there the rest of the trip. I know its not a gauge problem because the heat gets really hot, the electric fan kicks on, and it pings when its really hot. I changed the thermostat and same problem. (Old one looked fine as it was only a year old.) I then changed the radiator cap with one that has the pressure release lever and still same problem. Today, when it was in the red zone, I flipped the lever on the cap and it blew the cap off the resivore, sprayed alot of coolant, but did cool down to normal temp right when I did that. I then left the lever open on my next trip to see what would happen. It got hot, not to the red zone but close, stayed there for about five minuites, and then returned to normal. I put alot of work into this car this past summer and don't want to risk major engine problems on a fairly fresh engine. Let me know if you guys have any thoughts.

 

Thanks, Eric

You mentioned that you installed a new thermostat, did you install one from the dealer, or one from the local parts store? From what I hear, the dealer ones are the only ones that work, and all the other ones cause issues with overheating and such. Other than that, maybe it's clogged somewhere in the system and a good flush might help??

Time for a new radiator.

I'm with John - sounds like your radiator is plugged up.

 

Aftermarket thermostats are terrible, you can tell just by looking at them how cheap and weak they look compared to the Subaru thermostats.

 

But - if you had identical symptoms with the old and new one, it's very unlikely to be your problem. Getting not only two bad ones, but two that have the exact same symptoms would be odd.

I changed my radiator and it cooled mine right down (until I started having water leaks from the hoses I should have replaced. ) I was having the same exact problem as you are having. You should be able to find another radiator for a little over $100.

Usually those Radiators get Clogged when the Car is Parked for Long Time without Starting, the Coolant makes some Kind of Crystals...

I Kindly Suggest you to Change the Radiator as Soon as you Can, because the EA82 Engine is very Sensitive to Overheating Temps and trend to Burn the Head Gaskets Very Easy... and that is a Headache too...

Finally, those EA82 came with two Different Rads: Single Row and Double Row; so if you can Choose I Suggest the Double Row one.

Good Luck!

Kind Regards.

No one here mentioned..making sure the system has been burped properly.. From what I have read it sounds like a nice large air bubble in the system.