i'm new to this forum but basically i picked up my 87 subaru dl for a 100 dollars about a year ago. When i got it it wasnt running at all. But hey the body was straight and it was a 100 dollar car not bad. I finally got it running after playing with the timing and putting in new spark plugs. As soon as I got it to start up the temp guage jumped straight up to hot!!! I thought the temp reader was wrong and replaced the sensor, thermostat and flushed the radiator. Still did it!!! Got it compression tested and found out the head gasket was blow. Last summer I ended up pulling the engine and replacing the gaskets, got the heads machined and put back together... Car started right up engine runs nice but overheating problem is still there!!!

 

Anyone have any opinions or advice? Should I start replacing parts like the water pump and radiator or did i just majorly f*** up on my rebuild?:-\

i'm new to this forum but basically i picked up my 87 subaru dl for a 100 dollars about a year ago. When i got it it wasnt running at all. But hey the body was straight and it was a 100 dollar car not bad. I finally got it running after playing with the timing and putting in new spark plugs. As soon as I got it to start up the temp guage jumped straight up to hot!!! I thought the temp reader was wrong and replaced the sensor, thermostat and flushed the radiator. Still did it!!! Got it compression tested and found out the head gasket was blow. Last summer I ended up pulling the engine and replacing the gaskets, got the heads machined and put back together... Car started right up engine runs nice but overheating problem is still there!!!

 

Anyone have any opinions or advice? Should I start replacing parts like the water pump and radiator or did i just majorly f*** up on my rebuild?:-\

 

Check ALL the places a block could occur. Check and see that your radiator is actually flowing water. A head gasket job (done right) should not go straight away like that.

Invest in a new radiator and I think you will be very happy. If you do pop for a new radiator, remove the end tanks from the old radiator and you will see why most likely the engine had a blown head gasket.

try filling the block from the upper hose. bleeding air is tricky on these. make sure the thermostat is open, the upper hose will become warm as soon as that happens. run the heat on full hot. if the head feels cold, there is not enough coolant in the system.

 

the radiator may apper full during the fill procedure, until the thermostat opens and sucks it through, make sure to double check the level once the thermostat is open.

 

make sure you can get enough volume of coolant in the block, because the thermostat will not open if the coolant is too low, and will result in an overheat.

 

you can try holding the idle at 2000 rpms to move air through.

 

a new water pump is the best insurance for reliability, followed by a better radiator.

Reading your original post I have to ask this question. If the guage jumped to hot as soon as it started are you sure it's not the guage itself? Is it actually overheating or is the guage just indicating that it's overheating? Just a thought. Good Luck

Reading your original post I have to ask this question. If the guage jumped to hot as soon as it started are you sure it's not the guage itself? Is it actually overheating or is the guage just indicating that it's overheating? Just a thought. Good Luck

 

That's kinda the same clarification I was looking for...:-\

 

Is it "actually" overheating, or just indicating hot?

so me and my friend checked the engine temp today with one of those infared temp guns an it was at 78'C which isnt very hot. oh and another weird thing about it is the guage only jumps straight to hot when the car is in gear in neutral it takes about 2 minutes to warm up and it never goes past the halfway mark.

 

A new radiator and water pump do sound like a really good idea though just to be sure that all the cooling componets are all good to go.

 

oh and MilesFox ill definatly try your filling procedure and see if that helps any.

Edited April 9, 201015 yr by ik87dl

So I finally put in a new radiator and water pump and the car still runs great. Gauge still jumps to hot after 20 seconds and the temp sensor is new could it still be bad? Or could it be the actual gauge going haywire? Just wondering if anyone had the same problem or know any fixes for it. Also the check engine light comes on after a couple minutes then starts blinking. Could the gauge reading be causing the engine light to come on? Again any input is highly appreciated you guys have been a great help so far.

get an aftermarket temp display in there while you trouble shoot so you can at least drive it without worrying. probably get something for $20 at the auto parts store?

 

the instrument clusters aren't terribly hard to replace actually. if you did an engine swap you could easily swap that. and the ones i've done you can even drive without the cluster in place, go try it while it's out, it's really freaky!

 

if you hit it with a temp gun while running and it was fine then it sounds like it's running fine, just the readings are wrong.

 

just to make sure, the DL doesn't have two temperature sensors like the XT6 does it? on the XT6 you'd have to replace the one in the intake manifold which is for the instrument cluster.

I'm pretty sure it just has the one... how does one go about tracking down where the wire is shorted out i haven't ever really tried anything like that:confused:

So I was checking out the engine and the cooling fan doesn't seem to be coming on either... The temp sensor on the radiator is new so is the temp sensor for the gauge cluster is also new. I'm confused why the readings are wrong and why the fan doesn't come on. I'd appreciate any help or suggestions that anyone has.

So does anyone know how to track down and figure out what the problem with the temp guage is? could it be a short in the wire or something? bad guage? any ideas and how to check for it... any help would be awesome!!! I think itd be awesome to get it figured out this summer so I can finally have my subaru as a winter car.