rockbass Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Just wanted to share some experience with everyone... A couple weeks ago my 98 OBW blew it's second head gasket. I posted here for suggestions. Several people recommended the 2.5 to 2.2 swap. GeneralDisorder (Rick Cropper) offered to do the work (more to say about this in another thread) at his Portland, OR location. Only problem...I'm a few miles North of Seattle, WA. Rick suggested the car may be able to be driven for a while by punching out the thermostat. This is effectively the same as removing the t-stat, however because the gasket is part of the t-stat body it's necessary to remove the t-stat guts leaving the ring that holds the gasket. So, using a hacksaw, tin snips, etc., I hollowed out the t-stat and drove around town for a half day before committing to the long freeway trip to Oregon. It never got hot. In HEAVY downtown Seattle stop & go traffic the temp got as high as about half-way. On the freeway it ran cold with the temp gauge never getting above a 1/3 of the way up. I drove it on and off for another week until I drove it from my home in Edmonds, WA 208 miles to Rick's place without incident. It ran cold on freeway and never a hint of overheating. Of course, the gas mileage may have suffered from the engine never really running at normal operating temp, however it made the trip and probably would've made it to Mexico if needed. So, if you're in a bind, and catch it early enough, by gutting the t-stat you may be able to limp your EJ25 with a blown head gasket along for a bit while you consider your options. Thanks Rick and USMB! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suba9792 Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 you made a wise decision, bringing it to Rick. Wonder if that was your EJ22 on the stand a few days ago.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockbass Posted February 19, 2011 Author Share Posted February 19, 2011 Wonder if that was your EJ22 on the stand a few days ago.... Most likely. It was installed on Thursday. Drove it back to Seattle that evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 awesome, glad it worked out for you, getting GD cranking on your car, nice hit! folks have removed the thermostat to no avail as well, so I'm wondering what the difference is. a few possibilities: yours might have just had too much accumulated gases creating significant air pockets and just draining and properly filling the coolant without air bubbles (a.k.a. "burping it") was the actual fix. or others who have had unsuccessful t-stat removals didn't properly refill the coolant, leaving trapped air in it and they were overheating because of the trapped air, not head gasket. or, different head gasket failures might have different symptoms? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 I suggested it because I've seen it work on the phase-I EJ's before. I bought an EJ22 and drove it about 100 miles home - found the thermostat gutted and I pretty much knew what was going on at that point. I replaced the radiator to no avail and changed the thermostat twice, etc. I know how to burb EJ's and trapped air wasn't the problem. I gave up and tore it down - there was about a 1/2" spot on the bottom of the #3 fire ring where it was pushing exhaust gasses into the coolant. Basically running without a thermostat keeps it colder - to the point that many head gasket failure modes will not "open up" under the colder operating temp. I beleive it has to do with the warpage of the heads - the leak may be more or less closed when cold and then only expand as it's heated. He definitely had all the bad head gaskets symtoms - nasty overflow bottle, exhaust gasses pushing coolant into the overflow and then over-topping it and running out on the ground.... etc. His engine went to a friend that's going to frankenmotor it (after a rebuild of course). So no Subaru engines were harmed in the making of this EJ22 Outback GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 gotcha, so i guess it's safe to assume the ones where t-stat removal doesn't help are the exception probably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisbad Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 i removed my t'stat and drove around for 2 days like that before i replaced my head gaskets and it worked.i still was losing coolant internally and had to replace it 3 times but that was no fault of the t'stat. i never considered gutting it. thats a really good idea. curtis 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.