To use liquid head gasket seal or not...?

[slow be]

I bought a sweet 82 GL a few months ago with an EA81 engine that just had it's engine rebuilt at a semi-local shop. I flushed the coolant the other day and found the dreaded milk in the radiator. Cracked head from what I gather off the forum, but a subie-buff friend said it could be a "freeze-plug" too. Sound plausible?

 

I don't want to spend a ton of cash on a head job, so how about the head-job in a can stuff at the auto parts shop? Subie blasphamy or is anybody interested in a new project?

 

Thanks

[idosubaru]

what makes you think it's a cracked head?

 

best to repair it right and move on.

 

recognize you got hosed on the deal and shop more cautiously next time? something wasn't done right or you were knowingly sold a bad motor....maybe it's already had bottles of junk dumped into it to mask this in the first place so it could be sold? a catastrophic failure happens shortly after buying that raises a red flag.

 

are you positive it's bad enough that it is a failure and not something else?

 

intake manifold gaskets.

many of the aftermarkets are cheap and barely better than cardboard and prone to leak. wouldn't dump a ton of coolant into the oil but maybe enough would get by rings and such to contaminate?

 

freeze plugs as you say?

 

if it's headgaskets then they should simply be replaced.

 

i mean if you absolutely can't repair it right then you gotta do what you gotta do and hope for the best. Subaru has a coolant additive meant to repair leaking headgaskets on the newer EJ25's....i have no idea if it's a good idea to use this on older ones but at least it's intended for Subaru's?

[Redcap]

I bought a sweet 82 GL a few months ago with an EA81 engine that just had it's engine rebuilt at a semi-local shop. I flushed the coolant the other day and found the dreaded milk in the radiator. Cracked head from what I gather off the forum, but a subie-buff friend said it could be a "freeze-plug" too. Sound plausible?

 

I don't want to spend a ton of cash on a head job, so how about the head-job in a can stuff at the auto parts shop? Subie blasphamy or is anybody interested in a new project?

 

Thanks

 

If you pour that gasket in a can crap in your motor, start shopping for a different one.

[pressingonward]

Do NOT use liquid head gasket sealant.

 

The subaru-approved head gasket sealant is a small bottle you put in the radiator to seal up/prevent VERY SMALL head gasket seeps in the EJ series of engine.

 

Most aftermarket stop leaks are designed for radiator tank seeps , gasket seeps, etc. They DO NOT work for head gasket issues since stuff is leaking INTO the coolant, not the other way around, so the pressure blows the stop leak out of the way.

 

The only "head gasket in a bottle" I know of is called Steel Seal. It may work somewhat for some length of time, but is at best a patch. The biggest problem with it is that it creates large chunks of plastic-like material inside your cooling system. I pulled a defective thermostat out of a Ford Escort and found that it was coated in plastic-like Steel Seal and sealed completely shut. There were also large chunks of it partially blocking the coolant outlet on the head. Not a good thing.

 

Oil in the coolant has a few possible causes:

 

1. Some idiot poured oil into the radiator (Yes I have seen it happen)

 

2. If the car is an automatic and has a tranny cooler built into the radiator (not sure if this applies to EA81's), the tranny cooler sometimes will crack and leak tranny oil into the coolant.

 

3. Blown head gasket/cracked head - Most likely. I'm fairly new to these older Subarus, but what I've read on this board suggests that EA81's don't typically have head cracking issues like the EA82 does (someone chime in and correct me if I'm wrong)

 

In summary you're in a bad position and probably will need new head gaskets and possibly heads, but they are really easy to do on these cars. Fix it the right way and enjoy your new car. Trying to patch it may seem cheaper now, but it will only cause headaches later on.

[pressingonward]

Try getting ahold of the previous owner and see if the engine rebuild is still under warranty. Most shops won't transfer the warranty to you, but you could see if the previous owner would be willing to take the car into the shop for you. (or just call the shop and tell them that their friend, i.e. you, will be bring the car in)

[GeneralDisorder]

Doesn't work for beans on Subaru's due to the cylinder orientation. That and it's a stupid gimick to avoid doing an afternoon's work and $100 in gaskets.

 

GD

[slow be]

Thanks for the advice and input, everybody. I'm pretty handy, but my eyes start to glaze over when I hear things like "replacing the heads". I would really like to fix it up right and have the killer little car that I thought I was buying, but my wife's not to keen on me putting a whole lot more money into it.

Do freeze plugs exist or is my buddy getting a cheap laugh at a subie-newbie's expense?

Can anybody point me in the direction of the super-duper $5 donation repair manual that gives a knuckle-head like me a chance?

[pressingonward]

Freeze plugs are little round metal "plugs" that are pressed into casting holes in the block and heads. They are called freeze plugs because if you run water in your engine and it freezes, the plugs will be pressed out by the water as it expands into ice. This occasionally will allow the motor to freeze without the ice cracking the block, but usually the freeze plugs get pressed out and the block cracks anyways.

 

Freeze plugs can get corroded/rusted and cause coolant leaks, but they don't cause oil to leak into the coolant, so your friend is mistaken.