PATCO Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Hello everyone, I have a 96 Legacy Outback 2.5 with 236,000 miles. After overheating issues due to the second HG failure I just finished the EJ22 swap. Everything went great using the advice from many on this forum. Thanks to all. Before figuring out the HG problem I replaced the water pump, thermostat, radiator (old one burst) and all hoses. None of these components has more than 5 miles on them. After firing up the new EJ22 (120,000 miles) everything seemed great. I drove the car around the block a few times and everything checked out. A few days later after buttoning up misc things I drove to the gas station and back, about 3.5 miles roundtrip. Again everything was fine. I left for work the same evening and drove about 2 miles. The check engine light came on and the temp almost hit the H mark. I pulled over and popped the hood. No coolant leak, fans not on. I waited about 10 min and fired her up. The temp was back to normal. ?? I headed for home. As soon as I began decelerating to stop the temp started climbing. The second I took off the temp quickly dropped to normal. This continued until I returned home. Here is a list of what I have determined: I can let the car idle with the AC on or off for 20 min and the temp is fine. The fans are working. Upper hose is hot. Lower hose is cold. Heater blows cold. Heater hoses luke warm Radiator feels cold. Bypass hose is hot. I removed thermostat (Subaru) and checked in 190 deg water alongside a carquest thermostat for comparison. Both opened. I looked in the water pump and the impeller is not broken. Using a long screwdriver I was able to turn the impeller. The resistance felt matched what I think it would take to turn the smooth WP pulley. I don't know what to do next. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Patrick Rauch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Hi! Did you make sure to not trap any air in the system? Based on some of the details you mentioned, (upper rad hose hot, but radiator cold, heater hose warm, but no heat) it sounds like coolant is not circulating. Even if the rad were clogged and/or thermostat failed closed, you should still get heat. Using a long screwdriver I was able to turn the impeller. The resistance felt matched what I think it would take to turn the smooth WP pulley.Was this with the timing belt on? It doesn't seem like you should be able to rotate the impeller with the timing belt on unless the belt is loose. Maybe with engine cold, pull the heater core hot hose (coming off the coolant supply pipe), then crank it for a few seconds and see if you get a good stream of coolant coming out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Sure sounds like an air bubble to me. A guy called setight used to have a thing on bleeding the air so you might do a search. He used to put the front up. I fill it and do a moderately high speed run around the block and park it, let it cool and then refill. That usually gets the air out of the heater for me. I then check and refill several times over the next few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtdash Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Yep, find the post by Setright. Here's the link: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=21681&highlight=Setright+radiator I had the same issue. Essentially, he fills it from the top radiator hose. On my '90 EJ22 I filled everything up thru the radiator, and then there is a bleeder hole on the top of the radiator. I undid it just enough to let steam/air/water come out and filled from the top radiator hose (on the passenger side on my car) and when water started coming out the release valve I was done (I did this w/the car running) - closed it all back up and no probs since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msmithmmx Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 When your car is at temp carfully place your hand on the lower radiator hose and make sure its hot and NOT cold. You should also feel the fluid moving as you hold the hose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PATCO Posted September 25, 2007 Author Share Posted September 25, 2007 It’s finally fixed! Thanks for all the suggestions. I followed Setright’s procedure for filling with no luck. After draining and filling multiple times I was getting pretty frustrated. I removed and tested the thermostat (new from dealer) with no luck. I even tried another thermostat with no luck. I pulled the heater hoses off and fluid came out. I was about to pull all my hair out. I was beginning to think the water pump was defective. (new from dealer) I decided to pull all the hoses and try to flush every component. I pulled the heater hoses and hooked the garden hose to one with an adapter. I turned on the water and POP! The hose blew off. I was soaked. Thinking the core must be plugged. I pulled the hoses off the core and there it was, a vacuum cap in the line. I had two friends help me do the install. One of them hooked up the heater hoses without pulling out the plugs. An honest mistake, black plugs in black hoses. I blew both plugs from the hoses and problem solved. It never fails. It’s always something simple. Again thanks for the suggestions. This forum is a wealth of Subie info. Later, Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 Congratulations! Thanks for posting back with results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PATCO Posted September 29, 2007 Author Share Posted September 29, 2007 A little update: On Tuesday the transplanted EJ22 passed CA smog. YES! On Wednesday my Mom was rear ended while stopped waiting to make a left turn about a 1/4 mile from her house. The car hit her at 50 plus, never hitting the brakes. She is very sore, but ok. She is sick about her baby. I'm sure it is totalled. I could'nt get the driver door open. Time to look for another Outback! What year was the 2.5 headgasket problem fixed? Any suggestions on what year I should look for? She loved her 96, but I don't want to go through the HG thing again. Thanks, Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hankosolder2 Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 A little update: On Tuesday the transplanted EJ22 passed CA smog. YES! On Wednesday my Mom was rear ended while stopped waiting to make a left turn about a 1/4 mile from her house. The car hit her at 50 plus, never hitting the brakes. She is very sore, but ok. She is sick about her baby. I'm sure it is totalled. I could'nt get the driver door open. Time to look for another Outback! What year was the 2.5 headgasket problem fixed? Any suggestions on what year I should look for? She loved her 96, but I don't want to go through the HG thing again. Thanks, Patrick That's terrible...I'm always afraid that'll happen right after I do a major repair to a car! Supposedly, the HG problem for 2.5L was fixed in '03. You could also just buy a Legacy equipped with the ej22...those were built up to '99, I think. Search a bit here and you can find plenty of info for the ins and outs of the HG failure modes for the phase I and phase II ej25s. Nathan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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