montana tom

climbing; Yup subi,napa, any parts house will have it all. Try changing your rad cap... they can go bad.If that doesn't help then your water pump is another possibility, one you don't want. Usually a water pump leak shows up at the crack of the timing cover but it runs everywhere. Buy a can of brake clean... spray everything that looks wet , clean and dry it, then run your motor. If your lucky you will spot the new leak without going anyplace... if your not then drive it and keep looking. Worry about your heater core later its not the problem . If you don't find & fix the leak ...sooner or later you are going to overheat the motor and you will need head gaskets.

Thanks Fairtax; That was the information I needed. I'll just fix the set of 2.5 heads .

Thanks for the reply's guys ; Modifying a head gasket seems easy enough but ...What is the difference in the heads that will cause a cel problem in a 2000 + ? Everything (intake ) would be swapped from that year car. A lit CEL wont bother me on a car that is sure to have 200,000 + miles on it... but i'm curious how heads alone would cause an issue.

OMG !!! Disconnected the heater core !!! ...You won't see that around here... If your losing coolant you probably have a hose leaking . The previous owner probably used one old heater hose to connect back to the other pipe. That is the first place to look . Under the dash wont help if the core is disconnected. The small rubber hoses connecting to the intake manifold are another good place to check. If all else fails go to a local mechanic and ask him to put the pressure tester on and bring it up to pressure with the engine off, makes it much easier to spot small leaks that way. The engine must be cool enough to open the rad cap when you bring it to him. Or go to harbor freight and buy a cheap one and do it yourself !

Hi all; First post, 30 year subi owner. I have a good short block 01-2.5 sohc. I could buy valves and repair the original heads... But since finding this forum I'm hearing about using 2.2 heads. Just so happens that I have 2 sets for sure and maybe another in the motor barn. All from the early 90's .I have read that they do not flow as well as later models, but slightly increase compression. Will they bolt on and work ? I'm not wanting a race car ...(well at least not this one ) Just wanting to put together an extra engine on the cheap ,in case one of ours decides to be a problem.