dannybten23 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 My 1999 Legacy outback is overheating. Here is the story. Maybe 5 months ago driving to work in the morning the heater wasn't working, the engine then was overheating. I had been driving only a few minutes. I added coolant and headed to the mechanic. He added fluid to the right place and said the thing didn't have a leak and ran it for an hour with no problem. Since then it has worked fine, driving over hills everyday. Headed to the mountains Friday is was overheating again, although i checked the reservoir the day before. About an hour into the trip we smelled something funny (coolant i guess), but the car didn't get hot for another hour or two. Upon looking under the hood there was a tube that was obviously compressed due to lack of air inside the tube. When I opened the radiator, the tube filled with air. I added fluid to the radiator and the reservoir and the engines stayed cool. Any idea what is going on? Is my head gasket leaking into the coolant and pushing the coolant out of the engine? I could see coolant all over the top of the engine. If i keep an eye on the coolant level will the car work fine? Thanks, Danny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davebugs Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Search here for "head gasket failure" and "head gasket repair". You've got lots of company. Welcome, and do some reading. Many useful folks and procedures here. Always best to take some initiative and do some investigation yourself. Probably my favorite writeup you can find by seatching for "skipnospam". Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisbad Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 welcome to the overheating club! got to love that ej25. you didn't mention if your engine is the 2.5 liter . i bet it is. do some research here , lots of info. good luck. curtis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
North to Alaska Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Welcome to the Head Gasket Club & Ultimatesubaru.org. My 98 outback s/w 2.5 DOHC is on its second set. First set went at 124K miles. Second set went 123680 miles later. I have been telling people for years, with the EJ-25 DOHC engine to make sure you change the timing belt and head gaskets at 125,000 miles. The second HG failure happened 2 blocks from the Subie service shop. USE ONLY SUBARU PARTS !!!!!!!!!! Use Subaru's latest EJ-25 DOHC Head gasket. Subaru's last four digits for this gasket is 0111 (Subaru parts) All the Subaru Taxi cabs around Anchorage (Their's LOTS of Subaru cabs up here !) that have HG problems replaced them with these new gaskets and have reported no problems. Same report from Yellow cab. Kurt, owner of AAA+ Subaru shop in Anchorage & Skagit Subaru in Burlington Wa. After you get it fixed, make sure you use the Subaru Cooling System Conditioner Welcome to the club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigmcd Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 (edited) Danny, I too have just joined this forum, welcome. The car I posted about is a 99 Outback, and it went through the whole HG thing about 18 months ago (after nearly 200K on the original engine). As a newbie I will probably get in trouble for plugging a specific business, but you should at least look at http://www.ccrengines.com. They have a small web site, but I have been in the shop and it is a professional operation. We ended up buying a replacement engine from them. They will ship most anywhere, but we lucked out that they were just an hour away. I have a whole folder on my computer about this HG problem if you are interested - it will save you a lot of research. The CC Engines are expensive, but they are long blocks, meaning that they come with all essential components new (timing parts, oil pump, water pump, etc). They do have a three year / 50K warranty - so they think alot of their own work. As an aside, one thing I learned in my search was the vital importance of regular battery maintenance to keep the cables and terminals clean. If you open your hood and there is a big white blob on top of the terminals, that could be the genesis of your HG problem. Go figure. Good luck. Craig Edited February 21, 2011 by craigmcd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 indeed sounds like headgaskets but checking cheap and simple things like cap, thermostat, and radiator, are a good idea. if it's random like that then the radiator probably isn't bad - they're usually more consistent in my experience. in general you can't drive these early EJ25's like this, they will overheat and can be hard, if not possible, to come back down. remove the thermostat and you can get more miles out of it. you'll have to cut it though so you can keep the outer ring which holds the tstat gasket in place. Subaru Cooling System Conditionerthat's only intended for the externally leaking Phase II EJ25's. it doesn't apply nor is it likely to mitigate the Phase I issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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