latest catastrophe 03 WRX turbo

[RustyBob]

my partner in the car flipping business bought this car relatively cheap. Car would overheat if you got on it in excess of 226-234 degrees, We replaced thermostat and bled system ten times also replaced upper and lower hoses that seemed weak and the upper hose liked to implode once in a while. problem never went away. Discussion amongst others seemed to indicate that it was a water pump. we decided to pull apart motor. It appears that the PO did a timing belt ( he said he did head gaskets too)  and we discovered the block had never been opened except to do the timing belt and water pump. these were good. we did find tho that the  coolant pipe that crosses the block and goes to the lower hose appeared to have leaked at some point. Someone put mechanic in a can in there to seal it and we figured there must be a blockage at this point.

We decided to go the JDM route with this car too and bought the motor that's in it now. I took the crossover pipe and had a radiator shop boil it out.. The radiator appears new and seems to have good flow.

When we first put the car at idle we found that one of the cooling lines to the turbo was leaking . We repaired that leak and got on the car. It rode nice for about ten minutes 3 miles or so staying between 180 and 201 degrees. He got on it good and suddenly it went up to 234 . We were close to home and shut it off coasted in. We found one more weak clamp we replaced and are letting the car cool off.. we did lose heat while we were driving    Now that we have  checked a third time with the cooling system... any ideas as to what could be doing this>?

[Fairtax4me]

Still has air in the system, possibly bad head gasket forcing air into the system which will cause it to overheat.

[RustyBob]

ok we put the car back on the coolant bucket from the upper coolant tank by the turbo. ran the car for almost an hour  squeezed upper hose had many small bubbles over time but once the fans kicked on at 205 degrees  we locked back up the system and decided to drive it.  At times it seemed the lower hose was a lot cooler than the upper hose... Drove about 24 miles  car tem peaked at like 216 a couple of times and we noticed that sometimes the temp would rise while waiting on a traffic light or at an idle at a stop sign... Im starting to wonder if some crud may be in the radiator from that stop leak mechanic in a can??  could there still be more air in the system?  Is there any trick to bleeding the system out?

[RustyBob]

one more thing... at the moment we have no oxygen sensors hooked up  downstream was missing with the car when purchased and  upstream had an unfortunate meeding with the frame rail while installing motor... this would not be making the car run too lean and causing an issue would it?  ( we are getting the sensors tomorrow as our local supplier likes to go to sleep once in a while and doesn't share our passion of being all day and night in the garage

Edited March 20, 2017 by RustyBob

[1 Lucky Texan]

after-cat sensor will throw a code. but has zero affect on a:f ratio. Other sensors are VERY important.

 

did you use an oem style t'stat?

 

 

 

also, a new rad caps, and  a tiny clamp or a coupla small zipties on the little overflow hose at the nipple on the rad neck are good ideas. Also check for crud blocking the o'flow hose's end in the o'flow tank. I cut mine at a 45* angle. You can pull the o'flow tank and shake some ice cubes back and forth inside it to clean it out if required. Bad cap or blocked o'flow hose could lead to collapsed hoses from vacuum.

Edited March 20, 2017 by 1 Lucky Texan

[AdventureSubaru]

FYI - "Car flipping business" = Unlicensed/Illegal dealing in cars.

 

Known a few people who have lost a lot of good money getting suckered by curb stompers. Not saying that's you, but there are laws on the books for a reason. Please follow said laws.

 

Lots of folks will sell a car for a profit now and again. Some of us can make a quick buck by fixing one ourselves. The limit in my state is 5 per year. But if this is your business, there's a lot of national crackdown and you're looking at huge fines, jail time and the IRS sifting through your life's history when they find you. Wont matter whether you scam people or sell top quality cars. You either need a dealers license or you're guilty as sin.

[1 Lucky Texan]

FYI - "Car flipping business" = Unlicensed/Illegal dealing in cars.

 

Known a few people who have lost a lot of good money getting suckered by curb stompers. Not saying that's you, but there are laws on the books for a reason. Please follow said laws.

 

Lots of folks will sell a car for a profit now and again. Some of us can make a quick buck by fixing one ourselves. The limit in my state is 5 per year. But if this is your business, there's a lot of national crackdown and you're looking at huge fines, jail time and the IRS sifting through your life's history when they find you. Wont matter whether you scam people or sell top quality cars. You either need a dealers license or you're guilty as sin.

 

yeah, it's a balancing issue, don't want to severely limit the ability of someone going into business for themselves and end-up protecting big companies from competition, but , the consumers need to know that, a business can be 'found' and held liable for any issue with fraud that might come up.  A guy here at work got busted for flipping too many cars too quickly. He's a really good guy and actually kept some cars from going to the junkyard while helping some relatives and friends get cheap transportation.

 

  As long as it's fairly easy to get 'registered' or w'ever - I'm OK with some regulation in this area.