2003 Legacy Outback: Radiator blown & won't start – keep it or kill it?

[Theophilus]

So do you want to know how it all ended?

I tried everything I could think of — cleaned the throttle body, checked the fuel pressure, etc. — but it still wouldn't run.  It would start, but it always needed a little gas or it would die at idle, and it shuddered under any load at all in first gear.  (I only drove it around the block a few times.)  So finally I gave up and had AAA tow it to a service shop.  They went through all the same things we talked about (fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator, IAC solenoid, and so forth).  They couldn't find anything wrong and everything seemed to be in really good condition.

Finally they checked on that new radiator I'd installed, and they found that it was bone dry.  So they tried to fill it with coolant... and got a river of antifreeze pouring out the tailpipe.  You should have seen it.  The whole shop came to a stop and a dozen mechanics all gathered around to ogle it.  They said they'd never seen anything like it, where there was a straight-flow, no-resistance route from the radiator fill cap to the end of the exhaust system.  So why hadn't I noticed something that obvious myself?  It's because, when I put in the new radiator, I only filled it with water for the first fill, in case there was a leak from one of the hoses or something.  When I turned it on and tried it for the first time, I told you that I got a big cloud of white smoke coming out the back.  But it wasn't smoke.  It was steam from all the contents of the radiator hitting the exhaust and boiling away.  My "smoke" problem only went away because I boiled off everything in the radiator.

Anyway, new gaskets might solve the coolant leak, but who knows what other problems might be lurking in there?  I was done with it, so I sold the car to one of the mechanics on the spot for $500.  Now I'm looking for an electric car or a hybrid.

[el_freddo]

Yeah that’s epic! 

Sad day. 

Bennie