Thermostat location?

[jazzician]

I've driven the Coquihalla Highway (for those who know the highway, and for those who don't, it's a real climb up to the top) and my 89 GL10 had the turbo a lot of the time and it ran cool all the way. I came down the other side and have a stretch of flat highway to drive for a couple of hours to Vancouver. About 1/2 way along this stretch I started to experience a heating issue where I was okay if I was reallllly gentle but if I accelerated a reasonable amount, the temp jumped up to the red zone and back down again really quickly if I let up on it. My mech seems to think that the rad is gone but I'm questioning as to why it ran so cool with the Turbo on all the way up the Coquihalla Highway. I know it's colder up there but not by a whole bunch. I'm thinking maybe the Thermostat? I'm going to drive a bit now and see if the fan is coming on or not. Not sure.

 

Any Ideas?

 

Simon

 

BTW: where is the thermostat anyhoo. If you say it is beside something, chances are I won't know where that other something is. Any pics by any chance?

[NorthWet]

  jazzician said:

...BTW: where is the thermostat anyhoo. If you say it is beside something, chances are I won't know where that other something is. Any pics by any chance?

Easy-peasey: Standing in front of car, facing engine. Locate (your) left side of radiator, near the top is a large (5-6cm) radiator hose, follow it back along its 30-40cm towards the engine. The housing that it goes into is the thermostat housing. It should have all sorts of goo-gaws attached to it (vac hoses, temp sensors), but that is the housing for which you quest.

[NorthWet]

For a pic, look at: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=27093

 

Go down to Gravelrx's post with the pretty picture of his shiny engine *envy* . Just below and to the left of center is the t-stat housing, with the black plastic on top and the aluminum spigot coming out at 7-o'clock.

[jazzician]

Mmmmm, okee. Thanks for the thinkings. Any thoughts on the timing of the overheating as mentioned in the entry ie: not overheating on a kajillion foot climb up a mountain, then overheating a couple of hours later on a straight away highway going 105 Km/H in 5th? I took it for another rip up some long hills and the car didn't overheat. It's almost like it doesn't matter how you drive it the first couple of hours, it's fine but anything like a 4-5 hour drive, it begins to go mental. Doesn't sound like radiator to me. That's why I was thinking Thermostat. I'll take it out again and try to get the heat up and see if the fan is kicking in. Hmmmmm.

 

Simon

[NorthWet]

The overheating is a little wierd. T-stat good first thought, radiator is easy to pull and have flow-tested at a radiaor shop (free or nominal charge). Engine can soak up heat for a while and then show signs of overheating if radiator flow is insufficient. Fan is another possibility; I have had trouble with the connector on mine. Automatic tranny??? If so, check the fluid lately? Could overheat going up, and take time to discharge heat to radiator. OOPS! "in 5th", so not the problem.

[jazzician]

Yah, I'll see what happens with the fan next time the heat goes up. Hopefully, it will happen near a Tim Hortons with me being a health-doughnut addict and all. The aspect of the engine soaking up heat over a period of time was kinda what I was thinking as hill climbing with Turbo on would normally be suffice to indicate Rad or facsimile of. BTW, it's a standard tranny.

 

thx again for the thinkings,

 

Simon

 

  NorthWet said:

The overheating is a little wierd. T-stat good first thought, radiator is easy to pull and have flow-tested at a radiaor shop (free or nominal charge). Engine can soak up heat for a while and then show signs of overheating if radiator flow is insufficient. Fan is another possibility; I have had trouble with the connector on mine. Automatic tranny??? If so, check the fluid lately? Could overheat going up, and take time to discharge heat to radiator. OOPS! "in 5th", so not the problem.