figure out this cooling problem and i'll give you 50 cents

[muellerdeal]

get your radiator rodded at a radiator shop its cheap and makes a good rad aout of a bad one unless all your fins are gone :-\

[jeffast]

have you replaced the seal on the water pump?i have a small leak in the pump could it be suck ing air or losing prime

[All_talk]

I'll bet ya 50 cents its the radiator, classic symptoms. Given the age of these cars and the average mileage, most of them are due for a new radiator, so I'm not suprised you have two bum ones. My RX (with 300,000 miles) is on at least its third and when I replaced the one in my '87 wagon (at 250,000) it look like it had been done before too.

 

Best way to check for a bad/plugged rad is to feel the core for temperature variations (engine off), it can be tough on an A/C equipped car, you might need to pull the fan.

 

Gary

[NorthWet]

get your radiator rodded at a radiator shop its cheap and makes a good rad aout of a bad one unless all your fins are gone :-\

Rodding is not financially feasable on the composite radiators that came standard in most of these vehicles. And rodding just as often turns a plugged radiator into a leaky radiator.

[oddcomp]

not reading the whole 3 pages of reply's

i will offer the following

 

yes a water pump can have worn down blades and reduce flow thus causing overheat

 

a bad or close to bad headgasket can also cause overheat

 

stuck thermostat

malfunctioning thermostat not opening at the right temp

 

i had a few others.. but i lost my train of thought i has derailed

[Ross]

Rodding is not financially feasable on the composite radiators that came standard in most of these vehicles. And rodding just as often turns a plugged radiator into a leaky radiator.

 

My friend had his ea82t radiator cleaned in this manner for around US$10, worked perfectly afterwards. For this price, i think its worth trying before looking at a new one anyway, even if there is a risk that it will destroy the radiator.

[jeffast]

gary have you changed your water pump?

[idosubaru]

water pump new in both XT6's. brand new pump, seals, tstat, etc...

 

swapped in a third radiator and it appears the temps are back to normal. so it must have been two bad radiators, but that second radiator was good when it was in the last XT6 it inhabited.

 

someone on xt6.net guessed bad radiators, so i guess he gets the 50 cents as well as one or two persons here. fantastic work guys, thanks for the effort.

[subyrally]

good to hear that it wasnt a major problem.

[Fuji Fellow]

Adam,

 

Can you tell me more please about the HC in coolant test? How is it performed, what equipment does it use, etc? I have sort of the same situation going on with my Subaru -- overheating despite new thermostat, pressure cap, etc. Sometimes it'll puke coolant out the overflow tank, then when I refill it sometimes I see bubbles in the radiator. Not sure if that's air pockets being flushed out of the water jackets, or maybe it's combustion gasses getting past the gaskets. Anyway, I gotta get this problem fixed, and the HC in coolant test sounds like the next thing I need to do.

 

Thanks,

 

James

 

 

 

Are you haveing a water loss issue? Does the exhaust have a sweet smell to it? And is the water alittle darker than normal? You are tossing aside one of the big Subaru overheating root causes.... someone over heated it in the past and popped a headgasket or two. Personally I would use a block tester on it to check for signs of HC's in the coolant. A compression check isn't always going to turn up a problem. I've had a number of rigs that ran just fine, but just plain overheated. Checked for HC's in the coolant and bingo. This is including my ER27 thats in my Brat, had popped HG's when I got it. Overheated like nothing I've seen before, ran perfect though. And the cooling system was all new, to include a jeep 4.0HO radiator.

Guess what I'm rambling at, unless you know for dead certain that the HG's are pristine (like you just changed them recently), then I would at least check it out.

[idosubaru]

take a sample of coolant somewhere and they test for hydrocarbons (what the HC stands for). HC indicates compression leakage past the gaskets into your coolant. never had it done, only read about it so i can't tell you where or how much it costs.

 

if the car overheats and you turn it off and see bubbles in the overflow tank that is classic head gasket sign. if you loose any coolant at all, that is also a sign of leakage or head gasket issues.

 

i would do a compression test before an HC test. you can do a compression test yourself.

[Gravityman]

DAMB I hate when you have like 10 pages of good crap written for the thread and you accidently hit the back button and you lose all of what you wrote!!!

 

Anyway. This is for all 50 cents! What is causing the overheating is (if this is the new engine(rebuilt)). When you rebuilt the engine you cut all of the gaskets to match the ports if I am not mistaken. When you did that you also did the coolant ports. By doing this (I belive) that it will flow the coolant through the engine effortlessly, the problem with this is the coolant will not backup in the engine (backup caused by the gasket coolant cutouts (small circles) being half the size of the entire coolant port) long enough for the heat of the engine to disapate into the coolant efficiantly. There for your engine temp sensor rises and the radiator is less effective unless you get a bigger radiator to bring the coolant temp down alot AND ULTIMATELY RESULTING IN ME GETTING YOUR 50 CENTS!!!!

 

[idosubaru]

the rebuilt engine runs perfectly normal temps. sorry it gets confusing, i have six XT6's (all listed in my sig).

 

this issue was on a stock XT6 and the problem was the radiator(s).

[Bobby_boucher]

i am having the exact same problem as he is and i just put a new raditor and thermostat in my xt-6 mine is not over heating but it seems to get hotter than it should with a brand new raditor,

compression tests at 120 all cylenders no coolent loss except a teaspoon evrey 2-5 weeks leaky bolt on the pump no big deal

 

 

even with a small leak like that it can still allow air into your cooling system and cause it to over heat, even the smallest air pocket can be a pai in the @$$!!

[Bobby_boucher]

take a sample of coolant somewhere and they test for hydrocarbons (what the HC stands for). HC indicates compression leakage past the gaskets into your coolant. never had it done, only read about it so i can't tell you where or how much it costs.

 

if the car overheats and you turn it off and see bubbles in the overflow tank that is classic head gasket sign. if you loose any coolant at all, that is also a sign of leakage or head gasket issues.

 

i would do a compression test before an HC test. you can do a compression test yourself.

 

 

you can also use a "block tester" buy it at NAPA they are a tube and some dye that are very easy to use and come with instruction. They can detect if any fumes are in your cooling system (usually caused by a very small head gasket leak that is undetecable by an other of the usual signs)

[jeffast]

my 2 cents check youyr cooling fans i checked the polarity on mine and the large one on the right was spinning thewrong way effectively neutrialising the cooling effect while driving down the freeway

[idosubaru]

problem solved already. clogged radiator. put in another radiator that turned out to be clogged as well even though it ran fine in my old XT6 that i parted out.