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Kstretch, Go out and look at your car before you type! If your theory was right why would the thermostat hose go to the bottom of the rad? Run your car and put your hand on the hose next to the thermostat. You will find it never gets hot. The hose on the top of the engine will get hot because THAT is the outlet, NOT the bottom one where the thermostat is! The INLET to the water pump IS JUST ABOVE THE THERMOSTAT! Check it out!

 

Camelwagon, Your heater core is just passing enough water to make the hose hot but not enough to make the thermostat work right. Go out and bypass the core. Might take you 10 minutes! It wont cost you a dime. What have you got to lose?

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Kstretch, Go out and look at your car before you type! If your theory was right why would the thermostat hose go to the bottom of the rad?

 

On my EA82, the thermostat hose is on the top of the radiator, not the bottom... It's the EJ22's that it goes to the bottom of the radiator

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Soob flyer, what kind of car do you have? EA82s have the thermostat in the top of the block, with the thermostat housing connected to the top hose of the radiator. If I'm not mistaken, Camelwagon is driving an EA82 Loyale. Not a Legacy, which it sounds like you are refering to.

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Hm sounds good Soob, I will bypass. But then I wont get any heat in the cabin huh? :) Oh well at least hopefully the engine wont overheat. Thanks.

 

Just do it for a day and see if it overheats still. This isnt a permanent solution; just a way to see if the heater core is the culprit.

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I'm driving 85 GL with EA82. And yes the thermostat is on top with the top hose going to it. What engine are you talking about Soob?

 

on the newer enignes, 2.2 and 2.5 ist on the bottom, the older enigines its on the top.

 

nipper

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I had to make a flight up to Missoula, MT last month for part of the Lewis & Clark bicenntennial. While we were waiting for a helicopter that was to take us up to Lolo pass one of these autogyros landed. Looked like the same make as the one in your link. Nice looking little unit.

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Ya its kind of like having a really big motorcycle in the garage! This backwards cooling system thing really screwed with my head for a while when i was setting it up, but when you look at the whole picture it does start to make sense! It is also important to install the thermostat in such a way that the heater return hits it side ways.

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Well I looped the heater core hoses but no change, in fact it seems like it overheats worse. ANother thing, after i did this i drove on the freeway and it was overheating up there high and so i put it in neutral and revved up the engine a few times and that helped the gauge go down a bit, i kept having to do this... what does that mean? Maybe the water pump isnt turning but only turns when i revv the engine??? Ughghgh. Any ideas? Thanks guys.

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I read through all 9 pages of this and I have to add my voice to the chorus. At least 6 people have advised you to get a new radiator. Add my vote.

 

While you're at it, put in a new water pump, and the short bypass hose. It just makes sense because to do these you gotta take out the radiator anyway.

 

In my mind, it's 90% certain you have a clogged radiator. I'll give 8% to the bad water pump theory, 2% to a bad radiator cap. Hey, your Suby is 20 years old!! Original radiator, water pumps and bypass hose? That's more than double the life that most people get out of them.

 

New radiator! Do it!

 

-- Mark

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The fact that it overheated quicker with your heater core bypassed tells me two things. 1- you do have at least some flow through the heater core, because it was enough to aid in transfering some heat out of your coolant. 2 - your coolant pump is working, at least to some degree, because there was sufficient flow through the heater core to aid cooling. Sorry, but you are just putting off the inevitable, it's the radiator.

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Hm thanks guys. I'll try the belt and shaft thing first. Where is the bypass hose again?

I check on radiators, cleaning and rodding is from around $50-$60, a brand new one, cheapest I found was $120 here in Spokane. I dont really wanna get one off the net. I might just have to do the rodding for now, I dont wanna put so much into this junker. :) Thanks.

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I had an odd one, almost like this, i replaced the radiator, it was all gummed up and falling apart. It wouldnt overheat anymore but it ran hot. I forgot how i figured out what it was, i think i noticed the cooling fan "just didnt look like". I rpelaced the cooling fan , and that solved the rest of the problem. After 160K on the car, the cooling fan bearing was starting to go, but i never would have found that without replacing the radiator.

 

 

nipper

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Sorry, "bypass" hose was the wrong name. I meant the short hose (a 90* elbow) that connects from the water pump to the heater inlet line. It's completely hidden, underneath the bolt-on stuff on top of the engine. Which is why it's impossible to get at unless you're doing water pump work. Murphy's Law says this is the first hose to go when something leaks.

 

My take on the "heats up with electrical load" is that the additional load on the engine simply puts more heat into the cooling system. You'd be amazed how much energy it takes to generate that much electricity (try it with a hand crank -- you'll heat up fast!). Any time the engine has to work harder, the cooling system sees higher temps.

 

A cooling system in good shape will shed heat as fast (or faster) than it's generated. Either you don't have good coolant flow, or the heat exchange properties have deteriorated. A clogged radiator will do both these things (and lots of experience on this board points to this). A bad water pump is a possibility, but not as likely in my book.

 

-- Mark

 

 

Hm thanks guys. I'll try the belt and shaft thing first. Where is the bypass hose again?

I check on radiators, cleaning and rodding is from around $50-$60, a brand new one, cheapest I found was $120 here in Spokane. I dont really wanna get one off the net. I might just have to do the rodding for now, I dont wanna put so much into this junker. :) Thanks.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well I think it has to do with my alternator and waterpump. It overheats a lot more when I have the lights on at night and the heater fan. So that means its putting a lot more load on the alternator and belts, and the water pump isnt turning normally.... thats my latest conclusion. And plus the voltmeter gauge is weird too, when I have my blinkers on the gauge goes up and down in rhythm to the blinkers... So I might replace the alt and see what happens.

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So is there a specific chemical for cleaning out heater cores or just any slush cleaner will do?

Ok well I did all you guys said today, I disconnected the core hoses, put a hose with water pressure thru one hole at a time, then disconnected all the hoses to the rad and ran the hose with water pressure thru there. Then I ran some flush chemical thru it and let it run for 10 mins with the heater full blast and it worked!!!!!!!!!! I had HEAT in the car, the heater put out pretty good heat, way better than last night before I did all this. Tomorrow I'm gonna disconnect the core hoses again and run the garden hose thru there again to get all the flush chemical and water out. If I start the engine without the core hoses connected, will it get rid of all the water in there?

Anyways I'll let you guys know wats up tomorrow. Laterz...

 

USE BG RADIATOR FLUSH!!!

You should be able to get it at Napa or Car Quest.

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Good luck. I hope it's solved finally.

 

The '90 legacy we've been working on still overheated after two new thermostats, a new radiator, waterpump, and a complete system flush.

 

We finally just put a used engine from a 97 in it, and it runs great now. Burning way less oil too. Seemed a bit extreme, but nothing else seemed to make any difference.

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When diagnosing a cooling system it is most important to first know how the coolant flows through the entire cooling system. Then knowing the temp. of the coolant along the path of the coolant. This can be done using a RayTec gun. Just point and pull the trigger and you have a temp reading. But it costs as much as a new radiator, so unless you need to do a lot of diagnoses on cooling systems like I do then it isn't worth it. But for very little money you can buy some Thermomelt sticks from the auto parts store. They come in a wide variety of different temps. They are like a large crayon that melt at a certain temp. And by getting a few at different temps one can get a good idea whats hot and whats not. Before spending money on stuff you don't need, find out if it is in fact overheating and go from there. You think the cooling system on your car is complicated you sould try fuel injected outboard motor, what a mess. Good luck.

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