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93 legacy overheating bad


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The local junkyard owner has a friend who was trying to get a subaru going, but was having a hard time. I helped supply some stuff like a radiator and whatnot, but he couldn't get it to work. So he left it off at the J/Y, and the owner asked me to take a crack at fixing it. It's an AWD auto sedan, so it's kinda worth it.

 

Runs good, has decent power, but starts climbing into the red and pukeing coolant pretty quick. The rad was OK, the fans come on when they should, the upper hose is hot, the lower hose is cooler, neither seems to be collapsing and the system holds enough pressure so that you can feel it in the hoses. It's not bubbling into the resavaur tank, and the tank looks clean. You can't smell exhaust in the radiator or coolant in the exhaust. No CEL. If you rev the engine up with the cap off, coolant gushes out of the top of the rad, which i would assume means the water pump is working.

 

Oh, and the thermostat has been pulled.

 

Any ideas before I start diagnosing this pig?

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try posting in the new gen forum, there is a huge amount of info there on this family of cars. Good news, you should have the 2.2 engine that does NOT have many of the problems some of the 2.5's did as far as mystery over heating turning out to be head gaskets.

 

check all the normal stuff, water pump, radaiator, burping air from system, etc. all coverd in existing threads

 

Are you getting heat from the heater?

 

Good luck and kee p us posted

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The timing belt may be glazed and slipping over the water pump pulley. Or some other problem with tensioner or idler pulleys, etc...

 

Cool lower pipe means no circulation, so with the thermostat removed, it can only mean the coolant is not circulating. So either a clogged radiator(which you think should be fine) or a not pumping water pump. I wouldn't take bubbling coolant as a sure sign of circulation, it could just be turbulence or even a HG as Nipper hinted at with the compresion test suggestion.

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Eh, sorry about the post misplacement, I went to the new gen forum this morning and was wondering where my post went? So I musta put it in the wrong place last night. Mod's move it please.

 

There was a bit of an odd smell, kinda like burning belt and a squeeking noise... I figured it was the A/C tensioner pully, but mabe it's the belt slipping on the water pump.

 

The water pump is the only thing that hasn't been swapped on this car, so it might be worth a shot to take a look at.

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