engine overheats
 

92 Pearlie - The engine was overheating (near red) only on inclines. Nearing 130K, so was ready to take it in for a timing belt and maintenance. Overheating became chronic. Had a full LEAK down and PRESSURE test. All cylinders were within spec so I had to replace the water pump, radiator, hoses and belt.

After picking the car up, it still overheats. Seems to boil out the coolant reserve tank. No steam in exhaust, or water in the oil.

Any ideas? Thanks -

Head gasket. Sorry but that is a classical discription of a Subaru head gasket leak. I recently pulled a 2.2L engine that passed all the head gasket tests, pressure and CO gas in the coolant. The leak was too small to show up. The engine ran great on loacl driving but on the highway it sucked coolant and over heated. Not the same as your case but blowing coolant out the tank lid is common with a HG leak. The over heating does not always show up on the gauge. Depends on how close the leak is to the sensor. I know of another SVX that showed increased gauge temperatures at idle in traffic. The gauge would go up and down. It was a HG too.

Damn. Mine has been doing this for about 30k miles now. :(

Has the thermostat been checked ? Element could be perforated and not openong. Cheap and equally could be the cause.

I haven't checked the thermostat yet. Mine only does this on very long trips - highway driving for a couple hours at least, then I hit a traffic jam and the temperature will fluctuate. It doesn't ever get into the red, just heats up some. I'll change out the thermostat this weekend. It looks pretty easy to get to and they are cheap.

Thank you all for the feedback. I suppose I have the 'classic' story that maybe someone else can learn from.

There was intermittant heating problems, only on inclines, and never RED LINE. Then, while on a road trip it did RED LINE, and this situation became constant. Stuck in a distant town, I took it to a shop, asking them to test for HG leaks. They did the pressure and leakdown test ($130). Like someone above said, nothing showed up.

I decided to invest $2000 in a new radiator, waterpump, hoses, timing belt and a few other items. When I picked up the car,it ran fine for about 2 hours, and then went right back to the same problem. Now I can't drive it 25 miles without it overheating.

Now where I am screwed, is the shop says to have it towed back 160 miles away). Maybe the HG is reasonablething to replace, but what if it is a CRACKED BLOCK?

The moral of the story - if you love your svx, then don't mess around with cooling problems. Fix it now!

Thanks again... I will post the result of this saga in a couple days...