1990 Subaru Legacy Overheating

I would bet you that the timing is off ONE tooth retarded..... It will start fine, idle smooth. It will run HOT and have a loss of power. It will NOT overheat idling. If an Auto, it will downshift a lot.

Good post - at 180K are you due for your 3rd (if 60k interval) or almost due fro your 2nd timing belt? Though he should have inspected for wear since he changed the water pump, it could still be off as Porgy suggests. Do you lose coolant due to boil-over? Is the electric fan coming on? Have you changed the radiator cap? Is your mechanic familiar with 'burping' the Subaru coolant system? Have you always had good, non-mineralized water and good anti-freeze in the system?

I vote for the TB issue or air entrapment.

Carl

Hey, thanks for the feedback so far...The fans do come on and on time. They have not changed the radiator cap, and I'm not too sure about the burping thing. Makes sense though! I do not use mineral water. I use well water that is not fit for drinking, however the last two times in the garage the mechanics had put antifreeze in it. As the car gets hotter (within 5miles now), I can begin to smell antifreeze a bit inside. The radiator doesn't steam at all, but I have noticed antifreeze inside the engine compartment and the overflow is usually full with the cap popped off. The other big thing is that the mechanic never really took it for a test drive (maybe 5 miles at the most). He did tell me that he let it run for an hour and nothing happened. They never stated anything about the possibility of the timing being off at all Looking forward to more input...

Ditch the well water, unless you are filtering it. You may well be introducing fine particles/sediment to the radiator and cooling passages and clogging them.

I would give the thing a good power flush and fill with the proper mixture of coolant/water, and use absolutely CLEAN water and see what happens.

Overheating problems:

-Valve timing off

-Ignition timing off

-Water pump

-Thermostat

-Radiator plugged (water)

-Radiator plugged (air)

-Radiator Fan

-Radiator Cap

-Fuel/Air mixture too lean

-Exhaust pipe clogged, blocked, restricted flow including cat. converter.

-Engine Lubrication issues

-AT slipping

Can you give us additional info?

- Do you notice power loss?

- Engine Pinging?

- Increase fuel consumption?

- Loss of power at higher RPMs?

Preacherman wrote:

I don't notice any power loss. In fact, I drove it to the garage tonight (8-13) and it ran great; however, within 5 miles I noticed my temp was already in the red (after sitting for the entire weekend). After I got it to the garage (10 mile drive), I lifted the hood and everything seemed okay. I popped the top off of the overflow and stuck my finger in it and it was cool water. I am not sure what's going on at this point...HELP!!!

Well, the overflow bottle can only heat up if hot coolant is pushed there from the radiator. If the radiator is low on coolant, the gas/air may just get compressed and whatever coolant IS in the system gets circulated. The overflow is to absorb, hold, then return small amounts that are relieved due to expansion with heat. Eihter your radiator cap is borked or the radiator is low on coolant-for one of several reasons.

Carl