Hi All,

I have a 91 Liberty (legacy) manual 300 kms original (not sure what that is in miles) motor and it overheats, No bubbles in coolant, no mixing of coolant and oil.
I have filled it up with coolant (first flushing the radiator, (removing it first) forcing water through all 5 holes (heater hose connections, radiator cap, and drain hole and air release holes . I have then flushed the engine removing the connections to the heater core and flushed that, then flushed and reversed flushed the heater core.
With the air bleeder valve open on the left hand side of the radiator nearest the top radiator hose i have slowly filled it up with coolant and when it started to run out of the air hole closed it and and then topped it up once engine was running , then 1 day later also topped it up.
I have used this method numerous times with my other subaru liberty i own and on other subs also without a problem.
I was wandering what I should be looking for and testing to try to nut this one out?
I have flushed it twice and still overheats , also runs ok when cold but rough when hot, not sure if this is related. (sounds like a slight misfire when hot)

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

Paul

Sydney Australia

Did you ever replace the thermostat or radiator cap?

Yeah I'd check on the thermostat. Make sure you get a subaru OEM thermostat. The aftermarket ones are a different shape and don't work well.

The thermostat and radiator cap are from my other liberty and are only 10 km old are were ok and working in that car.

they are both from subaru not aftermarket as I have had trouble with aftermarket in the past.

I have just tried a good radiator from my other suby and the car still over heats any ideas anyone??

If you don't have air in the coolant system, you don't have a head gasket leak, your thermostat is good, and your radiator is good.....the only thing left is the water pump....or possibly some sort of blockage in the cooling system.

Do you hear any noise coming from the pump? Are the fans kicking on? If so, you're still over heating?

The fans are kicking in and to make sure once the eng was at operating temp I disconnected the thermoswich for the fans to run all the time and it still overheated,
There are no strange noises coming from the pump.
Any ideas as to how can I flush the engine properly?
and also how can I test the water pump?

Not really sure how to test the pump other then removing it.

I'd suggest having the coolant sniffed for hydrocarbons. That will point out whether you have a head gasket issue or not.

I checked the compression when slightly warm, then when gets to normal op temperature and there is a drop on two cyliners, this looks like leaky head gasket to me, also there is what i think is steam coming out the exhaust when engine is at normal operating temp with a small missfire of the engine as well.

Do you think there is enough room to remove the cylinder heads whilst the engine is still attaced to the manual transmission, undoing the engine mount bolts and using a trolly jack to lift engine a few inches?

Yeah, there is room to get the heads off. It's tight, but you can do it.

Next week end I will have a go , i have changed heads on other motors without a prob.
Just a question , what are the torque settings for the headbolts ? I assume it 3 or 4 stage torquing up?

Yeah it's a funky torquing sequence. I pm'd you some info that should help.