Overheated EJ20H

[aim]

Hey there fellas, long story short, I've overheated the car.

The temp needle went just over the water temp symbol in the middle of the gauge, have I caused any long term damage? Just got a call from the mechanic in hokitika, and he says I have a very weak engine, and that I may've warped the heads etc. Just wondering if he may be right, I'm worried he may be stretching the truth because I'm a remote client.

[Guest]

More information needed

But you could have done the head gasket - that does tend to cause over heating

[aim]

The water was dripping at a fairly steady rate when the car was off and level. I think I'll trust the guy, they seem fairly genuine over the phone.

[Guest]

 aim said:

Hey there fellas, long story short, I've overheated the car.

The temp needle went just over the water temp symbol in the middle of the gauge, have I caused any long term damage? Just got a call from the mechanic in hokitika, and he says I have a very weak engine, and that I may've warped the heads etc. Just wondering if he may be right, I'm worried he may be stretching the truth because I'm a remote client.

is that in the middle between cold and hot? i wouldnt call that over heated

-smurff

[aim]

Yeah, between cold and hot, it didn't reach the H, or the gradient before the H. It was about 2/3 - 3/4 of the way between C and H. Well I stopped, because it was climbing, and yeah, there was no water in the tank... But talking to the mechanic, he said the EJ20H is a pretty weak engine.

[Shale]

Not a cracked radiator end tank or a dead waterpump? Cheaper by far to repair than a blown HG, and exactly what happened to my BF.

[aim]

 Shale said:

Not a cracked radiator end tank or a dead waterpump? Cheaper by far to repair than a blown HG, and exactly what happened to my BF.

Radiators fine, was the first thing I checked. Pretty sure the waterpump's fine and that it is actually a leak, as the water physically drips out of the cooling system.

[Guest]

 smurff said:

is that in the middle between cold and hot? i wouldnt call that over heated

-smurff

Where is the temp sensor located in the EJ20? Is it a block or head temperature sensor, or a coolant temperature sensor?

I had a truck overheat on me once, and I only noticed it because the temp gauge was reading LESS than normal temp. The catch was that it was a coolant temp sensor, and once you lose coolant, the temp sensor didn't have anything to measure anymore and would generate arbitrary readings. :-\

I don't know how it works on the EJ20, but just a word of caution that once you are overheating, the temp gauge might not be a good indication of what is actually happening...

[Guest]

fitted on the top center of the block in the splitter pipe thingiee.

interesting over heating thing you mention there, very interesting

-smurff

[Guest]

Has the temp gauge ever reached the red area? If yes will it just stay there or will it drop back down after a minute or two if you were to keep on driving?

[aim]

Heh, apparently the engine in mine isn't original...

[R.D]

well i happened to be driving my brothers new car (with a EJ20H), boosting home from work. Got to my mates house who i was dropping home. Looked at gauges. Water temp is as high as it can go, just past red. I DROPPED. I had been raping it on a burning engine. Not the best feeling in the world. Opened up the hood, steaming like crazy.

I presumed it was head gaskets plus everything else that could go wrong as of the conditions, as there was not a drop of water left over.

In conclusion, it is not a weak engine!!!! it held up fine!!. All that needed replacing was the radiator hose that had burst. THANK YOU GOD. else there would have been a chunk of my rex fund down the drain haha.

[Drunkenmonkey]

find the leak any idea where abouts its coming from, i had mine coming out of the breathe hole on the water pump

[Guest]

 Drunkenmonkey said:

find the leak any idea where abouts its coming from, i had mine coming out of the breathe hole on the water pump

i had that, i so didnt know they leak from there lol

-smurff

[Drunkenmonkey]

neither did i, 2 cambelt changes in 3 hours later i did..

[Shale]

Given mine on Frankie would gush its load within 10m in its entirety... I'm rather suspicious of waterpumps

[dumbskate]

This sounds like it could be a lot of things really.

I would however avoid any mechanic who makes decisions on the condition of an engine over the phone. I have had leaks and I have had head gaskets go. Very different kettles of fish.

I say top up the water in the header tank, turn the car on, keep filling until she warms up and see what happens. Most likely you have blown (excuse the pun) out of proportion for a slightly raised temp needle. Track down that leak and sort that first.

And under no circumstances tell a mechanic over the phone that your Subaru is over heating. It like catnip to those boys and they start shouting BLOWN HEAD GASKET like there is no tomorrow.

[Guest keltik]

Drove my EJ18 with the temp gauge pegged untill it started missfiring. Poured a few buckets of water over it so it would start again and continued home. Damned thing never even missed a beat once i stuck a new rad hose on it.

On the other hand, drove a K series rover/honda motor with the temp gauge just a smidge above normal for a couple miles of flat motorway and warped the head (stupid stupid design on them).

I personally wouldnt say the EJ20 is a weak motor. if its just a coolant leak - id quit worrying untill youve fixed that and seen how it runs.

[Guest boostin]

The Subaru heads are so short they need to be damn hot to warp them.

If it was just over half, its more than likely to be fine.

My old 2.2 was overheating on Aucklands Southern motorway one time. I pulled over in Rotorua and took out the thermostat. I drove it like that for the next 3 months with no problems. ;D

[aim]

Hey thanks guys, I guess I'll spill the whole story since people are giving advice and commenting.

I'm a member of the AA, I thought it'd be a smart investment as I'm currently driving a '94 legacy TT. Well that turned out to be a pretty smart move, as I broke down in Hokitika. We left the Friday from chch, was giving it a few beans on the open road, and the car was fine, warmed it down at every pub (we did a bit of a crawl with a few full cars and good times were had) had a pretty quite trip after the Chalet at Arthurs Pass with the massive queue of cars. Eventually arrived at Hokitika and then Lake Kaniere (for those who know the area) where we were staying without so much as a hiccup. Warmed the car down and left it.

Next morning, got up and set out to make the fifteen minute trip from the Lake to Hokitika, when the temperature gauge started to climb pretty quickly after leaving the small township there. I pulled over, left the car running, checked the over flow tank which showed plenty of water - so I checked the gauge on the dash again. The temp had dropped, so I decided to take it carefully and set off again. Came to a small hill where the temp gauge spiked again, so I pulled over again and decided to investigate further, peering into the top reservoir I could tell there was no water, so we waved a couple of cars down and refilled it. Was fine all the way to Hokitika.

After the festival (around 5pm), the car had nearly all no water left! So I drove it pretty slowly to the nearest gas station where I got a hose and proceeded to refill again - where my observant flatmate pointed out the stream of water seeping out from under my car, we concluded there was a leak somewhere. but since I was careless with the hose and didn't have a sufficient jack or any ramps we couldn't pin point the location of the leak - so I called the AA and got it towed to a place where it could be stored overnight (and the next) to wait for a workshop to open on the Monday. So nearly all my communication has been with the Mechanic over the phone, and on the Monday they rang me saying they'd found the leak - it was on a hose connected to the secondary turbo - and proceeded to tell me how that was about the worst place and quoted me about 4 hours @ $65 p/hr to fix. And they might even pull the motor... So I said go ahead (and fix the leak, not really having any other choice), this was about 11am this morning and haven't heard since.

[mattapo]

blody dodgy backwater mechanics. they shouldnt need that much time to change it.

[aim]

[mattapo]

I Have a similar pic of my car at the yard of the aa guy that towed my car for me, except I took mine to show the bumper half ripped off cause the guy was a tosser that didnt care about anything but him self.

Anyway

[Guest huff3r]

 aim said:

And it still looks awesome as only a silver BD5 can ;D

[aim]

 huff3r said:

And it still looks awesome as only a silver BD5 can ;D

Lol, cheers, I must admit, I quite like the photo haha.