Overheating & Head Gasket (confirmed head gasket)

[Drew]

Sorry to bump an old thread. An interesting read as I've just taken delivery of a 2007 3.0R-B from Melbourne which appears to have a stuffed head gasket

Will be sorting it out under the dealer warranty, but still very annoying when you buy a car that straight away needs major work like this. Just shows if the price is too good to be true, walk away

Typically the Subaru engines lose the passenger side head gasket... we've just had our Forester done, and including the 200k service cost $2900 for head reconditioning, full gasket set, all fluids, 200k service (including belts, etc and a rear wheel bearing) ...

Subaru gouge terribly for head work.. .they quoted us $4500 as well, not including the 200k service... Mark, out of interest, did they fill it with coolant or water for the first 1000 km's post-new gaskets? it's recommended to run water, as it doesn't have the same ability to work through any minute gaps in the gaskets while they bed in...

[MH3.0R]

... Mark, out of interest, did they fill it with coolant or water for the first 1000 km's post-new gaskets? it's recommended to run water, as it doesn't have the same ability to work through any minute gaps in the gaskets while they bed in...

Andrew,
No, they did not run water for the 1st 1000k, straight back to the normal coolant. But did a 1000k post head work check up and dropped all oil and coolant and put new stuff in. Hope it achieved the same result! No leaks, so maybe they were confident with the quality of their work?

[Tradewind]

Be just loverly if I had an experience like this

So far all good, however I am making a VERY concerted effort to remove heated air from around the engine to take some load off the cooling system and out of the engine oil

[kiks]

Gaskets do not 'bed in', the 'bedding in period' is the moment you turn each head nut or bolt the final few degrees.

[jakey]

Thought I would consolidate my recent H6 overheating troubles here.

Back-story: Last few weeks after driving for a good 30mins+, my temps seem to rise when the car is stationary. Whilst driving they are mostly under control.

03/09/13: Car passed a 2 hour pressure test at Cromwood today, the only thing they found was a slightly loose hose clamp at bottom of radiator. I am starting to get confused because it's almost as if my issues from last week have vanished. Their advice is to run the car hard again (as I haven't since I noticed any issues) and to see if the problems re occur. A glimmer of hope maybe?
Will pick up the car tomorrow and see what happens... I am extremely skeptical because I don't understand how what seemed like a major problem can just appear and disappear within a matter of weeks.

04/09/13: I got my car back this morning and went for a 20 minute drive which seemed fine so I followed it up with a slightly more spirited drive, also 20 mins.
Just as I thought everything was fine I looked down at the traffic lights and saw the needle rising up, sheeiiiiiit.
Took it back to Ross and he had a look with some thermometers, etc, now he thinks it may be the water pump or the thermostat. Hopefully more news by this evening. He still doubts it's the head gasket so this is a nice glimmer of hope to hold on to.

04/09/13 (2nd update):Update - New Thermostat installed - Temperatures at bottom rad pipe after 10 minute drive (by mechanic) are 80 degrees and were previously showing 60 degrees (when the car was practically over heating) - so thinks nail might be hit on head. Ball is in my court to go for another testing drive to see whether I can get issue to re-occur.

[MH3.0R]

Good luck with it Jake.

I do remember the pain of the diagnosis period. Mine went on for months. Also did some maintenance and replaced a few obvious things before ripping the heads off. Was a great car after that saga and still going strong since.

[Tradewind]

The head gasket thing is a huge PITA. Very few get to experience it tho

[jakey]

The head gasket thing is a huge PITA. Very few get to experience it tho

Ross @ Cromwood (my mechanic) said he's never seen one of my cars do a head gasket, and he does a lot of Subarus.


04/09/13: Just got back from a 1.5 hr drive and it was very good the whole time, VERY good, didn't move up past 50% for the whole 1.5hrs. I glimpsed down once I entered my home street (after waiting at traffic lights) and saw it go down from about 60% back to 50% (ever so slightly). Made me a bit sad but I have a glimmer of hope it was just from actually being hot and not an over heating problem. A few more good drives will tell me for sure. Glimmer of hope is looking better but last 1 minute of my drive has me slightly nervous now. In the drive way I popped it open and the over flow was quite full, a few air bubbles but MANY less than before.

[ace.k]

Good luck with the car mate. I went through hell with mine, careless previous owner.

Ended up pretty much changing the whole front end of my 3.0r. Alot of money was spent out of my pocket but im happy with the result now. Well worth it.

[jakey]

05/09/13: So little more than 5 minutes into my daily commute today the temps started rising. I am now intrigued as it took around 2 hours to start happening last night but so soon this morning. Could it be something to do with coolant levels? I looked once I arrived at work and it was about 5cm from the cap, but I put this down to the expansion in the heat. I will check the levels at lunch time and see how much they've dropped.

[MH3.0R]

05/09/13: So little more than 5 minutes into my daily commute today the temps started rising. I am now intrigued as it took around 2 hours to start happening last night but so soon this morning. Could it be something to do with coolant levels? I looked once I arrived at work and it was about 5cm from the cap, but I put this down to the expansion in the heat. I will check the levels at lunch time and see how much they've dropped.

Jake,

These are similar symptoms to those I had experienced.

So postulating on a theory here, but if it is a cracked head gasket, it was a warm night last night, so maybe not enough time to completely cool the engine and the crack in the head gasket to close up sufficiently. I had several days where the same sypmtoms would come and go, giving the impression at times that the last item replaced corrected the problem. In the end, the overheating came back.

What I would do is ask your mechanic to be prepared for a hot compression test, such that you drive directly to him when it is in the overheating state and they run a compression test before the engine cools. Also worth looking for any compression gas deposits in the coolant (fine filmy sludge) or coolant in the oil (greyish tinge to the oil colour. If the crack is still minor, some of these wont show up, but you will see some slightly higher coolant and/or oil consumption.

Now, if it is a head gasket (and that's where my money would go), then the symptoms will progressively get worse, so best to have it diagnosed earlier. But hey, I am certainly no Cromwood!

[jakey]

05/09/13: So little more than 5 minutes into my daily commute today the temps started rising. I am now intrigued as it took around 2 hours to start happening last night but so soon this morning. Could it be something to do with coolant levels? I looked once I arrived at work and it was about 5cm from the cap, but I put this down to the expansion in the heat. I will check the levels at lunch time and see how much they've dropped.

Jake,

These are similar symptoms to those I had experienced.

So postulating on a theory here, but if it is a cracked head gasket, it was a warm night last night, so maybe not enough time to completely cool the engine and the crack in the head gasket to close up sufficiently. I had several days where the same sypmtoms would come and go, giving the impression at times that the last item replaced corrected the problem. In the end, the overheating came back.

What I would do is ask your mechanic to be prepared for a hot compression test, such that you drive directly to him when it is in the overheating state and they run a compression test before the engine cools. Also worth looking for any compression gas deposits in the coolant (fine filmy sludge) or coolant in the oil (greyish tinge to the oil colour. If the crack is still minor, some of these wont show up, but you will see some slightly higher coolant and/or oil consumption.

Now, if it is a head gasket (and that's where my money would go), then the symptoms will progressively get worse, so best to have it diagnosed earlier. But hey, I am certainly no Cromwood!

Thanks Mark, Appreciate the advice.

05/09/13: Replaced Radiator cap doesn't seem to be making a difference. But maybe in morning when things have had a chance to cool down it will be a different story. ALSO - my overflow bottle is quite full now (because of the heat expansion?) Shouldn't it all go back into the radiator? Seems like it's not going back in.

[Tradewind]

Should you need it - best source of full head gasket and engine gasket kit

http://www.ebay.com/itm/05-09-SUBARU-B9 ... a7&vxp=mtr

[jakey]

Should you need it - best source of full head gasket and engine gasket kit

http://www.ebay.com/itm/05-09-SUBARU-B9 ... a7&vxp=mtr

3.0L V6

Also it says EZ30D, that will be okay for EZ30R?

[alessandro132]

Should you need it - best source of full head gasket and engine gasket kit

http://www.ebay.com/itm/05-09-SUBARU-B9 ... a7&vxp=mtr

3.0L V6

Also it says EZ30D, that will be okay for EZ30R?

All Gen IV engines are EZ30D designation, EZ30R is slang to identify it as the second revision (i.e. 3 exhaust port heads per bank, dual AVCS per head)