overheated.

this is a very upsetting thing to think about for me.

im usually really not like this but lately ive been getting kinda stressed out. i got to work this afternoon and i was really distracted because i was digging for my work shirt and hat in the back seat and my cousin who i work with was talking to me about some hottie we just hired. in all the comotion i totally forgot to take the keys with me!!!!!!

im so used to letting the car run on the turbo timer that it didnt hit me when i walked away form my still running car with the keys. WTF i felt so stupid when 20min later im told by co-worker that there was a little smoke coming from my car and it was still running. i thought he was kidding but after feeling for my keys it all hit me. i ran outside to my car and there was a decent puddle of coolant dripping out into the ground. it was boiling out from the overflow tank next to the raidator. i had a couple people help pry the driver window back while i got my arm in to unlock it. after we popped the hood the boil tank was pretty full and by the look of what was on the ground i still had a most of it in the coolant lines. but the car doesnt overheat unless its been sitting for over 10min cuz i dont have a fan with the Koyo. so im sure it was overheating for maybe around 10min.

i was REALLY scared the rest of the night at work. and when i got off i had my friend give me a ride to pick up some more coolant from the nearby gas station. we poured almost the exact same amount that had spilt out back in but i didnt have any water to mix it with....

i got home and it stayed cool the entire way home and i checked it when i got back again and it had gone down just a little. im sure thats just because it was running for a bit. but after letting it run for about 5 min it was starting to get hot again so i turned it off. a few min later i put about 20oz. of water into it and let it run again. it took twice as long for it to start getting hot again probably about 10 min.

maybe i just need to add more water to get a better mix.... driving it seemed fine but when its sitting it gets hot a little faster than it usually does.

side note: when it was running again it sounded fine. no noises it doesnt usually make.

oil pressure was perfect too. the overflow tank didnt have oil in it either.

the exhaust didnt smell like anything other than exhaust either. ive been running through things to check while i could just because im scared like crazy.

anything els i should make sure to check to see it its been completely messed up? im gonna do an oil change too cuz im due for one anyways

 

So you have an upgraded radiator, but no fan:roll:?

I can see where one would think you could get away with that, if you never idle or go slow much...but I don't know which part of the equation I'd feel more stupid about if I were in you're shoes.

 

thanks for your insightful information.

FYI i bought the car with this setup. im currently in the middle of changing things. even at slow speeds it doesnt overheat but that doesnt mean im not going to be putting on a fan.

but thanks for being such a great help. i really appreciate it! :roll:

 

Obviously step one is to at least get a fan. Even a crappy one you have to wire to the ignition switch would be better than nothing. Advance auto sells cheapies for like 30 bucks. GET ONE.

Drain your oil. Make sure its not milky. If you warped a head or something, there may be coolant in your oil. If it is milky, make sure you get those heads off ASAP and plane them, then you'll need a re-tune.

I'm sure there are more things you can do, but I'm not quite sober enough to remember.

Good luck with the whole clusterf**k. Sorry to hear, man.

EDIT: as for too high an antifreeze/water ratio, don't worry about it. I usually go 60-65% coolant because I have seen -50 on the thermometer before. I have heard of people running up to 85%.

 

Dude we showed you Readymix's fan setup that night at FS. It aint pretty but it works. Any way not trying to bust your balls, good luck and hope everything works out.

 

+1 on the factory temp gauge being practically worthless. Before I replaced my plugged up radiator I was up to 235 one day and the factory gauge was just a little up from normal. It wasn't even 3/4 the way to the top.

 

totally, when I had blown HGs I hit almost 230 and my stock gauge was only 3/4 of the way up....worthless

 

I once overheated a previous car by quickly stopping it from highway speed and then turning it off (heatsoak). After that point, it continued to overheat fairly regularly until I put a new thermostat in it (my guess is that you can cook a thermostat to the point where it doesn't really work anymore, especially if it has a lot of miles on it). I'd toss a new one in as they're pretty cheap.

 

yeah check the oil i mean otherwise your nice to the car it shouldn't be bad at all. hit me up if you need help with anything.

 

yeah now the part comes where i take a look at my oil. and if the oil checks out alright i shouldnt be in too much trouble right? ive always expected the car to get a little hot if it sits like it did and it usually takes around 6min of sitting in one spot. i did a little test today and after i got home from work i let it run in the street for a bit while i watched the gauge and listed to the engine idle. it took over 8min to even start getting past its normal spot. but the smell of coolant is slightly more obvious than usual (maybe its the jug of coolant i have in the pass seat just incase lol id only hope) and there is a small amount of coolant steam coming from the area around the lower driverside part of the koyo. i might have cracked it or maybe just my hose connection is bad right there.

 

I just had the same problem with my mini. fan went out without me knowing about it, overheating just sitting there.

New $7 themostat fixed it, but was lucky not to damage the heads, but its pretty hard to heat damage cast iron heads.

 

I think you may have dodged the bullet... keep a very close eye on it... get a fan in it, and drive the bitch.. the coolant smell will be like that for a while due to the cooked coolant boiling out everywhere...

 

what are the subaru heads made from?

 

aluminum

 

yeah im really praying for my oilchange to give me some reasurence.

pray for me dudes...pray

 

it'll probably be fine

 

This is nothing suprising.
I have a MISHIMOTO aluminum radiator, 160* thermostat and I am running NO FANS. Just remember to NOT let the car idle over 5mins. If running the car hard, drive it around before coming to a stop/park. This will allow the coolant up front to cycle through.

My car over heated sitting as well just sitting. No air is being passed through the radiator, the heat will SIT THERE and temperatures will rise.

WITH THIS SAID, how about do we go getting a REAL COOLANT TEMP sensor/gauge etc??? Rewireable to the factory coolant temp needle gauge on the cluster?

 

I Tapped my frost plug on the bottom of the block.

 

My EJ22T crossover pipe has an extra bung on it so I drilled and tapped it for my water temp gauge. That's where the factory temp sensor and the sensor for the gauge are, so naturally that's where I wanted to put mine. Kind of a pain if your motor is already together though, lol.


You guys running around without fans are nuts. Mine stopped working in the winter and that was risky enough. All it takes is one little accident and some traffic to spoil your day.


Fuji, I'm not sure what you mean about the factory temp gauge. Put a different one in its spot?

 

Cruising I'm usually in the 185-190 range, with the factory 172 degree thermostat. If I'm stopped, I usually don't get above 210-215 which is kinda surprising with my 12" slim fans with no shroud. I do have them offset so they at least draw air across all the tubes in the core at some point.

I've thought about making a rally style hood vent to help with my cooling. My radiator is much closer to the motor than normal, and my intercooler would be more effective if that air had an easier time getting out.

 

yeah its weird how well my car seems to be running after the overheat...

it takes my car about 8mins or more to even get above normal running temps after i drive it. id think it would be having bad over heat problems if i messed something up but i dont know too much about engine cooling.

i am looking for a pull fan to go behind my koyo but i have some money issues at the moment. Plus i dont know how to set one up. will i need a bigger fan because i have a larger than stock radiator? i didnt get a very good look at readymix's setup when i looked in his engine bay because i was too distracted by his intake manifold and belt setup! lol.

oil change tomorrow afternoon. im still keeping my fingers crossed.:eek3:

 

I'm running two 12" ebay fans which look identical to Flex-a-Lite electric slim fans. They were about $65 for the pair. Search ebay for "slim fans" and you'll have hundreds to choose from. Most can be "push" or "pull" fans if you reverse the leads.

I made some bracketry out of sheet aluminum just to hold them in place. Not a big deal if you have a basic angle grinder and maybe a vice, but the edge of a workbench can do wonders.

Also, a consideration is that the factory relay(s) really don't like having two fans run off of only one. Mine lasted a year before I had to wire in a beefier relay. You would possibly want to wire them in a factory arrangement for AC and what not.


Here's a pic of mine, kinda....

 

god i hate wiring anything.... is there a dual fan universal kit that can wire to my factory system?

another thing i like the thought of is having a switch to turn the fan on manualy. i have a toggle switch in my car that is not doing anything so if anyone would help me out that would be amazing.

...but this will be all a 2nd step after i figure out if my heads need work. thats more important at the moment

 

Wiring is fricken easy. Just chop off the factory connectors and connect dais aftermarket fans to them so they plug unto the factory harness. Just a hint, the black wire(with a stripe of some color) is usually ground.

Honestly, wiring is one of the easier things to do in a car. There is a huge misnomer about it's complexity. Positive, ground, and solid lines.

 

even still...anything electrical related scares the ish out of me. but ill attempt it probably.

have and info on setting up that toggle switch to run the fans manualy?

 

Well, you'll want your ECU to still have control over your fans, so you need to set up an alternate switched ground for the factory relays.


Why do you need a switch if you hook it up to the factory wires? Its easier to do it that way.

 

thanks a lot