i have 180K miles on this & it just started showing signs of coolant seeping from one of the head gaskets. its never blown white smoke & never over-heated.
is there anyone who has used a ‘stop-leak’ type product with any long term results, or am i faced with the $2000 repair bill, or even scrapping it out instead??? what would you recommend ? thank you.
Subaru sells a coolant conditioner that is supposed to fix small head gasket weeps. They’ve been having issues in your vintage engine.
It is $10 so worth a try.
Should that not work, I’d get the head gasket replaced. It is a lot cheaper of an operation with it never having overheated so it likely isn’t warped.
right. i did hear that the conditioner was a preventative ‘recall’ to that problem. but i wasn’t sure if that would actually work AFTER a leak has developed.
It it supposed to.
Here’s a write up: http://www.scoobyenthusiast.com/subaru-maintenance/all-about-subaru-cooling-system-conditioner-soa635071
It is a rebadge of Holts Radweld: http://www.holtsauto.com/products/group/repair-and-maintenance/cooling-repair-systems
That stuff is known to fix small weep leaks. Granted, it doesn’t perform miracles as it isn’t snake oil but it does work.
oh ok. i was wondering if it was only a temporary fix or not. i’ll check out the articles. thank you.
You could trying having the head bolts retorqued. It’s at least worth a shot and may well work.
hey good idea. i wonder if the engine would still need to be pulled in order to torque the head bolts??
It can be done in the car but a socket will need to be modified in some way depending on the engine and model.
The sticky part would be if the coolant has been leaking for a long time. In a case like this hot coolant can eat part of the gasket away and can even etch the aluminum in the cylinder head and/or engine block. With this situation retightening head bolts may not work.
However, it’s always worth a shot and won’t hurt to try.