White smoke and coolant temp rises

Hi,

I'm not going to go into my theories about cause / problem but just give the facts and symptoms so not to bias any ideas.

Car was running fine and using Defi gauges I can see oil temp at constant 90C and water temp at constant 90C when warmed up. These stayed under all driving time/conditions.

About two weeks ago I topped up my coolant levels by filling through radiator cap, the cap to left of engine block (don't know name of this) and the overflow bottle thing to right of radiator.

After this I noticed smell in cabin (smells like disco fog machine smoke!) and wisps of white smoke coming from bonnet intercooler vent and front right side vent (from driver position). This went away after a while.

Two days ago I accelerated hard away from stop up to dual carriageway speed and everything was fine until I got to next traffic lights and there was a lot of white smoke coming from engine vents and smell again in cabin. When I got home I opened bonnet and could see smoke coming from below left side of engine - it went away after a few minutes.

Today and yesterday when I stopped at lights the Defi gauge gave warning and I could see water temp had risen to over 100C. When I drove a bit it went down to 90C again in less than a minute. This happened a few times when idling and NEVER happened before with this car. I notice the engine fans seem to be on and louder than normal too now when stopped and this temp rise is happening.

I checked coolant levels when cold under radiator cap and engine block cap and they appear to be normal (i can see liquid about 2cm from top).

So any ideas?

either split coolant(pinhole)hose or start of kead gasket

Had same prob years ago tank on the side of the rad had split only leaked when driving hard

Could be the rad has cracked, its a common enough problem with the bugeye. That assume your driving a bugeye either could be worth a look.

Andy

[quote author=keith dublin link=topic=38294.msg438259#msg438259 date=1371736267]
Had same prob years ago tank on the side of the rad had split only leaked when driving hard
[/quote]

Does driving hard increase the pressure in the cooling system? I thought the cooling system pressure was independent to what the engine was doing??

[quote author=Andy_C link=topic=38294.msg438261#msg438261 date=1371737026]
Could be the rad has cracked, its a common enough problem with the bugeye. That assume your driving a bugeye either could be worth a look.

Andy
[/quote]

No it's a Blobeye but I presume the part is identical. But it doesn't explain why the sudden rise in temperature unless it is causing air to get into cooling system and causing airlock?

[quote author=p1impreza link=topic=38294.msg438258#msg438258 date=1371732549]
either split coolant(pinhole)hose or start of kead gasket
[/quote]

Any techniques to locate leak?

If it is head gasket leaking what does it cost to replace head gaskets these days???

if the rad is leaking surely there would be a pool of coolant under the car ? or at least a stain from the coolant ?

sounds to me like the head gasket as the temps will stay fine while on the move but when moving slowly or stopped the temp spikes to 100 plus degrees , my own car was starting to do similar but without white smoke , or smells you describe , take a sniff of the coolant , might smell odd or may have oil in it ,

[quote author=Tommy 555 link=topic=38294.msg438274#msg438274 date=1371751500]
if the rad is leaking surely there would be a pool of coolant under the car ? or at least a stain from the coolant ?

sounds to me like the head gasket as the temps will stay fine while on the move but when moving slowly or stopped the temp spikes to 100 plus degrees , my own car was starting to do similar but without white smoke , or smells you describe , take a sniff of the coolant , might smell odd or may have oil in it ,
[/quote]

No there doesn't seem to be any leaking or dripping onto the ground at all.

How would a head gasket leak cause the 100C spike when idling?

The smell in cabin would be fairly strong - would have to turn off the air completely and open windows but again it only lasts while it's stopped and fairly random like hasn't happened at all since the incident after putting the foot down.

I'll do more investigating myself but when I looked last time it didn't appear smoke was coming from front or radiator area but more under left side of engine block up around front of turbo, but i suppose might be burning off some hot surface of something and working around any gap it can.

Smell odd, sure I don't know what it's supposed to smell like!

You need to bring the cars to someone that knows what they are looking at. No offense intended here but you can't diagnose it over the internet and from reading your posts and talking to you when Simon was mapping the car, you don't really know enough about it imho. Sorry


Obviously traders/lads working on them all the time etc. will know more about the situation but here my 2 cents....

If an engine is happy should not need coolant topped up at all period unless there is a problem somewhere in the system. Example, leaking pipes, rad cap, radiator leaking,head gaskets.

If there is combustion gases leaking (due to a head gasket leak) into the cooling system its going to overheat and pressurize the system even more than normal.

If you have a leaking pipe/rad (no matter how small) and the engine is low on coolant it will overheat, also this can cause air locks if gone un-noticed which will also cause overheating.

Best advice is get a Subaru specialist to look at it , they will know all the correct areas to check saving time looking for the problem and also will have a quicker turn around time if the engine has to come out and the head gaskets have to be changed.

Hope you get sorted man

[quote author=BazGF8 link=topic=38294.msg438340#msg438340 date=1371815844]
You need to bring the cars to someone that knows what they are looking at. No offense intended here but you can't diagnose it over the internet and from reading your posts and talking to you when Simon was mapping the car, you don't really know enough about it imho. Sorry

Hope you get sorted man
[/quote]

Baz I never intended to attempt to fix a problem with head gaskets or cooling system myself. I HAVE actually fixed a good few problems myself with the car that would have cost me €€€€€ to fix if sent to a specialist garage. I only ask questions on this forum to try and see if anyone recognizes a problem and find possible causes so I can choose whether to attempt to fix it myself or go to garage. I had idea it was head gaskets or leak causing air to get into cooling system and coolant to leaking out - just wanted to see if there was other possible cause. Is head gasket replacement a big expensive job if its needed? Can you PM me who you'd recommend I get to look at it?

[quote author=geogan link=topic=38294.msg438355#msg438355 date=1371820881]
[quote author=BazGF8 link=topic=38294.msg438340#msg438340 date=1371815844]
You need to bring the cars to someone that knows what they are looking at. No offense intended here but you can't diagnose it over the internet and from reading your posts and talking to you when Simon was mapping the car, you don't really know enough about it imho. Sorry

Hope you get sorted man
[/quote]

Baz I never intended to attempt to fix a problem with head gaskets or cooling system myself. I HAVE actually fixed a good few problems myself with the car that would have cost me €€€€€ to fix if sent to a specialist garage. I only ask questions on this forum to try and see if anyone recognizes a problem and find possible causes so I can choose whether to attempt to fix it myself or go to garage. I had idea it was head gaskets or leak causing air to get into cooling system and coolant to leaking out - just wanted to see if there was other possible cause. Is head gasket replacement a big expensive job if its needed? Can you PM me who you'd recommend I get to look at it?
[/quote]

Thats ok but your just at the stage now where you need to get someone to look at it. I am all for trying to fix stuff myself where possible to save money.
I'll pm you now

[quote author=BazGF8 link=topic=38294.msg438356#msg438356 date=1371821096]

Thats ok but your just at the stage now where you need to get someone to look at it. I am all for trying to fix stuff myself where possible to save money.
I'll pm you now
[/quote]

Thanks for the PM. I can't PM reply because i'm not a member this year

[quote author=geogan link=topic=38294.msg438363#msg438363 date=1371825449]
[quote author=BazGF8 link=topic=38294.msg438356#msg438356 date=1371821096]

Thats ok but your just at the stage now where you need to get someone to look at it. I am all for trying to fix stuff myself where possible to save money.
I'll pm you now
[/quote]

Thanks for the PM. I can't PM reply because i'm not a member this year
[/quote]

cool no bother either of those traders will get you sorted