That's good info. So before you left for the doctor's, you checked coolant in the surge tank, and it was topped off?


Don't need to have milky oil to have a blown head gasket. You can have a blown head gasket in a number of ways:
A breach between an oil passage and a coolant passage (which would give you "milky oil" and oil in the coolant, possibly)
A breach between coolant and combustion chamber, which can give you white steam out the exhaust and/or combustion gasses in the coolant as well as pushing coolant from the over flow tank; "boiling over".
A breach between coolant and atmosphere; coolant leaks out the side of engine
A breach between oil and atmosphere Oil leaks out side of engine (Subaru)
Any combination of the above.


So that your oil isn't milky is proof of nothing...just strong evidence that you don't have a head gasket breach between the oil and coolant passages in your head gaskets.


If you checked your coolant before you embarked on your drive and it was topped off, then the most likely cause of your symptoms is a blown head gasket, breached between coolant passage and combustion chamber. You're losing coolant either in the chamber (burned) and/or pushing it out the overflow (or both)...then overheating and losing heat from the heater due to lack of coolant in the engine/radiator.


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Just go down to "Autozone" (or some facsimile thereof) and buy a kit. Test it today.

 

 

I have seen blown head gaskets do all sorts of weird things including intermittent over heating. The HG didn't leak until it got to the right temp in my case so some drives were OK while others were not. But I would work through the simple stuff first. Yes do the coolant test that's an easy one. Check your cooling fans and make sure they are turning on at the correct temp and spinning fast enough to move enough air to actually cool it off. Take a hard look at that electric water pump. I have never been a fan of electric water pumps for street cars. There are a lot of variables with them. Electric motors can wear and not spin as fast as they should or not provide the power that they did when new and the resistance of the coolant can slow the flow but the pump will test just fine. If the voltage and amps from the alternator are not what they should be (like when the fans come on and suck up all of the juice) the pump will slow down and cause poor flow. Your issue really sounds like a flow issue to me as well. It could be coolant or air flow or both but the heater being on and hot then not while you know that the coolant is hot is a strong indicator of a flow issue. Another possible cause of poor flow is a bad bypass valve. If it gets stuck then the coolant doesn't flow correctly when the thermostat opens.

 

I had these very same symptoms on my 95, fine one day, running hot the next, pushing coolant out of the Recovery Tank etc.. A couple refurbished heads, and new gaskets later she ran good!

 

 

On mine when the electric pump is running you can see a stream of coolant running back into the upper tank with the cap off. I do have 2ea 1/4 holes in my tstat to help with bleeding air out.

My last 10 year old pump started to stick. Sometimes I would see the temp rise up a bit high then come back down. It then totally died and overheated at the track.

Check to make sure the polarity is correct and the pump isn't going backwards, and both your fans are turning on, High and low speeds.

 

Exactly!
OP needs to fill and get the air out.

 

So I got my little fancy chemical test from Napa today...like I said the agony of waiting until tomorrow...at least I'd be able to sleep tonight knowing I'm good or I'm completely screwed. Thus far, I appreciate all the help so far from you guys and everyone chiming in with their thoughts or experiences. Without further ado...the results:

Chemical stayed blue and did not turn yellow/green!!!

With that being said...just so I know I covered my bases. I took the cap off the tank on passenger side at hood lock. It was low in which I figured it would be based on how much fluid I lost yesterday. The overflow tank in the nose had a dribble in it but not even enough to register on the cap/stick. I started the car. Fired right up and was running smooth. No missing, no stuttering, etc. Started smoking out the back but keep in mind its 25 degrees here so...After about 3 mins, it cleared up.

The car ran about 4 mins and I took the tester w/ chemical on there and started pumping roughly 20 times. It started bubbling up inside the tester when pumping it, but no change in color. There was NO bubbling in the reservoir. Roughly 2 mins later, the fluid level started rising and started overflowing. I cut the car off. Waited for it to go down and after about 2 mins, it went down and I put the radiator cap back on it. I started it back up and let it run about 10 mins. We started approaching 200 degrees so I put the tester in the front overflow tank. Started pumping...just bubbles again inside the tester, no color change. I let the car run and it got up to 236 degrees and both fans came on. That being said, I turned it off immediately after as I wanted to make sure both fans did work. I also put the tester on the overflow tank again and pumped it 20 good times, stayed blue.

So I guess thats the best damn $47 I spent. I'm assuming that means I'm out of the woods on the blown head gasket...? So Im guessing now is the point where we begin looking at the water pump, air in the system as some questioned and/or potential blockages. Like I said earlier...when this happened months back, I bought a new thermostat and put in it taking a stab that maybe it was sticking or bad...guess that was wrong! Wish there was an as easy solution for finding that out as this. I hate to just buy a new water pump just on a whim and it not be that. Not to mention that theres probably only 1000 miles max on that pump. And I know thats not to say they cant fail prematurely but if it had been on there a while, I guess I'd be more willing to accept the failure. I put 99 miles on the car in the last year for crying out loud!

Nonetheless, I guess we're slowing making progress...

 

You could try running without the t-stat then. If it's still no go then the pump is at fault. I'd be leaning toward the pump anyway. You could take out the stat and wire the pump to just run and see if it starts cutting out. If you lower the coolant level you can leave the radiator cap off and watch it expand at idle. It shouldn't overheat at idle but you can see if the heat causes the pump to die. You could also wire a volt meter in with the pump with extra wires to see the current draw and if the car starts running hot see what the amp meter is reading. That would also tell you.

 

You mentioned the fans came on but temp didn't drop. That means coolant is not moving to and from the radiator. That could be air in the system. Air by the thermostat would prevent it from opening. Air in the pump and pump doesn't work. Collapsed hose preventing flow. Blockage in radiator. Pump impeller slipping on shaft. Lots of possibilities still out there.

If it were me (and it was warmer), I would:
disconnect the radiator hoses and flush water through to verify there was no blockage.
Borrow a pressure tester and look for swelling hose, that could indicate a soft hose that's collapsing.
If those are both good, then it's the pump or a blockage in the block.

 

[QUOTE=austinseanchris;1596387654][/QUOTE
Well, it may be that the pump is running intermittantly so i would change that out to eliminate it. However, they symptom of hot and cold air could definately be air/gasses in the coolant, which would point to a head gasket. I suspect this is the issue. You could try one of the newer block sealant systems, and in the right cases they work well, but it really only proves the point that you have a failure and a head gasket replacement with a full inspection is in order.
My .02

 

Just because it could be the problem? Wouldn't it be better to know it is the problem before throwing money at parts?

 

[QUOTE=Bwbob;1596392549]Right...but with the chemical test that I did, did that not eliminate the possibilities of a blown head gasket/cracked or warped head/cracked block? Not being a smart a**, just making sure. Not sure how to ask that without sounding like a smart a**lol

 

Thats your pump working intermittently. Could be the pump, could be your circuit (lose fuse, ground, etc.). Since you've covered everything else anyway that's where I would turn next. I would wire in a test light bulb and go for another drive with the heat on, if it goes from cold to hot and the light bulb doesn't go off and on with it, it's the pump. If the bulb follows the HVAC temp, it's your circuit.

 

It is threads like this that remind me not to install a electric water pump. Even if there is hp gained from it not being belt driven, it won't ever beat the fact that I can always tell if it is being turned or not by the belt that is attached to it! Even if the pump was expensive, I would bet that the lowest bidder was the one to manufacture the pump. The fact that your car over heats sometimes and sometimes not makes me think that it is not a blockage or air in the system, because if there was wouldn't it have over heated every time and just not randomly? I hope that you get it figured out asap.

 

with an electric pump, there's no guarantee that it's turning, or turning at the rated rpm, they have brushes, which can wear down, wiring that may be failing, or in the greater picture, before an electric pump can run properly, the electrical system has to be running properly...a mechanically driven pump eliminates at least some of the variables...

now on my 96, when I changed out Tstats, it took at least 5 times of start the engine, wait for the temp to come up, shut down the engine allow to cool, add coolant, repeat. In my experience, the little bleeder screw / vent doesn't do it, at least not without repeating the process several ,or more, times.

obviously you're experiencing some real cold weather, and for what it's worth, really cold weather can "mask" cooling issues, where the engine will seem to run normal...even for some time...then...bingo...up goes the temps.

Assuming (and we all know what that means) that you don't have a pump issue, I really think...based on my own experience, and your results may differ...that when you finally get the system purged of all air, all will be well. Good luck

 

Yes I had no simptons until the last day on the way to have it tore down. I just kept getting low coolant on 40 mile intervals. No leaks, no exhaust vapors, and no white oil. Exhause gasses in coolant? YES.