OK automobile guys...

[Highlander_821]

1995 Subaru Legacy Wagon. Overheating. Replaced thermostat and gasket. Still overheating.

Water Pump? Heater Core? There seems to be a film of some sort accumulating on the inside of the windshield. Related perhaps?

 

[packrat]

Just a guess, but Heater Core! The film on the windshield is coolant. Do you get a sweet smell in the car when the car is running? Do you get a fog inside when you turn on the heater? Is the carpet damp in the passenger foot well?

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Is it maintaining proper levels of coolant? I had a vehicle that was fogging up the windshield every time I turned the defroster/heater on which defeats the purpose of turning it on. It turned out to be a bad heater core. It had about a dozen and a half tiny, tiny little holes in it. They were small enough that it would would hardly leak coolant into the heater ducting but when under pressure when running it would blow moisture onto the windshield. It took a looooooong time to drop coolant level. I finally pulled the core and plugged one line and stuck an air hose into the other while holding the whole thing in a bucket of water. Bubbles starting coming from everywhere.

 

[Highlander_821]

Just messed with it a little more.

The plastic expansion tank is full, but I decided to open the rad cap and pour some pre-mix directly in. I didn't spill any, but it started dripping on the ground under the radiator. Started it, drove it around until the temp gauge went all they way up and past the top scale, all the while with the heat turned on. No heat came out. When I stopped and opened hood, there was coolant all over the place on the passenger side of the engine compartment near the radiator.

 

[Highlander_821]

One thing that struck me as odd---the thermostat is on the bottom of the motor, so when I pulled the housing down, only a cup or two of fluid came out of that lower rad hose. Shouldn't that have caused all the fluid to drain out? Is it possible that that hose is blocked somehow?

Even if the heater core is malfunctioning, shouldn't there still be some coolant getting into the motor? The windshield film thing doesn't seem to be happening now, and there is no moisture on the floor of the passenger side interior.

I'm thinking about taking the new thermostat out entirely, and try it with no thermostat at all.

 

[Beetle]

I had a much earlier Subaru (1976) with an overheating problem. Cracked head.

The good part of the story is that this was back in the era when you could replace the engine with a used engine from Japan, with a great guarantee. I called one of the shops in the area, told them what I had, and all they asked was, "Do you want one carburetor or two?"

A dual-carburetor Subaru sounded almost too good to pass up (same price), but I figured -correctly, as it turned out- that getting the proper air filter elements would be dicey. So I got the single carb EA71 engine replaced for a grand total of $450 and was quite happy.

I'd have the engine checked for cylinder head integrity.

 

[Qwazyone]

Sounds like a clogged radiator maybe coolant passages in the engine, you didn't happen to use two different kinds of coolant, green combined with the red/orange dexcool causes serious problems