Stop Leak actually works... on a Subaru!!

Jinster81

Jinster81

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Hey all. Just thought this might be helpful if you own a 96-99 Subaru with the 2.5L motor.

I have a Subaru Outback (Legacy) with the 2.5. As we all know its common issue is the headgasket.
I had a problem where the combustion gases were getting in to the cooling and sticks the thermostat closed.
And overheating will happen.
The fix for this to replace the headgaskets (and some top end work) We all know a headgasket on a Subaru 4 cyl are some pain.

So I opted for a stop leak. And it worked!!

But I did flush out the coolant before and followed the instructions well.
The product is the Rislone/Bars head gasket fix.

If your HG problem on your 2.5 Subaru is the combutsion bubbles forcing close your thermostat, this product may have a good chance of
working.
But if the HG problem is serious like causing a compression loss, you need the top end work.

Oh one side note is, I always had holes drilled on my thermostat (before and after the overheat)

So stop leak, if you use a quality one, follow instructions, and the leak isn't serious this would a good (temp) option.

Thanks for reading!!
 
Best of luck with the repair. Get back to us when the motor blows up
 
Just need the car to last this winter. I know fixafluids have limits.
 
It's $2000 for a long block, don't put any money into a repair with those motors just yank and replace. I have one that had the HG repaired and timing belt changed (before I bought it) only to have an intake valve burn up in #3 cylinder, car is now junk.
 
This is a big secret of mine... I used lucas oil treatment in one of my cars... GASP. I know, every one calls it snake oil. The car I had a bad camshaft bearing. It was grinding badly. The thick lucas stuff eliminated all grinding and I put 50k more on the car.

Check you heat. That stuff can plug your heater core.

How hard is it to do a HG on those subbies? I guess you have to pull the engine.
 
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Torren said:
Best of luck with the repair. Get back to us when the motor blows up
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A '96 Subaru is probably worth less than what it would cost to fix this properly. Nothing to lose.

A guy I used to work with got a Nissan Micra for free because it apparently had a cracked cylinder head. He put in an overdose of the Stop Leak stuff - nothing to lose. Drove the car for a couple of years after that - and what put an end to it was when he hit a snowbank and spun the car into a ditch, hitting a big rock in the process. Engine still ran!
 
For an old Subaru, that would be an OK thing to try even though I've seen it clog up the heater core on a couple of dubs (one of them mine lol). Wouldn't use it on a car I'd wanna keep, but nothing hurts to try it. Just don't plan any long trips and get the CAA 200km coverage.
 
I have gotten yrs out of a stop leak fix, and other times mere minutes.

Worst problem with them is heater core gumming up and having no heat in the winter.

Best one I have seen so far is called Iron Tite.
A guy I used to race cars with used it on a 500+ hp turbo 4 cyl dodge motor running 40 psi of boost, and it lasted the whole yr like that.
 
Not on most cars. Usually the heater loop is a bypass from the thermostat to the inlet of the water pump so that it bypasses both the thermostat and the radiator - so that you can start getting interior heat before the engine is fully warmed up. Shouldn't be a problem.

If you don't want to risk damaging hoses, you could also just pull them off and run a temporary bypass around the heater core. Means draining the coolant once before and once after, but I don't like clamping hoses, particularly if the car is a few years old. You might end up with pinhole leaks where the hose was pinched by the clamp.
 
Sweet. Any other concerns with stop leak stuff if I bypass my heater core?

If it causes trouble I rather wait till my timing belt is up and I am going to do my HGs too.
 
Instead of clamping, on some cars it's possible to just use one of the hoses as a bypass (one end on inlet, the other on outlet). Less leaky than clamping.
 
How can you tell if you have a head gasket going bad?

Torren said:
Best of luck with the repair. Get back to us when the motor blows up
Click to expand...
 
Normal symptoms of a bad head gasket: abnormal running hot or overheating, coolant disappearing from the reservoir at an abnormally fast rate without evidence of external leakage, and on some engines, either oil getting into the coolant or coolant getting into the oil. When it gets really bad, you'll see an abnormal amount of steam from the exhaust and the exhaust will smell odd, and the engine will overheat in a big hurry, and there may be a more-or-less continuous stream of bubbles coming out into the coolant tank (and that's assuming that it hasn't simply blown all of the coolant out of the reservoir so that it's empty).
 
Brian P said:
Normal symptoms of a bad head gasket: abnormal running hot or overheating, coolant disappearing from the reservoir at an abnormally fast rate without evidence of external leakage, and on some engines, either oil getting into the coolant or coolant getting into the oil. When it gets really bad, you'll see an abnormal amount of steam from the exhaust and the exhaust will smell odd, and the engine will overheat in a big hurry, and there may be a more-or-less continuous stream of bubbles coming out into the coolant tank (and that's assuming that it hasn't simply blown all of the coolant out of the reservoir so that it's empty).
Click to expand...

There might also be an emulsion in your coolant/oil. Something like mayonnaise, creamy stuff
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