Topic: Cooling questions

[1ofakind]

Hey guys, back again with another's post lol. I have some cooling questions, my girl friend and I just picked up another Subaru 97 gc8 with the 20k. So today while she was warming the car up the temp gauge went right up to hot after warming it up like usual. She has cold air inside no warm. So being I am not in town to look at it I automatically assume thermostat since no hot air and it's overheating. She limped it home from work (10min drive) without any boost. So now I guess my question is should the upper hose be hot and lower be cold? How can I diagnose the problem? I figured hot coolant would go through the top and down through the rad to the lower hose (colder at this point) then the thermostat would be open letting colder coolant into the engine? Am I right or very wrong here?

We are about to make a move to Vancouver in 9 days so I want this to be a quick job assuming it is the thermostat.

[1ofakind]

I also have an issue with my car, my temp gauge will spike right away after a minute or two of idle.. (no heat yet) so I know it's not overheating, then after its warm I start to get heat like normal. I think I have a gauge issue probably a bad ground on the cluster I was reading but no clue where it would be

[RockThePylon]

Coolant circulates through the heater core even when the thermostat is closed. If the gauge is high, and it isn't blowing warm air, then coolant isn't circulating or the gauge is wrong.

Check coolant level, check it's anti-freeze strength.

[1ofakind]

Coolant circulates through the heater core even when the thermostat is closed. If the gauge is high, and it isn't blowing warm air, then coolant isn't circulating or the gauge is wrong.

Check coolant level, check it's anti-freeze strength.

Really? Did not know that, is there any flow diagram or anything? I'm trying to I educate my self as we go here but since I hadn't had a chance to see the car then I'd presume we lost coolant then and the car is low on coolant so causing no flow. I haven gotten to look at her car but I will tomorrow and see what's up

[RockThePylon]

[1ofakind]

Thanks!! So in theory the lower hose should be colder, regardless if the tstat is closed or open since it flows from the top correct?