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Bad head gasket do drive or tow?


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Previous Owner driving a 98' Outback 2.5L EJ25D DOHC for about 15mi after she completely lost heat last the winter. I'm assuming all the radiator fluid was burnt in the engine. She pulled it into the local mechanic and he said the head gasket is gone & it’s not worth repairing (250,000mi on it). I want to buy the car and drop a new engine in. Since I'm replacing the engine I could care less about any more damage. I don't want to pay a tow truck $100 to tow it here. The manual says you can tow them with chains for 30mi but no faster then 20mph. Id rather not take an hour and a half to tow it the 30mi here! Also you can get a fine if your caught pulling a vehicle with chains. I could have a friend follow me in a truck and we could tow it with chains if I absolutely had too.

Do you think it would make it another 30mi on the highway if I fill the radiator with water first? Other then overheating what else could happen?

~Andy~

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Overheating...warped / cracked head/block

 

thats about it. You run a risk of getting stranded...but honestly if you're trashing the engine thats in it......go ahead and try and make it

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if it starts and runs.........

 

lots of these have been over heated and then driven again. fill it with coolant, and leave the cap or the vent plug loose so the exhaust gas can escape. this will help prevent an ''air lock'' bubble in the cooling system and overheating.

 

you should be fine .

 

there is a chance you can drive the car like this for a while. others have.

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I drove my car for about 4 months on blown head gaskets. It got me around everywhere I needed to go, I just had to keep putting coolant in..

 

That's not to say it doesn't have long term consequences.. My motor developed a rod knock about three or four thousand miles after I replaces the gasket. I was warned by John here that this was a possible consequence. That seems to be the only real issue..

 

If you're not too far away from NC I'll probably buy that engine from you if you'll sell it. I need to get that other Subie fixed and I'm on a parts hunt lol

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If you're not too far away from NC I'll probably buy that engine from you if you'll sell it. I need to get that other Subie fixed and I'm on a parts hunt lol

 

I'd love to sell it. But I'm about 1,700miles away from you in Central Canada - Brandon, MB. Unless your looking for one hell of a road trip I think your out of luck.

 

~Andy~

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I win. We drove this car for YEARS with blown gaskets. The temperature gauge was pegged I don't know how many times. The car probably spent many hours total driving around with the temp gauge pegged (wouldn't be surprised if it added up to days.)

 

We finally replaced the gaskets... and that was over 100k miles ago. This is the same engine, same heads (didn't need to be resurfaced, as they weren't even warped) same everything, really, and it runs fine now!

 

Of course, there's always a risk, but just keep an eye on the gauge and drive it home!

 

(In many cases, the car will be fine on the highway for an infinite period of time, as the engine gets enough air that it doesn't overheat, even if the coolant system is full of air. For us, the temperature gauge wouldn't start rising until we took the exit off the highway. Then we had like three minutes to get to our destination or have to turn the car off or the temp gauge would peg.) Of course, it eventually got to the point where we couldn't even get to the end of our street without it pegging, and that was when it was finally fixed, lol.

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I'd love to sell it. But I'm about 1,700miles away from you in Central Canada - Brandon, MB. Unless your looking for one hell of a road trip I think your out of luck.

 

~Andy~

 

Yeahhhh... Quite SOL on that one lol

 

I win.

 

Damn you... lol.

 

Seriously though, I'm not surprised I have a rod knock after the way that I drove it for so long. I babied it for the first month it started overheating and then I just got to a f@#k it point and drove the piss out of it, refilling the radiator with water before I drove it next.

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I have been driving for one month with blown head gasket.

Now i know how much it is leaking, so i check oil/coolant often and always have oil/coolant with me, especially for rides that takes more than 1 hour :)

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Definitively remove the thermostat if you want to drive it with a blown headgasket. It will keep it from overheating, because you don't get an air pocket before the thermostat, keeping it from opening. It might run cold sometimes, but whatevah!
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That was the same thing mine was doing.

I win. We drove this car for YEARS with blown gaskets. The temperature gauge was pegged I don't know how many times. The car probably spent many hours total driving around with the temp gauge pegged (wouldn't be surprised if it added up to days.)

 

We finally replaced the gaskets... and that was over 100k miles ago. This is the same engine, same heads (didn't need to be resurfaced, as they weren't even warped) same everything, really, and it runs fine now!

 

Of course, there's always a risk, but just keep an eye on the gauge and drive it home!

 

(In many cases, the car will be fine on the highway for an infinite period of time, as the engine gets enough air that it doesn't overheat, even if the coolant system is full of air. For us, the temperature gauge wouldn't start rising until we took the exit off the highway. Then we had like three minutes to get to our destination or have to turn the car off or the temp gauge would peg.) Of course, it eventually got to the point where we couldn't even get to the end of our street without it pegging, and that was when it was finally fixed, lol.

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Definitively remove the thermostat if you want to drive it with a blown headgasket. It will keep it from overheating, because you don't get an air pocket before the thermostat, keeping it from opening. It might run cold sometimes, but whatevah!

 

This. I did this a few times when I had to drive a good distance. Totally forgot to mention it... Only do it if you feel like dealing with draining all the coolant and refilling it and purging air from thw system...

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