Early classic WRX, - A couple of weeks ago the standard crapola Water Expansion tank(Plastic kak one) decided to leak, as they do.
So pulled it off and gave it a good pasting around the 'metal band' where they p1ss from with some proper metal/plastic bonding stuff. Only a temporary measure until I source a replacement Tank.
Well anyway I loss most of the rad/coolant contents and filled it back up with water and it all tried out ok.

Then the BiG freeze happened last week I decided to move the car from the drive to swap it with the winter car in the Garage.
'Too Late!'
Gave her a start, which she did with a bit of a noise and a whine, but she got going... then checked immediatly and found all pipes frozen ...

Anyway got her in the Garage to un-chill and waited out the BiG freeze.
So this week I checked all ice has been melted and it looks ok all round and gave her a start, boom in the usual 1st turn of the key she's off... Great I said, so off we went for a spin and to make sure all is good...
water temps went up rather easily(more/quicker than usual) and the blower in the car remains ice cold....
Pulled up and found my mod on the Tank was shot and it was p1ssing.. got home and tried another 'good' tank from my other Scoob and went for a test with that... Tank was good but the earlier indications were the same ..
Pulled up and this time the water was belting out of the expansion overflow..

Right back home and sussed it could be an Airlock... well I bled that bastid over and over and over all different methods and she still does the same thing!

Ok, so thats now either Headgasket or possibly Water pump... agggh

Done a sniffer check and a compression test and it's all good(compression results was rather healthy actually )

So dove into the Water pump change.......

Presto...

 

that'll do it. cant have any circulation

 

That must have been growling it nuts off looking at the wear on the pump body

 

Pump housing looks like it has experienced a good deal of cavitation. Usual cause incorrect coolant used over long term.
Some scoobynetters seem to think any coolant type will do for their engines. Some think the more expensive the better. Unfortunately some have to learn the hard way.
Read this independant article on coolant type for subaru engines before filling your system with any old antifreeze.
You may find the subaru coolant difficult to get hold of. As the article says even subaru dealers are using the wrong coolant type. However there are some types out there that can be used, GlycoShell seems to be one that is amine and phosphate free.

http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/WhatEWNov05.pdf

 

Good words and link Terzo98...

I thought I'd share the story for that very same reason, 'PUT THE CORRECT FLUIDS IN YOU CARS PEOPLE'....

Mine was just a series of bad timings, example now(the week after) it's +9 degrees, 15 degrees warmer outside!

Fortunatly I knew what to do as I went along, but for someone else it could of meant the Engine frying and be rather expensive.

I now have a new Water pump, Termostat, hoses, belts(again) and the other necessay bits and bobs. I flushed the Rad and the whole system throughly as well.
Also bought a new Ali header tank instead of the kak plastic poo type so this shall never happen again, nice brand new cooling system!

An quite an easy job changing the water pump as well so was no heartbreaker with that either.

So leason for today people.... (hence the thread title for the 'searchers')
"ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT FLUIDS IN YOUR CAR!"