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Other day when I discovered a crack in my radiator tank I noticed a pool of liquid inside the threaded hole above the upper front corner headbolt on the driver's side head. It smelled more like the degreaser I was using the other day on the engine, and smelt nothing at all like coolant (wasn't even green)

When I shut the car off, the little pool kinda disappeared. Couldn't get the little pool to reappear at all, until yesterday when I replaced the radiator. Didn't bleed the thing right (radiator on this is a PITA to bleed) and was letting it run. Temp needle climbed towards the high side (not overheating), and then I shut it off. Coolant was getting sucked in from the overflow tank after I shut it off.

Again there was a pool of liquid in that hole, couple air bubbles came out of it, then it slowly sank away. After I bleed the air out of the system, temps will not go higher than 1/2 Mark, and no pool will appear in that threaded hole. With it being as hot as it was before it was bled, I don't know if whatever liquid came out of the hole was just boiling causing the bubbles.

I see no white smoke from exhaust, and engine runs pretty well. None of the cooling system hoses are rock hard either. When I replaced the plugs that cylinder had ash deposits on it, but then again why wouldn't it with a plug gap of .065!, and a plugged fuel filter, and who knows how much lack of preventitive maintenance.

I'm going to do a coolant pressure test and a compression test today. IS it common for these heads to develop cracks in them? I'd really hate to have to replace a cylinder head on my Winter car. Coolant system holds pressure. Only thing I could think of is there's a crack in the head in that threaded hole area, allowing liquid to make it's way into the head.. That or the headgasket is compromised and there's a crack in the head causing coolant to escape through that crack.

Engine has 155K on it. 2.2L N/A

Being where that hole is, it's very possible liquid just accumulated in the hole. I'd say if you experience another time where liquid is present, wick out the liquid with a paper towel and see if it comes back any time soon.

Do a cooling system pressure test and see what you get. If that's good and you don't have any issues with drivability, I probably wouldn't worry about it.

Other thing to note/mention. There is a bleeder screw on the passenger side of the radiator that makes bleeding the cooling system much easier. Without removing that, it's almost impossible to get all the air out without driving the car for a while and refilling the cooling system.

Josh what is the proper sequence for using that bleeder screw on the pass side of the radiator? Do you open it with the car running? Or do you just open it, and then fill radiator then cap off when coolant comes out of screw??

I'll get back on the results of the compression and coolant system pressure test.

Looks like I'll need new intake gaskets also. Was spraying water to wash off coolant last night, and when I'd spray water near the pass side intake manifold near the base, car would bog down a little. Those aren't such a big deal to change those at least.

I normally remove the bleeder screw fill the system until the level is at the bleeder screw and then start the car. The level will flucuate a little, but once it starts going up and spilling out of the bleeder hole I'll put the cap back in.

I did a coolant pressure test tonight. Had it up to 15lbs with the engine stone cold, and after a 15 minute drive. I had no coolant leaking out of anywhere. System held whatever I cranked the pressure up to (Didn't go over 15lbs) Although I'm not sure how good this old tester is, I'm going to pickup one I can actually somewhat count on tomorrow and recheck.

I did a compression test on the engine too.

Pass side back averaged 188. Front side average 188 also.

Driver's side wasn't as good. Front (where I saw that questionable liquid) was averaged 184. Back on the other hand was around 165. an 11% variance. Although with mileage and unknown history, without doing a leakdown test they'res no telling if the lost compression on the rear cylinder is headgasket or piston ring or valve related.

Car drives great, has great power, and doesn't overheat. Someone mentioned subaru had some coolant conditioner? Anyone have a part # for it? Maybe I'll throw that in just to see if it helps.

If you do not have coolant coming out of anywhere with pressure on the system, and no white smoke when you fire it up after words, short of a test of the coolant to see if there are any hydrocarbons in it, you should be good to go. Yeah, that one cylinder is a little suspect, but meh, run her until whe don't run anymore. Then throw $500 worth of stuff at it, and viola, new engine.

yeah no white smoke in the exhaust, and exhaust smells as it should. like I said runs pretty good for a 2.2L. Has no problem accelerating. Since I changed the fuel filter I can actually take off from WOT without the car dying