my heads gone!

[colin timney]

news from the garage this morning the head is cracked.i'm gutted i thought the 3.0 litre's didn't crack. i feel as if i'm spending money every week at the surf just to keep it on the road.i'm off to sulk.
colin

[da SLUG man]

all heads can crack... what's caused it?... have they shown you the cracks or just heard that's what happens and using it to make some wonga?

[colin timney]

all heads can crack... what's caused it?... have they shown you the cracks or just heard that's what happens and using it to make some wonga?

i don't know what caused it, its a mates mate who doing the job so i do'nt think he trying it on becouse i've supplied all the parts so theres nothing for him to gain.
colin

[robin purser]

It can happen to the best of us

Sorry to hear about your head. I have a 3 L to. Same issue. Just back together now. I do seem to spending a lot of time and money on keeping the truck on road. I like it enough to keep spending, but can be a buxxer.

What scares me most is finding out why it went. Had it just failed? Or had there been a cause. If there had been a cause you need to find it before it does the same thing to the new head. I have never found any form of leak, and the truck has never worked to hard so no real marker. I keep it serviced above the required level. Oils and water changed and checked before the miles/time are up.
I flet that with the 3 L there must have been some cause. My head cracked all combustion chambers and between 3 of the bores. Seems like a very big failier for having no cause.

Rad cap was fine, Stat was fine, had water up to the levels all the time, had been checked a week before it failed. Engine only got up towards the red line when it did over heat. Wife spotted it and stopped it at a surprising speed. So left me a bit confused. Done 200 miles since being back togther. Water use seems stable after the first day.

So its fixed, still don't why it broke.

Thanks, think I needed to vent. My wife is not so interested. She was happy in my S2000 while the/her Surf was off the road. Nice to get my car back though.
Cheers all for listening, reading.

[andycook]

robin - you missed out mentioning if you checked one crucial cooling item - the fans!?

[robin purser]

good point, but sorry to say they were good.

Fans good. Electric fan = perfect, viscous perfect.

Water pipes, good. No holes in rad. Both heater matrix, good.

So still no darn idea what killed it.

Good point well raised though.

R

[TonyN]

Could have quite easliy been a head gasket failure, then it would loose water till it overheated and then cracked.

I still quite honestly believe the 3.0's are no worse than any other car for cracking, We've had Linda's 3.0 near the red towing big trailers up silly hills so many times its a joke, if there is an inherant issue like the 2.4's have we'd be on head No 6!!

A head gasket failed a few years back, I fixed and its been fine. (apart from when I ruined the bottem end, but thats another thing!!! )

If you hang around in a garage any amount of time, you'd be suprised how common head gasket/cracked heads are on most cars, I've been asked to do a Pug 106 and a BMW just this week.

[laser_jock99]

When checking the water in the cooling system DO NOT just rely on the water level in the expansion tank- check what's in the rad too- via the rad cap. Came close to busting my engine by only looking at the water in the expansion bottle. The valve on the radiator cap had jammed closed. This coupled with a minor radiator leak left me running around the Welsh mountains with only half a radiator full of coolant! But a casual glance at the bottle the system looked full only it wasn't. Luckily the engine really is strong and no harm was done. Took 2.5L to refill though and I invested in a new rad cap ASAP.

I suspect most 3.0L head crackings are due to some major cooling problem- like I would have soon had and not because the 3.0L engine, per se, is prone to this type of failure.

[shaggy]

sorry but i dont agree with the general thought that 3 ltr heads dont crack!
they are a few years younger than the 2.4s so is this a trend thats going to continue as it did in the 2.4?
the 3 ltrs have sat cooking in the same temperatures as the 2.4s before being sent over here
the week stevo did mine he had another 3ltr in and one on its way
there is also the fan to take into consideration from what i am told the fans are not set for speeds over 50 mph and they contain different oil
i cant see any reason why there should not be 3 ltr heads cracking just as the 2.4 did/does
people say it was a design fault in the original 2.4 head and your better getting the uprated head
funny thing is that my new 3 ltr head was an uprated head as well
so if there is no fault with the 3 ltr heads why fit an uprated one?

** please note im not being clever or negative and remember that the chances of your head going are pretty small but i just think too many people think the 3 ltr engine is indestructable if im wrong on any of the above please tell me because this is what i believe and im not a mechanic **

[TonyN]

fault in the original 2.4 head and your better getting the uprated head
funny thing is that my new 3 ltr head was an uprated head as well
so if there is no fault with the 3 ltr heads why fit an uprated one?

** please note im not being clever or negative and remember that the chances of your head going are pretty small but i just think too many people think the 3 ltr engine is indestructable if im wrong on any of the above please tell me because this is what i believe and im not a mechanic **

I think you've got the wrong of the stick, there is no uprated head for the 1KZ/T.

But you are correct that people think the 3.0 is indestructable, no head is! it just the 3,0 is far better than the old 2.4 at surviving a overheating issue.

ANY car tuns the risk of cracking a head if it overheats.

Shaggy, or anyone buying a used truck, how do you know your truck wasn't seriously overheaded before you brought it, you'd only had a few months when it happened, block sealant will hold up for quite a while sometimes before it fails.

Like I said in the other thread, every 3.0 I've changed the head on had something go drasticly wrong and then properly overheat. Snoop got his engine so hot that in melted a piston and his head only warped, Linda's truck repeatly gets hot towing other Surfs around when we're lugging it up hills (5mm or so shy of the red zone) and still dosn't use any water after 3 years of this abuse.

[slim]

Tony is right! any head can crack!!

I have a freind with his own garage, he has had no end of cracked heads and blown gaskets, he is a 4x4 speacialest but he as never seen a surf.

the type of car that he's seen most of is beleave it or not is rover's and bmw's being the second.

near enough every rover that comes in his garage as a gasket/head failure!

[The Lovely Boyo]

near enough every rover that comes in his garage as a gasket/head failure![/COLOR]

That would almost deffo be K series engines.

A version of which ended up in the Freelander, with associated head problems and Ford still deny that there is any issue. Pretty much every mechanic in the UK will tell you otherwise.

[colin timney]

at the moment i don't know why the head has cracked,i think its just gasket's at the end of its life, the truck has never over heated or shown any other indiction there was a problem, i just blame the age of the surf after all its 12 years old
colin

[marky]

at the moment i don't know why the head has cracked,i think its just gasket's at the end of its life, the truck has never over heated or shown any other indiction there was a problem, i just blame the age of the surf after all its 12 years old
colin

AMANDA said that about you His HEADS GONE!

[colin timney]

AMANDA said that about you His HEADS GONE!

if my head was't gone its gone now after the week i've had
colin