Newbie saying hi,

[Daz81]

Hey Gyus/Gals,

Popped oer to say Hi as ve just bought 1 of these remarkable vehicles.

A little bit about me,

I race Bikes and Cars as my Hobbies, motocross/supermoto, Drag/sprint with the occosional trackday thrown in for good measure.

I have been bought up around cars and bikes my whole life, My dad runs a garage and races MX aswell as used to do alot of off roading in his old Landy (Series 2a with a cologne V6)

Cars/bikes most deffinatly in the blood, I had a transit to carry my bike and tow my trailer but beng a typical Transit its slowly going rotten

So i figured i would need something else to tow my car trailer, A friend i race with had a great 93 2.4 SSR-X, The rad had spit and eventually fried the HG,

it was sat on his drive for ages and i offered him some money for it, thinking it to be a fairly cheap/easy repair.

HMM I was wrong.

I bought a new Head set/timing belt/rad/water pump/head bolts etc to fix it, how ever got the head off on friday to find the head had multiple cracks, (6 in total,) 1 between each valve and a few around the centre to combustion chambers. AH bugger i thought, the block looks okish, there is a slight mark on number 2's sleeve but a nice wet hone should sort that.

I have been looking n ebay and have seen quite a few Re-con hads for sale which i will be buying soon.

I asked a bloke who was breaking a surf how much for the complete motor, his was screwed but he pointed me in the direction of this site

So I had a good look around and noticed that pretty much all the issues i have with my new 1 are fairly common problems, especiallyt the Head GASKET and over heating.

The issues I have are

Head gasket/cracked head due to split Rad
rear window not working (motor spins but window doesnt lower)

both i have seen threads on which are very usefull

How ever i havent seen a CURE/Prevention for the overheating.

Has anybody come up with a prevention, or a reason as to why they over heat?

I figure its a similar set up to the Hilux Pick up, how ever the pick up has no air con and thus no condensor rad reducing flow to the radiator. could this be an issue? Not enough cooling? Hmm im sure you all know more than I.

Any way I must say other than the issues ive got im stiull very impressed with the Surf, its got a great interior (comfy, well specced etc) looks good, and spacious, enough for spare wheels tool box and my compressor.

So my main questionS.

IS IT WORTH HONING MY BLOCK?

OR

BUY A COMPLETE NEW ENGINE?

if so where do i buy a new motor? as they seem hold to find.

Thanks everybody

Daz

[yoshie]

Welcome mate
The 2.4 had weak heads from factory, make sure you get a good replacement

[MattF]

The 2.4 had weak heads from factory, make sure you get a good replacement

T'was only the earlier ones. Later models had the updated 3L head, if I remember correctly.

The heads go, not the gaskets. Stevo, (a member on here), can supply you the full kit required to replace it. Don't arse about with the recon heads. You'll most likely end up doing the job twice.

Service the coolant system fully and replace any/all degraded hoses. Search. You'll find shedloads of info regarding the coolant system.

Welcome, btw.

[Sancho]

The issue with the heads was to do with the waterways inside it. It was wrong on all the 2.4s. It was later replaced on the 3L (3L is the code, it's actually a 2.8) engine and those heads go straight on to the 2.4. I would avoid ebay heads and get one from Stevo:

http://www.hiluxsurf.co.uk/members_p...evo/index.html

You do need to keep the cooling system in good order all the time and consider a separate ATF cooler if you tow a lot.

If you're considering a new engine, you may as well swap it for a V8. Bushwhacker has fitted a Lexus V8 and Surfenstein has a Rover V8. I'm sure either would be happy to send some tips your way if you choose that route.

And welcome

[plumb bob]

Hi mate, and welcome.

New engines run at about £900 ( there a bloke on ebay doing them), and if you want to do the head alone, you'll be looking at about £600 in parts, both will need the labour and new fluids.

Yoshie is right, the heads on the 2.4 were the weak link from the factory, whereas most of the new heads should be ok, make sure you get a "modified" head, these have been made stronger to combat the inherent overheating problems, which are not realy problems if you maintain the vehicle correctly, and keep the cooling system in good order.

The auto's have an AT cooler in the bottom of the radiator, so tend to put more strain on the cooling system that the manuals do, particulaly when towing, a secondary ATF cooler will halp sort this out.

The rear window will just need the motor changing, you can use the one from the rear passenger window untill you get a replacement.

See the links at the top of the page for "Stevo's engine co" he'll do you a modified head, and all the bits needed to fit it.

Hope this has been helpful.

[Sancho]

You get good service round here don't you?

Just to clarify, the 'modified' head is the same as the 3L head (off the 2.8 diesel).

And I wasn't correcting you on which 2.4s had the good heads, Matt. I don't know if they used the 3L head on the later 2.4s but I was typing while you were posting, before you go batshit about someone arguing with you

[MattF]

And I was correcting you on which 2.4s had the good heads, Matt. I don't know if they used the 3L head on the later 2.4s but I was typing while you were posting, before you go batshit about someone arguing with you

Bugger. I've just spent the last ten minutes searching through Tony's past posts to prove the point too. You take all the fun out of it.

[MattF]

With regards to that rear window fault, if the gear part of the motor has debonded, this should help:

http://forums.bauchan.org/portal/vie...les.php?acid=2

[TonyN]

How ever i havent seen a CURE/Prevention for the overheating.

Has anybody come up with a prevention, or a reason as to why they over heat?

Thats because they don't overheat unless something goes wrong, like a split rad, or hose, duff viscous fan, etc...and then run out of water and then overheat and crack the head.

Sometimes the head just cracks due to the design flaw (if the sun comes out, or its gets slightly warm towing or going up hill ) then you run out of water, then it overheats.

Most 2.4's have the aircon rad underneath the motor, so it doesn't block the main rad, so that not the problem. It happens to autos and manuals so its not the in rad cooler.

Its just w&nky head head design where the waterways go between the valves.

[POPEYE]

Welcome!! i've gone to great lenghts to try to keep mine from overheating, by adding two extra back up cooling fans (two on the front and an additional rad and fan over the rear chassi,) reworked the electrics (with matts help) so they are permantly live fead and have manual and auto opperation, it's surpriseing how much heat builds up after you've switched off the engine, my fans sometimes cut in five minuits after switching off, as your going to have to strip down most of the hoses when you do the head give all the hoses/pipe runs a dam good flushing, and fit a new cap and stat, and change the temp sensor for one from a corolla, (slightly lower rated and will cut ya fan in a wee bit earlier), steer clear of the cheapo ebay heads, steveo's ya best bet as said,

[JUDWAK]

welcome dude

[sledge]

welcome to surfdome

[Daz81]

Well i have to say that is by far the best welcome to a forum ive ever been to.

big thumbs up to al of you.

Right Stevo sounds like the bloke i need to speak to regarding a head,

and i will grab the motor from the rear passenger door as i never sit in the back any way

Thanks for the help guys, i can see my stay here being a pleasurable 1,

lots of info i had a good look around last night and found 99% of the answeres i wanted.

Daz

[Apache]

big thumbs up to al of you.

Daz

Dont think Al's been here for some time.

Here's a welcome from Andy though...

[pirate-storm]

Dont think Al's been here for some time.

Here's a welcome from Andy though...

i dont know andy im sure these a few AL's '' alien lifeforms'' here

n welcome to the mad house daz