problem with surf ln130 on the way home

[unclefewst]

Hi All, this is a strange one, we returned yesterday from the south coast to norfolk towing our caravan in our hilux surf LN130, we went down to the south coast no problems and then used it all week, no issues , however when returning home yesterday we got as far as five oaks in sussex and the temprature gauge started rising, near to the esso garage it moved to near the red marker on the gauge at that point i stopped pulled into the fore court
i opened up the bonnet to find that the expansion bottle was full and coolant was dripping out of the overflow for that bottle,
we waited some 1 hour for the rac who came and checked things over, he took off the radiator cap and must have put a shed load of water in the cooling system, he ran up the vehicle again getting it nice and hot, and had one of them digital thermometerts, where you point a laser on the pipes, there was no problem throughout and the tem gauge remained constant dead centre on the gauge, he then followed us all the way to the m23 to make sure we were ok, again no problems and we continued on our way home to norfolk, we had no loss of power, and the beast appears to be running fine again
any suggestion guys

[charvell]

hello mate, sounds like your head has cracked. you could try changing the rad cap and thermostat but from what you have described it does sound like the head ahas gone. You need to get it tested with one of those kits. sorry to be the bearer of bad news

colin

[POPEYE]

Not so sure about the head, if it's running ok now, no more temp rises?, could have been a glitch, gob of coolant gunge come loose and blocked temporilary, see how it goes over the next few days and if in doubt give it a dam good flushing, plus toteing a van puts it under extra load, more prone etc, i'd have thought if the head had cracked it would continue to build pressure resulting in coolant loss and temp rising,

[JUDWAK]

this has happend to me time and time again over a year or so
i found a very small leak on the rad it did not drip on to the floor too

it was so small you could only see that it was wet and not were it was coming from

it was on the inner side of the rad
i chaged the rad with an after market one (£185)and the same happend again 6 mounths later
i made the company i got the rad off change the rad again
i took that rad off and give it away
and put a toyota rad (£325) on job done
the toyota rad is about 25kg heavier than any after market rads
i hope yours is just a simple pipe dude

i use one of those thermometerts too tiz why i know it runns better with the toyota rad

[unclefewst]

yep have just started it up again this morning, but before i did so i took of the filler cap, and managed to put in a litre of water before the system was full again, as i said, no smoke coming out of the back oil looks nice and black not emulcified (think i spelt that right ) strange

[unclefewst]

Not so sure about the head, if it's running ok now, no more temp rises?, could have been a glitch, gob of coolant gunge come loose and blocked temporilary, see how it goes over the next few days and if in doubt give it a dam good flushing, plus toteing a van puts it under extra load, more prone etc, i'd have thought if the head had cracked it would continue to build pressure resulting in coolant loss and temp rising,

hi popeye, yep so would i but no pressure build gauge stayed absoulutely dead centre of the gauge all the way home to gt yarmouth, could not say i notice any loss of power onthe unit, but as mentioned checked coolant level this morning and it took a litre of water
what your thoughts dave

[gwh200]

Run her up to temperature. Get the heaters nice and warm and check EVERYWHERE. Go looking for leaks all over, including the passenger footwells. Either you do have a leak somewhere, or as charvell says it could be a head. They are not as cut and dry as just going. You should really,also, do a coolant sniffer test. This will tell you if exhast gases are present in the coolant. Other than that, just let it " develop".

Good luck

[stormforce]

do as said previously and get yourself a block and head testing kit from ebay.Its about £30 and do the sniffer test to see if the head has gone or take it to a garage and let them do it.
It sounds to me as if the head has gone as the system is pressurising and pushing the coolant out the exspansion bottle