Corroded Pipes, rear heater?

[tashtego]

Mine have gone too - came back to the Surf this affer and there was about 3 pints of rusty water on the floor. No prior warnings. Cut out the perforated section and replaced it with rubber, will do the copper pipes asap as #2 son rides in the back and needs the heat in Winter.

Cheers for the heads up to all previous posters here.

Great thread and pics! I am about to do my rear heater pipes, they look like yours, in fact even worse after driving on salt water floodplains!

So 3 meters of 8 mm copper pipe should be enough to replace both the pipes that run parallel down to the rear matrix?

Cheers

[J i m s t e r]

Yes, 3m was enough. Not expensive, as I said, the local plumbers merchant have this in stock. Mate of mine had a roller that would fold a lip on the end of the copper to ensure a snug fit into the rubber parts at each end (engine and rear heater).

You can bend the copper by eye to roughly match the curves in the outgoing crusty pipes.

May as well do your coolant while you're at it.

[tashtego]

Wow, that was quick!

Thanks a lot, will do as advised.

Not that we need rear heaters here (or front ones!), but I guess it's extra surface that can disperse a bit of extra heat...

Cheers Jim!

[J i m s t e r]

I did wonder, as I typed it, about those infamous 35-degrees-C-all-chuffing-night Malawi Winters...

But then I thought, well the bloke gets about a bit, he might be parking under the stars next to some desert and the temp outside might drop right down.

[tashtego]

Ha ha, yes, there is that...but it's mostly "surf owner's paranoia", whereby anything to do with the cooling system becomes some sort of sacred bit that mustn't be tampered with!
I was about to cut the rubber off one of the T pipes in the engine bay (as per your picture with arrows) and just loop it round onto the other one, bypassing the rear heater all together.
Cheaper and quicker.
But then I thought that maybe quite a bit of heat is lost as the coolant travels down there...
What do you think?

[J i m s t e r]

I agree that the pipework-to and the rear-heater itself will help to expel heat that would otherwise be held in the coolant.

But I believe that one of the reasons Toyota sell so well in hostile climates is because they have generally engineered the standard parts properly (especially on the 3.0). Unless you are really punishing the truck with heavy loads over long distances in high temperatures, I don't think there is a need for extra cooling.

I do however concur with the sentiment in the older posts in this thread that the perceived overheating issues may all be down to gradual or total coolant loss through corroded pipes. You wouldn't know you're p155ing coolant underneath the truck on a long, hot drive until the issue manifested itself through the head going kaput.

That's something they could have done better out of the factory.

[tashtego]

So, I couldn't find the 8mm copper pipe anywhere. Hardware shops, aircon and refrigeration people...nothing. All other diameters available though...
Anyway, in the end I ordered the original pipes from Toyota, was given a good discount and at least it was a dead easy fit...matched my mechanical ability!

The old pipes weren't too bad actually. Although they felt flaky and 'light' when they were on the car, once removed I saw that they were still quite thick and probably would't have leaked for a long time yet. The black paint coming off made them look worse than they were.

Pic of the new pipes.

[J i m s t e r]

IIRC I just asked for something that was a similar size diameter to the bit of rusty original pipe I took down to the plumbers merchants. As long as it joins the rubbers snugly you'll be good.

[marcdtr]

Anyway, in the end I ordered the original pipes from Toyota

What price were they?

[tashtego]

After discount (I am a regular, sadly) the equivalent of around £55.

Part n. for the 3rd Gen is 87248-35040

Cheers