Gooey coolant

[Fey!]

I opened the bonnet of the 3rd gen the other morning to check coolant levels, and found in the overflow bottle what appeared to be brown, oily muck. Opened the cap on the rad to find the same thing.

In a panic I checked the indise of the oil cap and the dipstick, but thankfully all I found there was black oil.

I got a mechanic to look at it (not my usual guy), and he immediatly said that I had a cracked head, common to these 3 litre engines, and that it would basically be a replacement engine job.

The surf had been sitting idle for a couple of weeks while we were away, and the coolant was clear at that stage. After we came back I had only been doing short 2km or so runs before the coolant turned to sludge. It hadn't overheated, and it wasn't down on power or fuel consumption (my fuel consumption is improved by 20% at the moment after a dose of STP diesel treatment a couple of fills ago; I had been gettin 400km to the tank, and I'm currently getting 500. Might try diptane soon, as I've been hearing good things about it).

Because of that I hoped that it was only gunk coming to the top, so I got the coolant system drained. On Monday it was flushed about 4 times, and the same again today. It now has a proper antifreeze mix, and they did some kind of vapour test to try and detect if there was any oil getting into it this morning before they flushed it again, and that test came back clear.

Will sort out a compression test in the next few days for peace of mind.

Has anyone else gone through this?

[BUSHWHACKER]

Sounds to me like the transmission cooler thats built into the main radiator is leaking into the coolant.

[Fey!]

Thanks for that. I'll get it checked.

[BUSHWHACKER]

Here's a link to a rad supplier if you need one....

http://www.hiluxsurf.co.uk/showpost....62&postcount=1

[markp2]

Hi David. Sorry to hear of your problems.
I think Bushwacker has probably nailed the problem. Check the ATF to see if it has gone cloudy.
Try removing the two rubber pipes leading from the gearbox to the bottom of the rad and joining them with a bit of metal tubing. This will remove the cooler from the circuit and if you are not towing or driving hard will be OK at this time of year for short journeys.
Drain the coolant again if it is dirty and refill with water temporarily. See if the problem disappears.
You might be able to test the cooler by blocking one outlet for the oil cooler and using a bike pump to see if air bubbles come up the rad when pressure is applied.
Good luck,
Mark

[Fey!]

Thanks for all that.

There's fresh coolant in it, so I'll keep an eye on that first. It's booked in with my mechanic for next week, so I'll report back once he's seen it.

[munster]

Do not drive it until the whole systems been drained including the engine block, radiator, gearbox as the contaminated fluids ruin everything, the antifreeze melts the glue on the gearbox torque converter and all the microscopic gunge eventually blocks filters and corrodes gear box internals, etc. The remedy as I have been told is to get a new radiator, flush the gearbox and look at the torque converter as it holds the antifreeze liquid and any length of time is detrimental to the operation of the gears. so the stripping down and cleaning is the only way you can be sure it doesn't interfere with things later on ,Driving it without flushing the gear box will put coolant through the box, the addition of a heavy duty oil cooler added to the front of the radiator and bypassing that system will ensure that
you have peace of mind, as with the best will in the world no one knows when a radiator can suddenly decide to go like this. Hope it turns out ok for you in the end