Confidence knocked

[Slugsie]

I've had my confidence in my Surf knocked a bit, here's the story...

I went green laning on Saturday with the GF on some good tracks near Hawes in North Yorkshire. I was driving with a bit of wrecklessness over some of the more bumpy terrain, getting at least one end of the car airborne on more than one occasion. As I have a 2.4 (even though the previous owner had had a modified cylinder head fitted), I was constantly checking the temperature gauge. It was doing its usual job of sitting dead centre of the gauge. Then, all of a sudden it wasn't, and it hadn't gone up a bit, it was sitting past the red line. It can't have been like that for more than a minute or two. I immediately cut the engine, but left the fan running to cool it down. After a couple of minutes the gauge was back down to normal. Whilst it was doing this I had the bonnet up, and there was hot water/steam issuing forth from the pipe that goes down the back of the expansion bottle. Once everything had cooled off sufficiently, I opened the radiator cap, and started filling it up. In total it took just over 5 litres of water to bring it back up to normal levels. Checking under the engine/radiator there was no obvious signs of 5 litres of water having dumped its self, but I had gone through some big puddles, so it might not have be easy to spot. I started the engine up again, and let it run for a minute or two. The temperature gauge went back to sitting in its customary middle of the gauge. For the next half an hour I was watching the gauge like a hawk, but it never moved, and even on the drive back to where we were staying, and home again today (total of 100+ miles of varied roads), it stayed dead centre.

I have since checked the oil for signs of water contamination (and vice versa), and there is none at all. I didn't spot any clouds of smoke coming from the exhaust, and neither did the GF who was following me in her car.

Any ideas what's up, and what to check? I suspect I may have a tiny crack in the radiator that got opened when it received a big jolt from me messing around. But it would surely have to be quite big to dump so much water so quickly.

I know I'm going to have to drain, flush, and refill the radiator with anti-freeze, so anything I can check at the same time?
HELP!!!

[BUSHWHACKER]

Maybe you had an air lock in the engine somewhere.
I checked mine recently with the heaters set to hot, and the rad did need topping up probably 'cos I have'nt used the heater for about four months due to the warmer weather.

[kitesurf_phil]

I had a similar experience while going on holiday to Minehead (see back from my hols thread).

It turned out that I had an airlock in the system that had probably been there since the Surf overheated, due to a muddy radiator, at Langdale in May. The airlock hadn't caused any probs with normal driving and only became a problem when towing the caravan up long hills at very low speeds (damn holiday traffic).
Mine took a similar amount of water and has been fine since. In future I shall have the cap off more often and not rely on the min/max marks on the expansion bottle.

[Slugsie]

Thanks for the replies guys. Hopefully it is just a simple airlock, and nothing worse. Needless to say, I'm gonna be watching the temp gauge even more than usual for a little while.

[Linda]

Thanks for the replies guys. Hopefully it is just a simple airlock, and nothing worse. Needless to say, I'm gonna be watching the temp gauge even more than usual for a little while.

You might have been a bit low on water before you set out too, and didnt realise??

[Slugsie]

You might have been a bit low on water before you set out too, and didnt realise??

It's possible, but I had checked it about a week or so beforehand, and it's never needed more than a small amount to top it right up. Yet another thing that I'll add to the checks I will be doing every five minutes.

[JimL]

Sorry to be cynical about where you stand now but you now have a 2LT engine which overheated and thats probably sealed it. You wont see water in the oil, it doesnt happen with surfs AFAIK. You will be topping up the coolant from week to week, and that might be all you have to do but I its probably shagged and probably already was.
Ooops just remembered you said it had a 'modified' head so if that means a new re-designed one then forget my blurb.

[pkdj2307]

surf overheating

i have had the same problem i drove to lonleat from essex last week when it was ****** hot, after 100 miles the temp gauge went into the red and overheated, i switched off and called the AA. When i checked the water it had lost nearly all of it through the expansion bottle, i refilled it and carried on for another 100 miles it runs perfect and now uses no water, When i drove home (200 miles) there was no overheating and no water loss. i have driven around town since and no problems. today i had a gas test on the water system (it detects exaust gases in the water system) and it was positive so i have a car that runs A1 uses no water but may need a new head. my advice is get it checked and if you need a new head get a modified one from steveo,

Paul

[Slugsie]

Damn it, it's gone and done it again. Gonna have to get it gas tested and pressure checked. Anything else I can do to easily confirm (or deny) that it is a blown head?

If the worst comes to the worst, how feasible is it to do the job myself? I can weild a spanner ok, and have done things like a cam-shaft replacement on a '85 Cavalier before now. Really don't think I could afford to pay a mechanic to do the job.

[BUSHWHACKER]

I may be the bearer of a bit of good news.
I've had the same symptoms as yours for ages, long story short I bought a new rad cap (£4.09) and thermostat (£9.65) today, and everything is fine and dandy.
Maybe these are what you need ?

[Slugsie]

Hmm, that may be very good news!

Did yours also dump vast quantities of coolant? The first time mine did it there was steam and boiling water flowing out of the 'overflow' pipe down the back of the expansion tank. The electric fan was still kicking in on mine, that was the first sign of a problem at the weekend when I heard the fan running under circumstances when I wouldn't have expected it to (other than the fact that it was suddenly very low on coolant which I didn't realise).

Probably worth a punt anyway, thanks.

P.S. Where did you get the parts from? They don't appear to be Milner or Roughtrax prices.

[BUSHWHACKER]

My electric fans cuts in every time I've been out on a run then climb the steep back lanes to my house, but it only runs for a minute or so.
Also, I've had a small split in the top of the rad, along the seam under the top hose for months which I patched up with that Chemical Metal filler. It lasted well, but last saturday It was blown out by the rad pressure, I lost most of the coolant and a lot gurgled into the expansion tank.
I wire brushed the split today and noticed it was soldered, so I got out my blowtorch and flux and filled the split with solder again. sorted!
I've suspected the thermostat and rad cap for a long time, 'cos I had my truck almost two years now and I should have replaced them then.

p.s. I got the parts from my local motor accessories place. If you go in one, My top tip, is to say they are for a Toyota hilux 2.4, and let them ask you if it's a turbo.
Other wise they look a bit confused if you say Surf, or Import.

[Slugsie]

OK, I've drained the radiator, and re-filled it with some radiator flush stuff. Gonna run it for a couple of days, then drain it again and refill with coolant. Flipping 'eck does it take ages to 'burp' the system.

Oh, do you reckon the fact that the bottom 6 inches of the radiator was caked in mud which I hadn't spotted might have contributed to it getting a bit hot.

[BUSHWHACKER]

Ummmm......

[paulh]

[QUOTE=Slugsie]Hmm, that may be very good news!

The electric fan was still kicking in on mine, that was the first sign of a problem at the weekend QUOTE


I thought the electric fan was just for the aircon, or are the 2.4s different to the 3ltr in that respect?