Poorly Surf

[jclapham]

My hilux 2.4 ssr-g isn't at all well. It's over heating and blowing bubbles back into the engine coolant bottle. The radiator is leaking very slightly from the top somewhere. Does this sound like the head has gone?

All was well on Tuesday when I took it for its MOT. Or I thought it was. It failed on a number of ball joints and cv things. Can't remember exactly what. I'll have a look at the MOT failure report later and post them.

The bonnet is also in desperate need of a paint job. It's been resprayed before and whoever did it didn't prep it so the lacquer it flaking off all over it.

So if it is the head and I've got all these other problems is it worth fixing?

Many Thanks

Jon

[BUSHWHACKER]

It may not be the head. I've had a small leak at the top of my radiator for months and I was topping up the coolant every three days untill I was approaching my house two weeks ago when my temp gauge shot accross to the red, just after the electric fan come on, and all the coolant, (what was left of it) emptied itself into the expansion tank with a lot of hissing and gurgling.
The small split had opened up to nearly two thirds of the length of the top of the rad. I got a quote for a new /recon. one near me, and they wanted a pint of lager short of £200!
So when it had cooled down I wire brushed the top of the rad where the split was, and found that it had been soldered. So I got out me blow lamp, solder and some flux, heated it up, applied some solder all along the seam and it's been like new ever since. Now it never needs topping up and is not sucking air into the cooling system.

[marky]

JON if it is the HEAD we have our own Engine GURU - STEVO in Stockport Manchester so keep us updated.

[jclapham]

Thanks for the responses.

Whatever it is it's serious. Tried to take it to a local garage a few miles away and it just stopped after travelling about a mile! Yesterday it seemed to be getting really hot and then sorting itself out. The blowers would go hot as the temperature went down, then they'd go cold and the temperature would go up again. Today though, it just gets hotter and hotter and the blowers never warm up.

About a month ago one of the hoses in the cooling system split. That must have been an early warning.

Here's the list of things it failed the MOT on -

Front o/s main beam - easily fixed
Front o/s and n/s top ball joint - not too dear
Front o/s outer CV gater - not sure about this one
Front n/s wheel bearing - again not overly dear
Front brake pads - fair enough

So is it the head?

[andycook]

Possibly when that coolant hose split and you lost coolant? - thats when the damage may have been done to the head? - engine would have overheated if lots coolant lost in leak.

those MOT fails arent that serious, but price would soon add-up if a garage doing the repairs - £100-£200 parts&labour
cheaper if you source parts and fix yourself - but will take a while to do the jobs.

[jax]

Thanks for the responses.


About a month ago one of the horse in the cooling system split. That must have been an early warning.

Awwww, poor horse.

..................
Jacqueline

[TonyN]

Awwww, poor horse.

..................
Jacqueline

:snigger:

[jclapham]

Oops, poor old horse

£200 won't be bad for the MOT failures.

Any idea how much the head and radiator would be to fix? It's getting it to the garage that's a problem now. I'm gussing it would be a lot of labour hours and sadly I wouldn't know where to start with it so would have to get a garage to fix it.

[alromcc]

Did you check/ replace the thermostat?
It's usually d culprit.

[bub]

you think you have a problem read my post (head gone stupid)
anyway good luck mate if the surfs new to you like it is me then i think i may need a crash course on the maintenence on the surf must admit though they are a great motor and your mot stuff should be ok ours failed on
o/s front c/v boot and ball joint
rear anti roll rubbers and joints it was a pain to fix but only set us back £100 and 2 days work good luck mate my sympothy is with you