Help! what to do?

[Nipper]

Hey there i am an old surf admirer but a young and new surf owner!

And guess what shes over heated!
I had some trouble with her getting hot, so i immediately found the problem to be a knackered Thermostat and replaced it while counting my lucky stars!

however, 4 weeks later she is getting hot again, my mate and i are taking the head off at the moment and i am hoping its just the head gasket, the oil is still oil coloured with no signs of water leakage/muddy oil etc.

Now on the assumption it is only the Gasket and i replace it with a genuine toyota part and get the head skimmed etc is it likely to happen again, in other words is there some latent manafacturing/design defect in the heads (i have heard it mentioned) that will make it happen again?

I am a poor poor student (listen to the violins!) so i am trying to do stuff sensibly but at the same time i dont wanna cut corners and have a false economy. So what do i do? gasket etc or the whole head?

Also where is best to get a decent head?

Thanks in advance! P.S i used to have a fourtrak what a pile of SH*TE!

[slydog]

heads

there was a design fault with the heads on some of the 2.4 engines where it cracked in the combustion chambers apparently the water jacket was to thin or something so while you have the head off have it checked you dont wanna be putting it all back together and its knackered lets just hope its only the gasket m8 do a search for heads and you will get the name of some suppliers and if you do need a head make sure its a new one and not recon as it will have the same problem mark

[TonyN]

there was a design fault with the heads on some of the 2.4 engines where it cracked in the combustion chambers apparently the water jacket was to thin or something so while you have the head off have it checked you dont wanna be putting it all back together and its knackered lets just hope its only the gasket m8 do a search for heads and you will get the name of some suppliers and if you do need a head make sure its a new one and not recon as it will have the same problem mark

You lost the '.' key??? It's on the lower right side of the keyboard.

[TonyN]

After externsive searching around the net, I've found alot of the head failures are cos something else has failed, causing the head to overheat. The design of the head is that it dosn't take getting hot very well, and invariably cracks.

Most of the offical Toyota recalls in Japan seem to be for headgaskets, which didn't like the original 2L motor having a turbo bolted to the motor, and cracked letting the coolant out, overheating the motor.

Better gaskets, and redesigned head that dosn't crack so easy seems to be the best course of action.

[Dazza]

Sorry to hear about your overheating, I'm a bit confused though if there is no water in oil or vise versa why did you think there is a problem with the head? it could be the new thermostat is faulty or you have an air lock in the cooling system.I'd get the head presure tested now it's off and if that's ok rebuild it with a new thermostat and follow the instructions on this site for bleeding the cooling system. Don't spend close on £500 for a head if yours is fine.

[marky]

have the head checked for cracks first as its a cast head not alloy. alloy heads tend to warp not so much with a cast head.

[Dave O`Donnell]

Is the emission from the Exhaust White ?

I ask this as this is what was comming out of mine, the Head had Cracked..
Got Brand new head from Toyota, new injectors, gasket set`s, also had a different Head gasket sent from another supplier, who had a custom one made, as the new head has more Water Jackets in it, but the gasket has these covered.. Also the proper coolant from Toyota, as this Boils Higher, new cambelt (even though iv`e only covered 2500 miles since last one)
Engine oil & Filter (as water entered engine)... Parts & Labour..870 GBP
Good Luck

[gemini]

Sorry to hear about your overheating, I'm a bit confused though if there is no water in oil or vise versa why did you think there is a problem with the head? it could be the new thermostat is faulty or you have an air lock in the cooling system.I'd get the head presure tested now it's off and if that's ok rebuild it with a new thermostat and follow the instructions on this site for bleeding the cooling system. Don't spend close on £500 for a head if yours is fine.

oil is not always seen in the water, or water in oil if the haed cracks, this mostly happens when its head gasket failure and the water channel is blowing across to an oil channel, its more likely you will see steam from the exhaust on a cracked head as it leaks into the bores, thats why it pressurizes the cooling system

[stara]

a crack in the head can be extremely fine, like a crack in porcelean, usually it is too fine a crack to even allow pressurised water through, but combustion pressure is huge, it will force out a small amount of gas through the tiniest crack into the cooling system, overpressurising the cooling system and forcing the rad cap to open and allow the pressure out, (into the expansion tank on a surf )the pressure, along with coolant gets expelled, and the water level drops, causing overheating.

Hope this makes it clearer?

[stara]

i really must learn to type faster

[stara]

i don't think the blocked of waterways should be unblocked, toyota have spend lots of time and money on design, and although the 2.4 head has a design problem, i don't think it would as glaringly obvious as blocked waterways, the existing waterways probably provide a 'balanced' cooling area around the head, if more cooling is introduced where it shouldn't be, then there could be 'unbalanced' cooling, i.e. localised hot or cool spots, which can lead too......a head cracking.....hmmmmmmmm