3.0 L Three Litre Surf Overheat

[Surfster]

Hello - I bought the wife a 3.0L Surf in the bad weather earlier this year.

The surf has 120K on it or thereabouts. Its an N reg. I paid £2300

It's been great until two weeks ago. She was driving up a hill and noticed the engine light came on and the temp gauge was in the red. She tried to go a bit further to pull off the dual carriageway and the car died. It would not start again and had to be towed to the garage. Here is what I have been told by the mechanic:-

There is no coolant in the radiator system.
There is some piston slap (but not major)
The head is warped
He cannot see anything wrong with the engine elsewhere.
He filled the cooling system up and left it overnight - in the morning it was all gone.
The head has gone for a crack test and possible skim

Does anyone have any idea what may have happened to it and how much it will cost to repair and whether its worth doing?

I thought it was the 2.4 that was supposed to overheat and crack the head?

The mechanic is concerned that the bottom end bearings may be screwed as a result of the intense heat.

I await the results of the crack test but am unsure (due to my limited knowledge) if a cracked head or failed gasket is the cause or symptom of the coolant loss and overheat.

Also if the engine has overheated this much is it knackered and should I look to trade it in or otherwise get rid of it?

[stormforce]

i shouldn't bother with the head skim as the head will be cracked more than likely.If the coolant disappeared then there could be a split pipe somewhere
you will be looking at about £1200 if the garage do it for you

[Surfster]

Well they're going to do a crack test first and then get back to me so presumably if it is cracked I'll need to look at getting a replacement head.

I dunno why it suddenly overheated as it was only on a short trip and we've done some quite long trips in it with no probs at all.

Mechanic also thinks head gasket may have gone and possibly caused it but to be honest he is scratching his head a bit.

He also says the inside of he head is ridiculously clean and things this is possibly due to water getting in?

[Surfster]

Actually by the looks of it I could get a replacement reconditioned engine off ebay for the same ammount you're quoting....

[Sir Plug]

The bottom end is normally bullet proof. The top half isn't. If it went into the red and died, then the head is scrap. As it's stripped to this point and it stopped, then getting the bottom end checked will be worthwhile. I've not heard of many dying when hot, so I suspect the engine would have been hot for a long time before the wife noticed it. Surf temp gauges are wildly inaccurate, when they reach red, it's too late, they've been overheating for ages. Good luck and welcome to the world of Surf!

P.S....the 3.0 is renowned for overheating

[TonyN]

P.S....the 3.0 is renowned for overheating

B/S, only if its got something wrong with it, let get low on coolant or abusing it by towing heavy trailers, just like every other car out there.

It's nothing like the problems with the 2.4's.

There has always been a proven failure of the cooling system thats made it properly overheat on nearly every 3.0 I've had to change the head on. Not just the sun coming out like a stock 2.4.

You can get a 3.0 just shy of the red zone without it cracking, I've done it loads on mine, and it's still fine.

As to this truck, if it's got hot enough to stall and not start, there is a good chance it's 'grabbed' a piston, then let go. Check the bores carefully for scratches or scuff marks, and be nice to do a compression test before the head comes off. Also I've had problems where a seriously hot motor has jammed an injector open, then melting a piston, so get them checked out to.

[Sir Plug]

B/S, only if its got something wrong with it, let get low on coolant or abusing it by towing heavy trailers, just like every other car out there.

It's nothing like the problems with the 2.4's.

There has always been a proven failure of the cooling system thats made it properly overheat on nearly every 3.0 I've had to change the head on. Not just the sun coming out like a stock 2.4.

You can get a 3.0 just shy of the red zone without it cracking, I've done it loads on mine, and it's still fine.

As to this truck, if it's got hot enough to stall and not start, there is a good chance it's 'grabbed' a piston, then let go. Check the bores carefully for scratches or scuff marks, and be nice to do a compression test before the head comes off. Also I've had problems where a seriously hot motor has jammed an injector open, then melting a piston, so get them checked out to.

Down here, the 3.0 gives more problems than the 2.4. I've done loads of heads on 3.0 but very little on the 2.4.........the big killer here is the lack of antifreeze, we don't need it for the cold but do need it for the internals...

[TonyN]

Lol, sorry that came across grumpy, it's just I've had sooo many 2.4's through the door, they will crack as soon as you get them hot, the 3.0 can take as much heat as any other engine in my experience (i do work exclusively on Surfs full time, so not just recycling internet dribble ) You can overheat a 2nd Gen truck quite easily, there isn't much spare capacity when worked hard, but it won't kill it instantly like a 2.4.

Read your post as saying they all crack, not just overheat, and needed to stick up for the ol' 3.0, it's amazing motor all things considered, and has very few flaws in general.

[soramad]

Down here, the 3.0 gives more problems than the 2.4. I've done loads of heads on 3.0 but very little on the 2.4.........the big killer here is the lack of antifreeze, we don't need it for the cold but do need it for the internals...

Nah you don't need the right antifreeze for the internals like pumps, metal pipes, radiators and rubber pipes its just a lump of iron or thats what I have been told on here, any body wondered why so many problems rear there heads using any old antifreeze but then it might be just toyota hype.

[Overland Tonka]

Tony...I prefer it when your grumpy...far more entertaining..

[GBV8]

Actually by the looks of it I could get a replacement reconditioned engine off ebay for the same ammount you're quoting....

I will have a 3ltr lump for sale in a few weeks time. I'm having the Lexurf V8 conversion done at Bushwhackers.

It's a 95, just under 85,000 miles. The head was done shortly after it was imported so no worries of this one going and it runs like a sewing machine. No issues at all.

[Surfster]

Good news - Head is not cracked but it is warped and needs to be skimmed and get a thicker replacement gasket to make up for the amount skimmed.

Best guess at moment is that gasket was a bit gone and it had been leaking coolant for a long time and eventually lead to overheat/major failure. Rad is OK and mech will check fan is good etc once we get engine running again.

[Surfster]

BollX - the head is apparently so warped that skimming is not going to be an option as the bits where the valves go in are totally screwed. I've been quoted £600 for a new head from the engineering co. (this includes transferring all the fiddly bits from the old head to the new head) - then there's the labour and oil and coolant and bits and peices meaning the total bill is going to be £1k.

This has really hacked me off as there are a few other bits and pieces for the MOT so it will all in be £1300 for a car I paid £2300 for plus another £600 for BFGs. Is this worth doing? the mech reckons I can sell it as a dodo for about £500-£600 or try breaking it an selling bits off on ebay but to be honest I don't have the facilities.

Either way I'm going to loose close to £1500. I really thought the 3L was meant to be "all that" but it appears I am wrong. If I get this work done will it push up the value of the car at all if I was selling it later? Do people here view it as an investment in getting a sound vehicle that you can look back on and think "yeah, new head - check"? or should I be getting shot of it and walking away?

[Surfster]

GBV2 - how much would you want for your engine?

[Hazzo]

With fuel costs the way they are the only time your likely to get your money back is if we have another ice age, they're worth f-all during the summer. H