Radiator flushing on the GU 4.2????
Submitted: Sunday, Apr 17, 2005 at 19:57
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Member - Roachie (SA)
Okay; so here's the latest decision I've made to try to curb the overheating 'trol......
Following everyone's advice a few days ago (thanks everybody), I've decided to buy a new thermostat (it's says it 76.5 deg) and instal. Unfortunately, the gasket the Nissan bloke sold me doesn't look like it'd fit, so I couldn't do it this weekend. (They sold me one with 4 holes in it which is sort of rectangular in shape but with one end cut off at about 45 degrees, whereas the thermo housing is round shape with 3 holes in it).
I've also decided to flush all the coolant out and replace with pure rain water + 2 bottles of REDLINE's product called "Water Wetter". I've ordered the pink one (no smart arze comments you blokes!!!! hahaha) which is for both diesel and petrol vehicles and contains a rust inhibitor. The blurb says that it cools much better than water on it's own and even better than a coolant-equipped engine. From what I can gather, commercial coolant actually detracts from the cooling systems ability to do it's job...... I reckon if I've been guilty of putting too much coolant concentrate in the donk and this could be part of my problem.
Anyway, I know there is a drain plug somewhere on the back of
the block somewhere. Does anybody with a 4.2 Nissan know exactly where this plug is and whether it's best to access it from above, or below the motor. I think it's somewhere mear the turbo, but if anybody can confirm this I'd be grateful.
I'm also unsure how to know when the flushing process has been completed and if all the town tap water I use to do this flushing job will get itself out of the system, or will I need to "waste" a certain amount of rain water to flush the krappy town water out before I fill up??
Thanks again for your responses....remember, the sooner you all can help me solve this problem, the sooner you won't have to put up with my long-winded, silly questions.
Cheers everybody,
Roachie.
Reply By: Pezza - Sunday, Apr 17, 2005 at 20:46
Sunday, Apr 17, 2005 at 20:46
G'day Roachie,
Not having a lot of luck down there are you, mate I can't help you with the drain plug but I may be able to help with the overheating problem.
A mate of
mine had a stage 2 upgrade done to his 4.2 GU trayback, the poeple in
toowoomba that did it, whom I have heard good reports about for a while now, mentioned to him about how they have cured the inherent overheating problems in some GU's ( my mate didn't know about this problem until then) while they were explaining to him what they had done to his.
Remembering the problem you are having I queried him some more on this.
Now I'm not sure of the exact details but apparently it has something to do with the compression ratio in the intake manifold caused by the boost of the turbo. The factory has got it wrong but hasn't bothered to do anything about it because there weren't enough customers complaining.
Not sure if you already know about this and have already tried this avenue or not, thought it might be worth mentioning.
If not give me a quick hello on my email, pezzamail@bigponddotcom, so I can return their contact info for them, I don't want to free advertise for them as similar companies support this site, I realise they are a little ways from you but it might just be worth a phone call. ( and maybe a good excuse for a tanning holiday to the perfect sunshine state later )
On a different note, I have solved my sub fuel tank pump problem which you tried to help me with a while ago, after trying several elimination processes to narrow the fault down, including buying a new switch, nothing worked, so I went the good old fashioned way and ran a wire from the battery to fuse box to seperate switch on dash to pump, I now switch it on to pump fuel across and switch it off when it's empty. Real high tech eh? I now also have the bonus of being able to utilise the whole 40lts.
Avagoodn
Pezza
AnswerID:
107149
Follow Up By: Member - Roachie (SA) - Sunday, Apr 17, 2005 at 21:07
Sunday, Apr 17, 2005 at 21:07
G'day Pezza...... a man who does things the same way as me, eh? Fitting a new switch is probably the best solution to get around your sub tank problem.....but I'm a bit surprised you can get 40 litres out of it; that's a real bonus. I guess you just have to be careful to remember to turn the switch off when you finish.....also, might be a good idea to switch the pump on for 10 seconds or so every morning when you start up and are waiting for the motor to warm up a bit, just to keep the seals lubricated (which is what the standard system does; except it does it EVERY time you start up....could be 10 times a day).
Thanks for the idea about the turbo boost.....once I get the 3 gauges fitted up I'll be able to tell what boost I'm running and will probably need to get the pump and/or timing slightly adjusted.
Thanks mate
Roachie
FollowupID:
364128
Follow Up By: ADM - Monday, Apr 18, 2005 at 12:24
Monday, Apr 18, 2005 at 12:24
You are correct Pezza
The turbo on the GU creates to much back pressure in the manifold and as a result of that it is not able to dispurse the heat. This is the reason MTQ (DTS) have their turbo upgrage were the exhaust and comp wheels are replace to relieve the pressure. After speaking to Peter at the Towoomba branch he advised they have done many for the government and apparently they do not have a heating problem any more.
It may pay to give them a call and they can explain this in more detail.
Cheers
Ashley
FollowupID:
364179
Follow Up By: Pezza - Monday, Apr 18, 2005 at 12:53
Monday, Apr 18, 2005 at 12:53
Yep, that's the mob I was talking about in
toowoomba, s'pose I shoulda just named them, didn't want to do the wrong thing by the site, live and learn eh.
Tony was the bloke I was told to see, seems there is a few up there that can help, might be worth a call Roachie! Good luck.
Avagoodn
Pezza
FollowupID:
364181
Reply By: Member - 'Lucy' - Monday, Apr 18, 2005 at 01:04
Monday, Apr 18, 2005 at 01:04
Roachie you idiot!
In your overheated befuddled state, you must have staggered into either a TOYOTA or JEEP dealership when trying to source the thermo gasket. Maybe you over indulged in that fabulous
home cooking Annette serves and have the 'halucinations'.
Mate! nothing is square with four bolts holes and an end cut off at 45deg's unless you have had a feed of Kadina 'blue copper' mushrooms. Especially the next line - I'm going to use pink water wetter. I mean to say, how much wetter than water can you get.
ROFLMAO.
Seriously (I'll try to be) I was talking to a gentleman in QLD tonight about the exact same problem that you have.
He tells me that he to has heard, been advised that the internal turbo design that nissan engineered for the vehicles you both have is flawed.
Also that MTG (DTS) in
Toowoomba have a fix for the problem where they use the existing turbo housing and re engineer the internals.
What the exact physics of it all is I have no idea. Maybe worth a call to them before you go to all the trouble of flushing and putting in the pink gin.
Have a good one mate
AnswerID:
107188
Reply By: awill4x4 - Monday, Apr 18, 2005 at 19:19
Monday, Apr 18, 2005 at 19:19
Roachie, I certainly hope your radiator doesn't need rodding out as it's a complete alloy fabricated radiator and the only way to do it is to grind/cut out the weld, then get it rodded out and then reweld the endtank on. It's certainly not a 5 minute job.
I'm running a similar PWR core on my petrol/LPG GQ but I fabricated and welded the radiator myself and have no overheating problems.
My best advice to you for flushing out your cooling system is to use some radiator flush (I've used Tectalloy Muckowt with good results). Follow the instructions to the letter and time it so that you can get your radiator reverse power flushed by a competent radiator specialist after it's recommended running time in the cooling system.
You will be amazed by how much gunk is removed by the reverse flush. Then just get them to fill with tap water and drive it around for a day or 2. Then drop the water and remove the plug in
the block and flush out through the radiator hose and refill with coolant and distilled water.
I'm using Tectalloy 100+ which is a 50/50 mix.
As an afterthought. Are you using the factory shroud? I think on the PWR ones I've seen there isn't any provision for it. On the one I built I made sure I could fit the factory shroud, the only part I have problems with is the bottom half with its small clip on section which is too close to the crank pulley, so I left that part off.
Regards Andrew.
AnswerID:
107274
Follow Up By: Member - Roachie (SA) - Monday, Apr 18, 2005 at 20:21
Monday, Apr 18, 2005 at 20:21
Thanks for that insight Andrew.
I couldn't get the shroud back on, but PWR does put the lugs there for it to be fitted. I actually cut the shroud off horizontally about 4" from the top so that I could refit the top bit, just so that fingers would be protected from the fan blades. I still have the bottom half and may have to work out a way to get it rejoined and try to modify it so it will fit; even if I have to leave the bottom flap off. I always thought that with the extra fan at the front which I have fitted, the air flow over the fins would be okay. Overheating has never been a problem at low speeds, only when pushing hard or into a strong headwind.
Back to the drawing board I guess.
Cheers mate
Roachie
FollowupID:
364244
Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Monday, Apr 18, 2005 at 22:59
Monday, Apr 18, 2005 at 22:59
So you dont have the complete shroud on your rad ??
There is your problem.
Havin' been thru this myself, its critical on 4.2's to have the shroud surrounding the complete radiator. Top and even the bottom section that is removed when doing a body lift.
FollowupID:
364266
Follow Up By: Member - Roachie (SA) - Wednesday, Apr 20, 2005 at 22:44
Wednesday, Apr 20, 2005 at 22:44
Thanks mate,
I've made some bits up and fitted them to the bottom section of shroud, so that once I take the top hose off to cut it and fit the new stainless steel section in the middle of it with temp sender etc, I will have another go at trying to get the whole shroud back into position.
We'll see how that goes!!!
Cya
Roachie
FollowupID:
364498