Overheating Surf

Yeah, I don't think they ever released a 2.8 Surf, I sure as bleep havn't seen one.

Couple of things though.

1. Viscous fan. You gotta put TWO tubes of silicone in, not 1 as the manual says. Now I don't want to hear any crap from anyone who thinks they no different, just do it. :-)

2. Check for pressure leaks in the top and bottom radiator tanks, they are sometimes not visible. You loose pressure, you boil - simple. (mine was doing it when I bought it replaced the tanks and good). Oh and change the radiator cap.

3. Surf's (unlike the ozzie equiv. 4runners) have a REAR heater. It's just below the center console pointing towards the rear passengers. It's funny little peice of bleep has it has it's own heat exchanger. ie It flows hot coolant from the engine all the way back there, heats the air and then feeds it all the way back to the engine. When people flush the cooling systems, they never turn that heater on, ergo you get air locks and crap in there. Make sure BOTH heaters are on when refilling the coolant, or just simply cut the hose and join it (I never use the bloody thing, never cold enough to require TWO heaters!!). You'll see a big water hose come out the motor and go to the heater control valve on the fire wall, tapped into those hoses you'll see two little tiny ones, they are for the rear heater. A standard 1/3" barp joiner and two hose clamps will bypass it if you want.

4. Is it an auto? If so I'm going to make an assumption that the 2.4 has the same configuration as the 3.0 here. The gearbox in mine, as bloody good as it is (just amazing on and offroad, smooth, fast, great in low range etc) has the most bleep weak sized torque converter. It only holds about 4 litires of tranny fluid - ergo it get's bloody hot. Why does this cause the engine to overheat I hear you ask, because the ATF cooler is a heat exchanger (and a very efficiant one, too efficiant really) in the bottom of the radiator. As the coolant passes through it transfers the heat out of the heatexchanger/ATF and into the rad and then the radiator get's too hot and can't keep the engine cool.
How do you solve this?
1. Put an aftermarket ATF cooler behind the radiator. DO NOT disconnect the factory one or you'll cook your tranmission as the aftermarket coolers are not big enough/efficiant enough to keep the tranny cool, but the aftermarket will help take the heat out of the ATF BEFORE it goes into the radiator.
2. If you're going up long hills or doing boggy sand or towing, use the power ECT mode so the gearbox drops back faster and or turn the overdrive off. That will stop the torque converter slipping constantly heating up the ATF. It may seem odd at first, but I can rev the balls out of the surf all day and it won't over heat but at 2500rpms in the wrong gear I'll be at 110c before you say BOO! Let the engine rev and work, not the gearbox.
3. There is also a constriction in the bottom of the radiator, my guess is to slow the coolant down before it goes through past the heat exchanger, after you have fitted the aftermarket gearbox cooler you can remove that, it will allow the coolant to flower faster through the rad and consquently cool better.

FEW! Umm, I sure there's more things you can try, but that's the short storey! :-P

Oh and if he hasn't already, put a friggin aftermarket temp guage in. The bloody Toyota guage has 3 settings.

Cold (bottom of the guage).
Normal (half way or there abouts)
Your bleep ed (Once it leaves "normal" you're already doing AT LEAST 110c and it just flies to the red).

It is my FIRM belief that there were alot of cracked surf heads in both the 2.4's and 3.0's because of this guage alone! I mean if you're driving along a boggy beach the last thing you've got time to do is keep one eye ball glued to your temp guage and with these toyota guages by the time it's moved from half way you've more than likley cooked the bloody motor.

On my mechanical guage the factory guage moves to half way once the water temp reaches 60c. Running temp is 90c in mine, but of course the factory guage just stays half way between 60c and 90c. The factory guage does not even START to move of half until my mechanical guage reaches 110c.

Jeff,

Quote: "On my mechanical guage the factory guage moves to half way once the water temp reaches 60c. Running temp is 90c in mine, but of course the factory guage just stays half way between 60c and 90c. The factory guage does not even START to move of half until my mechanical guage reaches 110c. "

Sounds like Nissan must use the same gauge as toyota.....cos that is EXACTLY what my Nissan gauge does (I have a VDO 'proper' gauge in the top radiator hose, which tells me the REAL temperature).

Ignore him Pesty, and he will go away.

N o we wont