Hi all
I have a 1968 FJ40 which I use for bull catching in remote Australia out on a cattle station, recently I have been having nothing but trouble with it running hot, I’ve tried every trick in the book (to my knowledge at least) to fix this and I haven’t been very successful with it
Engine temps will reach about 220* Fahrenheit or about 105*Celsius, racing the engine will only dip the temperature by a few degrees, if left to idle the temp will keep slowly climbing higher, but have always shut it off or cooled the rad down by pouring water on it before it got to that stage.
To get everyone up to speed:
-I installed an F145 motor that had been rebuilt years ago that had been in the shed for many years, pulled the head to check for anything majorly wrong after sitting so long and all seemed good
-Flushed out the engine and radiator (which is new) independently shortly after installing it, didn’t get much crap out of the system
-Engine ran quite hot so I replaced the old steel fan for a plastic one that had more fins, made no difference
-Assumed the radiator wasn’t up to the job, as a lot of the time mustering cattle involves idling along at a slow pace, so I installed a 60 series radiator into it which I had modified by a good rad shop, I figured more capacity, more cooling, the 60 series rads obviously have more cores in them
-Engine still ran hot, albeit with the bigger radiator it took alot longer to get hot
-Went up to the tip and robbed a thermo fan set up off of an old Holden astra which has two fans and fits the 60 series rad perfectly after a bit of backyard engineering, blows plenty of air through the radiator as well as the main fan sucking it through
- Pulled head off of motor again, found head gasket to be blown, had the head machined, installed new gasket, all to no avail
-At this stage I was desperate to get this FJ40 going because I had to use it for work. Presumed that the motor either had a major blockage or had a cracked head or block, so pulled it out along with the gearbox and installed a 2F out of a 1978 FJ45 that I knew for a fact ran cool when it was in the original vehicle
-Installed the engine with the same 60 series radiator, and used the same water pump that had come off the old engine, I checked the water pump thoroughly and it looked perfectly fine and clean inside as it’s fairly new
- 2F Engine temps behave pretty much the same as the old F145 used to after I have flushed out this new engine probably 4 or 5 times
I’m officially out of ideas on what to do and I’m starting to tear out my hair, I’m sure the radiator is fine as it’s brand new and clean inside, the block of the new 2F I reverse flushed with a high pressure hose, and is perfectly clean now after a fair bit of crap came out. I did the same with the radiator and all was clean.
Maybe a long shot, but could a blocked exhaust cause engine overheating? The 2F has extractors and is running through a hot dog bolted to where the passenger side step used to be
Any ideas would be really appreciated
Kris
I have a 1968 FJ40 which I use for bull catching in remote Australia out on a cattle station, recently I have been having nothing but trouble with it running hot, I’ve tried every trick in the book (to my knowledge at least) to fix this and I haven’t been very successful with it
Engine temps will reach about 220* Fahrenheit or about 105*Celsius, racing the engine will only dip the temperature by a few degrees, if left to idle the temp will keep slowly climbing higher, but have always shut it off or cooled the rad down by pouring water on it before it got to that stage.
To get everyone up to speed:
-I installed an F145 motor that had been rebuilt years ago that had been in the shed for many years, pulled the head to check for anything majorly wrong after sitting so long and all seemed good
-Flushed out the engine and radiator (which is new) independently shortly after installing it, didn’t get much crap out of the system
-Engine ran quite hot so I replaced the old steel fan for a plastic one that had more fins, made no difference
-Assumed the radiator wasn’t up to the job, as a lot of the time mustering cattle involves idling along at a slow pace, so I installed a 60 series radiator into it which I had modified by a good rad shop, I figured more capacity, more cooling, the 60 series rads obviously have more cores in them
-Engine still ran hot, albeit with the bigger radiator it took alot longer to get hot
-Went up to the tip and robbed a thermo fan set up off of an old Holden astra which has two fans and fits the 60 series rad perfectly after a bit of backyard engineering, blows plenty of air through the radiator as well as the main fan sucking it through
- Pulled head off of motor again, found head gasket to be blown, had the head machined, installed new gasket, all to no avail
-At this stage I was desperate to get this FJ40 going because I had to use it for work. Presumed that the motor either had a major blockage or had a cracked head or block, so pulled it out along with the gearbox and installed a 2F out of a 1978 FJ45 that I knew for a fact ran cool when it was in the original vehicle
-Installed the engine with the same 60 series radiator, and used the same water pump that had come off the old engine, I checked the water pump thoroughly and it looked perfectly fine and clean inside as it’s fairly new
- 2F Engine temps behave pretty much the same as the old F145 used to after I have flushed out this new engine probably 4 or 5 times
I’m officially out of ideas on what to do and I’m starting to tear out my hair, I’m sure the radiator is fine as it’s brand new and clean inside, the block of the new 2F I reverse flushed with a high pressure hose, and is perfectly clean now after a fair bit of crap came out. I did the same with the radiator and all was clean.
Maybe a long shot, but could a blocked exhaust cause engine overheating? The 2F has extractors and is running through a hot dog bolted to where the passenger side step used to be
Any ideas would be really appreciated
Kris
