Another LJ78 head bites the dust...

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fish78

fish78

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Aug 1, 2006
Threads
26
Messages
115
Location
Whitehorse, YT
Took my new LJ78 out to Vancouver from Calgary this long weekend and blew the head, i think. Shes blowing alot of white smoke out the back and the coolant expansion tank looks like its filled with chocolate milk. I tried my best to baby the truck coming over the mountians, kept it under 3000 rpm the whole way, didnt break 100km/h. There were two times the temp gauge dipped into the red, so i pulled off the road immediatly and let her cool off before starting up again. When i got into vancouver the temp spiked again and i pulled over, and this time the coolant tank was puking out coolant. After that, the truck's been putting out alot of white smoke on start up and the coolant colour's a mess. I'm pretty sure the heads gone.

So, i've been talking with the toyota dealer i bought the truck from and they're going to cover the repair under their 30 day used car warranty. The only problem is that it's up to me to get the truck back to them. They gave me a number for a car courier company, so it'll cost me $480 to ship it home and it wont be able to go until the 18th. Then i'll have to buy a $150+ plane ticket home. So i don't know what to do. I could pack a few jugs of water and try to limp the truck slowly home, or i could ship it out. Any ideas? I'm kinda leaning to just trying to drive it home. I can put around town here without the temp being at unnacceptable levels, if i keep a real close eye on the temp going home, drive slow, and have the water to keep topping the rad up, maybe its do-able?
 
Uhhhh.....NO.

Sorry to rain on your plans. Book the plane ticket and get the dealer to pay the tow bill. You could seriously damage your cyl walls, rings, pistons, injectors - esp when you say your coolant looks like choc milk. What does your oil look like? Either way forget driving it and get it to a shop ASAP.


FWIW.

JOhnny
 
ugh.....

so who is the dealer willing to step up and fix this problem? i am happy for you that you don't have to pay the $5000.00 to fix it.

kudos to the dealer! please share who it is.

applause.gif
 
Yep, it's cooked. Ship it back, as others have said.

A couple things on these LJ78s:
1) When the needle hits the red, it's already hotter than it ever should be. Install a mech. temp gauge.
2) Check the clutch fan. There's a good chance your fan wasn't cooling the engine, which ultimately killed it.

I've decided to put an electric fan in my truck, with a three-way selector on the dash for on/off/thermo controlled.

That's a real bummer, though. Sounds like you did it in good! Good luck with the repair, etc.

Robin
 
hummm...
what to say...
i would ship it home and ask for a full refund. if i remember correctly they told you upfront there is NO issue with the heads on the 2LTE so then they should pay up...

but then i know what i would do...

sorry to hear the bad news, seriously, this sucks. i know how much you wanted the LJ78.

take a plane back, it isn't worth the frustration plus they might tell you that you abused it after not stopping when the problem first showed signs of happening.

cheers
 
Congratulations to the dealer who stands behind his product. Let us know the name so Cruiser buyers know who to trust.
 
actually i will take a different road.

unless the dealer is upfront warning the potential customer about the problem and acknowledges that there is a strong chance of this happening, warranty or not, it is still bull s*** in my book.
the story is that this dealer is telling people that the causes of the head cracking is "because they use water in Japan instead of antifreeze" and this is causing the cracking.

either way, this has lead to an unpleasent trip for this bloke.

also curious, what EGTs where you hitting on the drive out?

is it good that they are standing behind their sale? yes it is.
 
Fish78, I am sorry to hear your Prado's head went South.
Espesially when so far from home.. What a pain in the butt that is..
Hope you are able to have it covered by the dealer...
Good luck with it and I hope it all works out for you..
2 question >was the head an original or had it ever been replaced
prior to you owning the truck that you know of..??
>> How many KMs on your truck when head blew??
Just wondering out loud..

Light Duty
Robin what make type etc. of electric fan are you looking at?
Have you explored it's cooling capabilities?? what about room to fit it..??

Sorry for the minor hijack here. Saw Robins post so had to ask..
 
Hello fish78.

I think I passed you this weekend. I was on my way back from Calgary.
I waved, but I got the "who was that guy look?".
I always wave to cruisers.

Anyways, this sucks.
To be honest I am suprised they are covering it, if it was your fault.
My importer will not even help on things that were not my fault.
But thats another story.

One question.
When you pulled over, did you let it cool down while idleing?
Or why did you just shut it off?
It is very very very bad to shut a a diesel down hot!
I think I will make a thread about this.
If the cooling system works it best to idle it down.

Cheers,
Nick
 
Sorry to hear about your troubles...

If all these cracked heads are the result of a design flaw as many suggest, don't you think there would have been a re-call somewhere along the line. I can't see all the markets where these were originally sold just accepting such a major flaw. Seems weird to me.

If these head cracking is not an issue in Japan...what could it be it about Canada and Australia that is giving these engines so much trouble. Our driving habits? Our climate? Our Terrain? Elevation? The distance we drive? High Ash oils? Not allowing cool down? Great tasting beer??? Thinking I should get a survey going for all 2LT-II/2LTE owners and do some data mining....

However, from the posts I have read it seems a commonality that quite a number of 2LTE equipped Prados have met their demise right after some serious mountain climbs...the question is if it was the workout up the hill (ie too high EGT's, cooling system malfunctions) or prior treatment (ie not allowing proper cool-down that cracked the head BEFORE the trip) that is the root of breakdown at the top of the hill.

For what its worth, I haven't had any problems with my 2LT-II Surf in the 2 years of owning it and its been up and over the Coquihalla, Hope-Princeton, Rogers Pass and Anarchist (the climb out of Osoyoos is nasty!) a number of times. All I have done was flush the cooling system and replace the thermostat right after buying it. Blocked the EGR system at the intake manifold with a metal plate (now the EGR is totally removed and blocked at the exhaust manifold). Always idle for at least 60 seconds after ANY drive. It was also under fueled (ie slooooooow) for most of that 2 years until I messed with the IP in the spring so it might have had lower EGT's under full load going up said mountain passes than most of the other 2LTE's in the Prados. Haven't taken it up any big big hills since cranking up the fuel so we'll see what happens when that day comes.
 
Psilosin said:
If all these cracked heads are the result of a design flaw as many suggest, don't you think there would have been a re-call somewhere along the line. I can't see all the markets where these were originally sold just accepting such a major flaw. Seems weird to me.
Click to expand...

Include Europe in that group. There are some active discussion forums in the UK and this issue comes up time and time again from what I have seen.

Hmmm....new head is supposed be redesigned to have more meat between the valves from what I have read from others way more in the know then I. Toyota is known for constant tweaking and improving...just look at the length of run and changes in the 4* series. However...redesigned head: Sounds like there might have been a known issue?

Same thing with the connecting rod bearings on the 1HD-T's and brethren: I believe there were some dealers in Oz that covered some of the work. I believe the statement from dealers was that the bearings were redigned again at some point: Sounds like maybe a known issue? At one point common chatter was Japan vehicles were exempt from this, and it was the oils in Oz. 10-15 years later we now know this was pure bunk. Even some of the "new" OEM bearings show up with pitting now and then it seems.

Personal opinion: From everything that I am aware, it appears to be a weakness that is exacerbated by cooling systems that are not always at 100%, more susceptible in trucks with tighter engine bays, or heavy worked vehicles in a largish vehicle. Put the new head on the the "weakness" seems to be gone! There is just wayyyyy to much chatter all around the world of this being an issue, which leads to design.

My cdn 2 cents.

Bummer on the head. Don't drive it home, have it shipped.

gb
 
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There's been lots of discussion about this problem. Has it been decided if it's a design flaw, cooling system failure, or driver neglect?
 
personally, i feel it is a design flaw coupled with uninformed driving habits. i have watched the pyro sceam up very easily to 1400F and with the way Canadians drive their vehicles (MUCH different than the home country), hills, head winds coupled with the desire to keep up with the traffic and poor cooling system leads to immeniant head failure... the problem also is that under low rpm load the pyro climbs dramaticly in VERy short time frame and if you keep the rpms up then the cooling system can't keep up with the demands...
 
crushers said:
personally, i feel it is a design flaw coupled with uninformed driving habits. i have watched the pyro sceam up very easily to 1400F and with the way Canadians drive their vehicles (MUCH different than the home country), hills, head winds coupled with the desire to keep up with the traffic and poor cooling system leads to immeniant head failure... the problem also is that under low rpm load the pyro climbs dramaticly in VERy short time frame and if you keep the rpms up then the cooling system can't keep up with the demands...
Click to expand...

Thanks Wayne. You may be right about the combination. What seems strange to me is that heavy trucks haul big loads (sometimes over 63,000 kg, 140,000 lbs for the yanks) up all the mountain roads listed here. Basically, you get in the gear that will pull the load and keep your foot to the floor. The only time we ever used pyrometers is in the early '80s when some drivers put a bigger button in the fuel pump of a Cummins engine to supply more fuel and thus get more power. Then we had to watch the pyro under heavy pulls. Very few trucks nowadays even have pyrometers.

It would be good to get more discussion on this and also consider why fish78 is getting warranty. I'm certainly glad for him.
 
Hawke said:
Thanks Wayne. You may be right about the combination. What seems strange to me is that heavy trucks haul big loads (sometimes over 63,000 kg, 140,000 lbs for the yanks) up all the mountain roads listed here.

It would be good to get more discussion on this and also consider why fish78 is getting warranty. I'm certainly glad for him.
Click to expand...
the big trucks might be fueled to provide reliable performance or it could also be the HUGE exhaust they run and the much better cooling system.

the warranty could be because he asked specificly about the head problem and got a BS answer...maybe?
 
crushers said:
the warranty could be because he asked specificly about the head problem and got a BS answer...maybe?
Click to expand...

Good point.

This thread is a good chance to responsibly revisit the warranty issue from dealers. Can we have some input from previous posters on this specific breakdown without getting mean and nasty?
 
crushers said:
the big trucks might be fueled to provide reliable performance or it could also be the HUGE exhaust they run and the much better cooling system.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's as simple as they had well designed heads...

Where's our friend from England, who started the Surf board...some folks there have compared heads and noted changes. I believe he mentioned this in a few of his posts.

gb
 
Greg_B said:
Maybe it's as simple as they had well designed heads...
gb
Click to expand...
agreed
 
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