Colorado Overheating

[Elbert]

with a thick glove, lightly hold the fan blade and have someone fire up the rig. when it gets warm, the fan should pull out of your hands. if you can easily hold it, the clutch is bad. as steve mentioned, when you're pulling the mountains, it will sound like a jet engine...first time mine kicked on, it scared the crap out of me.

I would not advise trying to hold the fan while the engine is running? Never seen this in any shop manual...

Generally shop manauals describe a test about getting the engine to operating temp, and then shut engine off and see how hard fan is to move by hand.

 

[satchel]

I mentioned Colorado because I was hoping to get the attention of those people that drive the passes trying to get up to Vail and such. That is the only time it overheats for me. Anyway, I haven't made much progress. Hopefully I will this week. I flushed the radiator, changed the fan clutch, previously changed the thermostat and I've been adjusting the timing a little to see if that helps at all. Nothing seems to help. I have a radiator ordered and am hoping to install it later this week, and I will give an update when that gets done. I hope I didn't blow a head gasket or something. I don't have any coolant in my oil or oil in my coolant and it doesn't sound any different or anything, but I have noticed that when starting the truck, if I leave the radiator cap off it starts to run out some. It's not spewing by any means, but is slowly coming out the top. Don't know if this is normal, but I heard that if it spews out doing this then it is likely a head gasket and compression is getting into the radiator. I think what it is doing is probably normal. Any thoughts from anyone out there.

 

[Front Range 4x4]

Just a thought since you mentioned the thermostat, I can't recall the specifics (search) but do recall there's something different about cruiser thermostats regarding gaskets as I recall. Might want to be sure you installed it and the gaskets correctly.

 

[satchel]

I'm pretty sure there isn't anything wrong with the thermo gasket. For one, I would think that it would overheat all the time if it had anything to do with that (maybe not), and two, it was overheating before I changed it as well. Maybe I'll look back into that after I change out the radiator if it is still overheating. I'll probably take it into a shop to do compression testing at that point though. I did have a lot of problems with the thermo gasket when we changed it out though. The typical ones we got from Autozone were a plastic style that squeezed out of the thermo when it was tightened down and would cause it to leak. We ended up cutting our own gasket and it has been fine since.

 

[Front Range 4x4]

Yeah, good point. It would affect it at all temps.

 

[TBIFJ40]

Check thermostat, make sure you dont have an air bubble in the cooling system, and do you have a SHROUD on your radiator...they make a HUGE difference. (assures the air is pulled thru the radiator) Make sure your cats arent plugged, causing the engine to run too high a temp.

 

[satchel]

I have checked my thermostat, it was changed a couple of months ago. I probably do need to burp my system, but I will have to wait until the new radiator is in anyway. I thought about the cats as well, and haven't done anything with them. I figured I would start with the normal cooling problems and go from there. Good ideas though, I guess I'll move to them after replacing the rad if it doesn't fix it. I'm just a little worried it could be a head gasket and would hate to start changing all these things out if it is a head gasket. I think my next route will be a compression test if the rad doesn't fix it.

 

[satchel]

And yes, my shroud is on.

 

[ballardcruiser]

Thought I'd chime in... I just drove my FJ62 for 2700 miles, from Santa Barbara, CA to Bellingham, WA and back. We got back on Saturday (my back is still sore). I replaced the radiator days before the trip (new radiator from Performance, new hoses from Cruiser Dan), and the thermostat was recently changed as well. The car is stock aside from OME suspension and 31" BFG ATs.

We hit temps of up to 109 degrees north of Sacramento (we got up to 70 mph during this miserable stretch). We hit the pass outside of Ashland, Oregon when it was in its 90s. The AC was on a lot and not once did the Cruiser's temp gauge ever go beyond 3/4ths of the way up. Mostly it was dead in the middle of the temp range.

I should also note that up that pass near Ashland, the Cruiser refused to go beyond 35 mph (and the summit is probably <3000 feet up). But we made it, it never overheated and we got home safely. We also had a ski storage container on the roof and a few hundred pounds of dogs / luggage in the car.

 

[TBIFJ40]

hmmmm yeah the burping could be a real issue....anytime you dont have adequate pressure in the system it'll overheat. I think youre on the right track!

 

[nakman]

Your coolant behavior with the cap off sounds normal to me..

Have you tried any type of actual temperature reading? Or are you still just going off of the dashboard gage? Those things can load up with corrosion, right?

It might be worth while to splice in a little sender and pull some actual readings.. a lot easier than swapping the radiator or pulling the head. Just a thought.. ok back to OBD2 land for me they only let me post in here once per year.. i admit the Colorado title sucked me in...

 

[TemboTusk]

"The AC was on a lot and not once did the Cruiser's temp gauge ever go beyond 3/4ths of the way up. Mostly it was dead in the middle of the temp range. "


I have a standard Toyota gage along with an aftermarket temp gage. As a guide, when the Toyota gage reads 1/4, the temp is about 180 degrees, at 1/2 the gage reads 200 degrees and when it reaches 3/4s the temp is 220 degrees. Just below the red zone, the temp is nearing 235 to 240 degrees. These temps were compared to not only the after market gage, but also to a digital infrared gage.

 

[satchel]

I haven't put a thermal gun or any other gauge on there to test it, and that is a good idea, but I don't think the gauge is acting up. The thing is rock solid until I try to go up a mountain and then it just slowly climbs up into the red. It does have that problem every now and then where the temp and fuel gauges spike and come back down to normal (happens more when the fuel tank is full) within about five or ten seconds but I know that those are just false readings, need to get back there and scrub on the ground on the fuel gauge. It's pretty funny though, because if I do let anyone else drive it I have to tell them to watch carefully for overheating, but if it overheats real fast and comes back down it is just the gauge. Keeps the wife from wanting to drive it! I've noticed the fuel gauge also goes to E at about a half a tank and stays there, I don't know if this will be fixed when I work on that ground or not, but I'm hoping it will. I have a feeling that may be a problem with the fuel sending unit.

 

[rover67]

1967 tlc, I can confirm that your numbers on the standard gage are good FWIW. I checked mine also and it is what I found.

 

[jvazquez53]

I am having some heating issues with my 60. I had the radiator professionally cleaned, put in a new thermostat (190 degrees), mixed the coolant 50/50, and the truck started to overheat. The gauge was about to to hit the hot area. I had the system burped, still overheating, the fan clutch is working fine. Last thing I did was remove the thermostat, that help a little. Now if I don't hit a traffic jam or go uphill. The Haynes manual mentions that the engine block could be clogged, is this possible or common? Also, my vehicle does not have a heater.

 

[Elbert]

If you truck has a lot of miles and no other obvious signs of issues related to cooling, then you need to look hard at the fan clutch. Or suspect the radiator is clogged or surface area restricted by crap.

 

[satchel]

Update**

I changed out the radiator last night. After changing it out I filled up all the coolant and transmission fluid (haven't burped it yet) and fired her up and I noticed a difference in how it accelerates (in park, haven't driven it yet). If I press the gas somewhat normal then it will accelerate fine, however if I stomp on the throttle the rpm's dive about 400 rpm and then recover and it accelerates. I've never noticed this before and can't imagine that anything I did to it would cause this. Maybe I tightened a belt a little too tight? They certainly are not loose! Hopefully I'll get a chance tonight or tomorrow to take it up a steep hill and see if it overheats or not.

 

[satchel]

New Problems

Ok, finally got the chance to take the truck up into the mountains and it is cooling better but still getting hot. I'm not going to work on that anymore because it is only acting up when I'm getting on it going up the mountains and I guess I can live with it going 25 mph and not overheating and saving my money for something else instead of trying to track down this problem. Anyway, new problems now. After getting up to our camping spot and letting it sit for a day, I tried to start it up and it wasn't wanting to. It would turn over once and fire quickly and then die, all within a second, not like I was running out of gas, but more like I turned the ignition on real quick and turned it back off again. Usually it will turn over for about 2 seconds and then fire up, but for some reason lately, and not all the time but about half the time, I have to try to start it about 6 times and finally it will start up. I have no clue what this could be but am worried it may leave me stranded one of these days.

 

[JLH911]

"The AC was on a lot and not once did the Cruiser's temp gauge ever go beyond 3/4ths of the way up. Mostly it was dead in the middle of the temp range. "


I have a standard Toyota gage along with an aftermarket temp gage. As a guide, when the Toyota gage reads 1/4, the temp is about 180 degrees, at 1/2 the gage reads 200 degrees and when it reaches 3/4s the temp is 220 degrees. Just below the red zone, the temp is nearing 235 to 240 degrees. These temps were compared to not only the after market gage, but also to a digital infrared gage.

Sorry for the hijack...where did you connect your mechanical water temperature sender to on the engine? I too want to keep the stock gauge and I'm adding a mech. one too.

Thanks

 

[jvazquez53]

My Sunpro gauge installation instructions shows that to run two gauges you have to get a "T " type brass nipple that the bottom part of the connects to where the OEM sending unit connects. Then you connect the two sending units to the remainder hole in the nipple.

PS. Don't forget to use anti seize tape or lube.