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- #21
Hello @Tigris and all. It’s been a while but I have found the time to look deeper into the cooling issue on my LJ73. I did come back from central France up to Belgium, 600 km, with the truck as it was. I had checked the coolant level in the expansion tank, was a bit low, topped it off. Didn’t seem to make a difference. On that trip it got hot crossing the Morvan hills (a very old mountain range, peaks around 1,000m) so I stopped a couple of times. Rest of the way was on surface roads, I took it easy, and once in Northern France the outside temps made it safe to drive 90-95 km/h without an issue. Once home, I received the advice of a mechanic friend from the Netherlands (who swears by Toyotas — he worked for the roadside assistance for years) that the radiator didn’t look well — some of the surface was dented in, which may have prevented optimal cooling. Cutting the crap, I bought a new radiator and we installed it yesterday. Whilst at it, we also checked the thermostat operation and it was NG. Did not open in hot water. So we replaced that too. Drove home from Holland (250km) and the temp gauge stayed in the smack middle despite me verging on 110 km/h most of the time. Bingo!Beautiful Cruiser and scenery!
Yes just ease off the skinny pedal going uphill until we get to the bottom of this overheating issue.
BTW if you haven't already, consider changing to a Toyota low temp thermostat. If your overheating occurs while you are moving at a good speed (say above 50km/h) then the incoming air volume and speed should be sufficient for adequate cooling. But that's only if the coolant, radiator, cap, thermostat, pump and passages are in very good shape
Keep us updated.