I'm in Chilliwack BC, Canada. The truck is a EX5, Auto, no goodies, 1990.....
Other than the Evans, and bigger fan... and maybe a good flush... what else can I do to upgrade the cooling... my truck seems to have a newer rad in the truck (not factory original), maybe it was put in a couple years back?
I had some drive shaft vibration getting on the freeway right after purchasing it, seemed to fad away after 10 min. I do want to pull them apart, check it out for a piece of mind.
On my last three suzukis I've always ditched the clutch fan and swapped in an electric always with awesome results. Have you heard of anyone doing this to the 2.4 head problem engines? I might give it a try but with a two speed two temp sensor setup and a buzzer alarm for the higher temp setting.
Also same with the EGT system, just bought a digital readout one on ebay with an alarm that can be preset to a temp.
I think I'm going to get a alarm system with a turbo timer as I live up on a mountain side and temps do climb right before I hit my driveway.
The reason for all the alarms and such is incase my wife is driving it as a reminder something is wrong.
Hey Jarrat, sounds like that truck is in good hands and you've got some good ideas.
To make the cooling as good as possible:
- make sure the whole system is clean and well maintained.
- Install a transmission cooler to help dump the heat. The transmission when out of lock-up generates a huge amount of heat which it dumps into the coolant. When you power the truck up a bit, you will be able to maintain lock up more, which will help keep every thing cool.
- The other thing I did that made a huge difference was put thicker silicone fluid into the viscous clutch. Made a huge difference. You can also shift the internals to make the clutch engage earlier.
- Also, I run an 82C thermostat, not the factory 88C one. This gives a lot of extra head room.
- Make sure the system is well bled and you are not loosing coolant anywhere.
- Never run the truck over half on the factory temp gauge. In my experience, this is where the localized boiling in the head starts; especially when under load and with high EGTs.
If you ditch the clutch fan and go electric, let us know how it works out. I'm curious.
Yeah, definitely get some gauges. Pyrometer, Boost, Coolant Temp, Trans Temp...
Turbo timer is a great idea if you run your truck hard right before you would shut it off. I don't have one, but I've taught my wife to not shut the motor off until the EGT's drop below 400F. After a hard run this can be a minute or two. The other thing that can happen if shutting the motor off after a hard run, is the coolant will boil in the head around the hot spots, and this will lead to a cracked head eventually (because it is no longer circulating when the engine shuts off). So never shut the engine off when it is hot. Always let it cool down to about 1/3 on the factory gauge before shutting off.
Good luck. Nice to have more Prado owners showing up. These trucks are really great machines, and would be way more expensive/popular if it were not for the engine heat challenges. So if you fix the heat problem, you've got a good rig for a good price.
