Prado LJ78 Radiator upgrades/mods???????? (1 Viewer)

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Jan 14, 2016
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haiti
I have a 1990 LJ78 and my radiator needs to be replace. I'm thinking of buying this radiator on ebay TOYOTA SURF HILUX 2.4 2.0 LN130 all aluminum Radiator with oil cooler AT/MT I'm not too much of an expert on cars but can someone please tell me if this radiator will be compatible for my LJ78? Also, can tell me if the transmission cooler work on my car and is there anything extra I need beside the actual radiator itself that I need to buy to make the connections with the transmission oil?

Thanks everyone your advice has help a lot in the past!
 
thx @GTSSportCoupe
I think if I change it I would like to go with something bigger than stock. Is there anything out there you could recommend?

I looked for something bigger too, but no luck. I think a custom built alloy radiator is one option, or having your current radiator rebuilt with the thickest core possible.
 
It's been a while since I had a radiator re-cored. I remember it being relatively inexpensive. The fly in the ointment for the LJ78 would be the integrated transmission fluid cooler. Good luck. Let us know what you choose to do and how it turns out.
 
thx @GTSSportCoupe
I think if I change it I would like to go with something bigger than stock. Is there anything out there you could recommend?

hey Nick,

thx for the link for the radiator.
You said its not a perfect fit but it's ok. Are you saying it's not the best quality or it doesn't cool down the engine very well?
Atm my temp gauge starts climbing when I hit 600°f egt (before turbo) which is way to early I think. The last thing I haven't changed is the radiator as I thought it was alright but it isn't apparently.

You get what you pay for with that radiator. The core and end tanks are ok. Inlet/outlet and trans cooler stuff is all there. Basically it's the side brackets that are crude and a bit out of dimension compared to the Toyota original. Nothing that can't be worked with though.

As far as cooling goes it's been pretty good for me so far. Better than the good condition equivalent thickness (48mm?) copper temporary rad I had in the truck before it. However the original copper rad in my truck was 56mm thick (started loosing fins though) and it was great; thus I think if you could find a 56mm aluminum rad, that would be best.

With all normal driving with the ebay aluminum rad my temps are totally under control. I have done some towing with it (9000lb truck/trailer total weight), and my coolant temps did go up to around 205F. Those were not really long hills though. Later in the summer I can let you know more as I do more towing on longer trips.
 
@CRSWA , I purchased the same radiator as Nick and for the past 3 weeks it has worked fine. It has been well above 40 Celsius all week and my temps have been steady at 80 Celsius plus or minus 2. I'm still crossing my fingers with this purchase, but so far it appears to be functioning fine. I have not pulled anything yet, nor have I done any trails or "wheeling."

I rebuilt/recored my old brass rad for $400 and only got 3 years out of it. So I was not impressed by the only guy here in Vegas that does it. Not sure what the exact definition of re-core is, but here in Vegas, the guy just bought another radiator with the same dimensions and brazed my mounting bracket from the LJ onto the core from a 1990 4Runner & moved the inlet and capped the filler neck. A little too much Jerry Rigging in my opinion. I think it was the lazy man's route at a high price. If you have a good local radiator guy near you, I'd ask first, what his definition of "re-core" is. If it is stripping down a HILUX or 4Runner Radiator to adapt it to yours, I'd personally move on based on my experience.

I just rolled the dice with the "Winner" Rad from China. They shipped it DHL and it arrived in less than a week for $330 USD. Again, keeping my fingers crossed but so far, so good.

I did not have any issues with alignment/mounting on this one. Mine bolted right up. However, mine is a pre-1990 and the shroud mounting holes are different than the 1990 and after LJs. Also I run a larger diameter Isuzu Trooper Fan. One of these days I'll get around to doing a custom shroud.

Hope that helps.
Don

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@CRSWA , I purchased the same radiator as Nick and for the past 3 weeks it has worked fine. It has been well above 40 Celsius all week and my temps have been steady at 80 Celsius plus or minus 2. I'm still crossing my fingers with this purchase, but so far it appears to be functioning fine. I have not pulled anything yet, nor have I done any trails or "wheeling."

I rebuilt/recored my old brass rad for $400 and only got 3 years out of it. So I was not impressed by the only guy here in Vegas that does it. Not sure what the exact definition of re-core is, but here in Vegas, the guy just bought another radiator with the same dimensions and brazed my mounting bracket from the LJ onto the core from a 1990 4Runner & moved the inlet and capped the filler neck. A little too much Jerry Rigging in my opinion. I think it was the lazy man's route at a high price. If you have a good local radiator guy near you, I'd ask first, what his definition of "re-core" is. If it is stripping down a HILUX or 4Runner Radiator to adapt it to yours, I'd personally move on based on my experience.

I just rolled the dice with the "Winner" Rad from China. They shipped it DHL and it arrived in less than a week for $330 USD. Again, keeping my fingers crossed but so far, so good.

I did not have any issues with alignment/mounting on this one. Mine bolted right up. However, mine is a pre-1990 and the shroud mounting holes are different than the 1990 and after LJs. Also I run a larger diameter Isuzu Trooper Fan. One of these days I'll get around to doing a custom shroud.

Hope that helps.
Don

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thats great help. thx.
do you have any egt gauge mounted to tell what egts the radiator can handle till the engine starts to heat up?
 
@ToSc , I do have a digital EGT and digital Water Temp Gauge. It does help a lot having those.
It was 110F today and water temp indicated 42Celsius (ambient) before I started the LJ. It warms up to 80 Celsius on a day like today in 12-15 minutes.

Around town driving EGTs are 250C too 400C. Water Temp always seems to hang around 80 C.
My old radiator wasn't even losing any fluid noticeably. I just noticed calcium deposits and occasional water temp spikes into the 100 range for 1-4 seconds and the back to 80. The stock temp gauge never moved. So it is nice to have the digital back up or I really would not have noticed the problem until it was perhaps too late.

On a scary note, I have had EGT temps in the 700 range on 6% upgrades and the water temp wasn't even above 82 celsius. I don't feel comfortable with those EGTs, but I know the radiator is doing its job.
 
@ToSc , I do have a digital EGT and digital Water Temp Gauge. It does help a lot having those.
It was 110F today and water temp indicated 42Celsius (ambient) before I started the LJ. It warms up to 80 Celsius on a day like today in 12-15 minutes.

Around town driving EGTs are 250C too 400C. Water Temp always seems to hang around 80 C.
My old radiator wasn't even losing any fluid noticeably. I just noticed calcium deposits and occasional water temp spikes into the 100 range for 1-4 seconds and the back to 80. The stock temp gauge never moved. So it is nice to have the digital back up or I really would not have noticed the problem until it was perhaps too late.

On a scary note, I have had EGT temps in the 700 range on 6% upgrades and the water temp wasn't even above 82 celsius. I don't feel comfortable with those EGTs, but I know the radiator is doing its job.

it’s a little over a year now with that new radiator, was just wondering how it’s holding up for you. I am about to pull the trigger on one of those myself for my lj78. China appears to have cornered the market on replacement radiators for this series, and spending $300 or more on a recore here in Okinawa where the work is suspect makes me lean towards a China cheapee. I know what your thinking, he’s in Japan, the parts should be abundant and cheap. Not even close. I can pretty much buy most parts cheaper from anywhere than here.
 
it’s a little over a year now with that new radiator, was just wondering how it’s holding up for you. I am about to pull the trigger on one of those myself for my lj78. China appears to have cornered the market on replacement radiators for this series, and spending $300 or more on a recore here in Okinawa where the work is suspect makes me lean towards a China cheapee. I know what your thinking, he’s in Japan, the parts should be abundant and cheap. Not even close. I can pretty much buy most parts cheaper from anywhere than here.

I pulled out my Chinese aluminum one and replaced it with a custom re-cored original (four core, 60mm thick). The aluminum one cooled fine, but I despised how mine had such poor workmanship (welded crooked, and brackets way too deep compared to original). Anyhow, the aluminum one had not degraded at all over the time I'd used it.
 
I pulled out my Chinese aluminum one and replaced it with a custom re-cored original (four core, 60mm thick). The aluminum one cooled fine, but I despised how mine had such poor workmanship (welded crooked, and brackets way too deep compared to original). Anyhow, the aluminum one had not degraded at all over the time I'd used it.
ha ha I second that, my radiator is holding up fine, despite looking like a parallelogram, all on the piss, damaged cores out of the box, shoddy welding and brackets, its was cheap and cheerful and I am constantly checking it for leaks, Im saving for a custom jobbey as well but so far so good, had to drip some epoxy down the bottom join to stop a small leak and that was 3 months ago
 
Thank You both for your replies, I did not purchase a Chinese one, instead I took it to a shop here on the island and they did a full re-core on it. Waiting now on my silicone oil to show up so I can recondition the clutch. I did put a larger 8 bladed fan as was recommended here and other than having to cut the top of the shroud off and the fact that the clutch is not working the way it should it went smoothly. Undecided yet whether to just make an entire new shroud top from sheet metal or use the piece I trimmed and make an extension for it, probably will just fabricate a top piece. It definitely moves more air when the clutch works.

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@Copydoc, That re-core looks great! Much better than the hack that did mine first time around. I still have not gotten around to putting a larger shroud on mine. It is on my to do list, but this engine runs pretty cool at idle. I sat in line at the Tijuana Border for over 4 hours a few years ago and it was fine... In my humble opinion, the 2L-T only starts to get hot going up grades and boosting above 9 psi. Otherwise it seems to always be below 450 Celsius in "normal" driving around conditions. I'd put the shroud on the to do list, but I wouldn't stress about it either.
 
@Copydoc, That re-core looks great! Much better than the hack that did mine first time around. I still have not gotten around to putting a larger shroud on mine. It is on my to do list, but this engine runs pretty cool at idle. I sat in line at the Tijuana Border for over 4 hours a few years ago and it was fine... In my humble opinion, the 2L-T only starts to get hot going up grades and boosting above 9 psi. Otherwise it seems to always be below 450 Celsius in "normal" driving around conditions. I'd put the shroud on the to do list, but I wouldn't stress about it either.
Yup, my thoughts as well. I’m an ex Navel tin bender so easy day when I get to it. Next on my priority is to fix the leak from the heater inside at the firewall where the return line goes through. There is a grommet there (90480-01301) that has pretty much been discounted everywhere I’ve looked and of course the diagrams for that side of the heater plumbing is pretty sketchy and it’s probably one of the most difficult locations to get to as it will probably require removing the dash. UGH! Don’t really need a heater in Okinawa anyway.
 
@Copydoc , I've got some heater work to do as well. I currently have manual heating (meaning I have to pop open my hood and manually move the valve. The cable from the dash seems to be binding somewhere) Another thing on the to do list. No Leaks from the Heater Core as of yet, thank god. Let us know how the Heater Core job works out. Always good to hear about the successes and gotchas!
 

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