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Sorry, some more questions!!!

Chris Mann

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Apr 5, 2010
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great_britain
Hey guys, its the novice asking questions again, sorry.

right, i'm looking into buying a 90. I've been reading various posts on here and am a little unsure of a few things.

Firstly, I was looking at getting an automatic but have read posts where people mention the head cracking usually after roughly 100,000 miles. Is this very common in auto's?? Does it happen in both auto's and manuals?? Is it expensive to repair??

Secondly, since reading about the head cracking in the auto's, ive looked at a few manuals. I've found one that i'm going to have a look at, it looks reasonable and its at a price i can afford. Its got 170,000 miles on the clock. Having this many miles on the clock, i'm a bit concerned at what might need attention, not work, etc, etc.

Seeing as you guys are the experts compared to me, can you guys give me some advice and guidance??

Cheers
Chris
 
Head cracking seems to be more autos than manuals. I posted a poll on this but once again must have been using that invisible ink. The auto shares its rad with the transmission and that MAY be the link to the cracking. I have not heard of a manual cracking. Mine shortie is manual and the temp on that is just right at 120k miles. Later autos were not a problem. There isn't a strict cut off date but certainly P, R, S plates did seem to have the issue. They are pretty good all round with very little nightmare stuff. If it looks a good un, drives a good un, guess what? It is a good un.
Expensive to repair - depends who does it and where you get the parts but in simple terms? Yes, expensive.

Without knowing more about what you are looking at, it can be hard to say



Chris
 
Chris,

Whats the best way to avoid the head cracking, regular maintenance ? or is it just wear and tear ?

Nick.
 
Could the head crack issue appear to be more common on auto's because there were more of them sold?

A crude check of all Colorado's for sale on Autotrader as of today says there are 36 Auto's and 10 Manuals available. So that indicates to me more autos were sold? And therefore any head crack of a KZTE is probably going to be on a auto - purely by chance?

Then again the manuals might all be going strong so nobody wants to sell 'em ! ;)

I say this even though I have an auto and the head cracked on mine :oops:

It was fairly costly (+-£1200) to fix , but my reasoning is if it lasts me a further 130000 miles then its worth it ..
 
I get the ratio thing, Kevin, but so far I have never heard of a manual cracking. Have a quick look at the thread on the 90 section. I don't think it's the engine, it's the cooling. It's the only difference. Keeping the engine properly cooled is crucial of course, Nick, but I dunno if it is completely preventable just be flushing, jetting the rad through, proper coolant etc.

Chris
 
Do the auto's have an aux cooler as well as the one in the bottom of the main radiator? If they don't then adding one of those would probably make the difference if it is a cooling problem - auto's do put a lot more load on the cooling system than a manual. OEM Temperature gauges are usually so vague that you could be running over temp most of the time and not realise it until it got really bad.
 
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How easy would it be to fit a decent temp guage ? and is it both water and oil cooling that's the issue, if so would it be possible to fit an additional oil cooler ?

Nick.
 
Don't think so Jon. It is the bottom of the main rad that supplies all of the cooling for the trans fluid other then via convection, radiation etc. People do seem to fit additional coolers, separate to the main radiator. I wonder if the OEM system actually ends up putting more heat into the engine rather then simply providing inadequate cooling. My first 90 cracked in four places. Whilst the temp gauge is not 'calibrated' as such, I can see mine go up on a long incline (like the one on the M1 North) with my quad on the back and down as soon as I go over the other side. It very clearly indicates rise and fall even if the units are purely arbitrary. Now what that looks like on an auto doing the same thing I don't know.

Chris
 
It would be just the auto box oil that would benefit from an additional cooler and you patch them into the existing cooler lines at the radiator so it's usually a simple job but I don't have a 90 and i've never worked on that end of one. I'm not saying it will stop the head cracking just suggesting it as a possible solution if Chris' observation about it always being autos turns out to be correct. The auto dumps a lot of extra heat into the radiator and because it gets much hotter than a manual box doesn't make a nice big heat sink for the engine either in fact it's possible that heat transfer is in the opposite direction.

Usually the OEM temp gauges have a big dead zone with a small movement above the normal position indicating a bigger engine temperature rise. I say usually because there are always exceptions and the gauges can often be modified to remove the dead zone but on a stock OEM gauge I'd want to investigate any movement especially at speed with lots of air flow through the radiator. Not only is the engine getting too hot but the change in temperature is very stressful isn't it.
 
Whilst towing the caravan last week I purposely kept my eye on the temp guage, and it didn't budge once, not even on inclines (M1 North) it sits just below half way! Can't think at the mo but don't suppose there's even enough room for a kenlowe fan is there with thermo included for additional cooling !
Nick.
 
Battered and Blue said:
I get the ratio thing, Kevin, but so far I have never heard of a manual cracking. Have a quick look at the thread on the 90 section.

I see the poll on the 90 section shows 4 Auto's to 1 Manual...

That's pretty close to 3.6/1 ;)

Granted, very very small sample size ...! :)

I've heard recommendations to fit an EGT gauge. Also I have heard of people increasing the number of cores in the radiator. (They were going to use a UK spec car permanently in Africa where its much hotter.) Or would it just be better to keep an eagle-eye on an EGT gauge..
 
Problem is that I know of at least 4 other autos that have cracked but I can only vote once - and those people are not on this forum and don't have the cars anymore. Bit of a duff poll, but there are definitely more owners on here who have had this than have voted!

Chris
 
so far... my 83k mile auto colorado - yr2000 is ok.... I replaced the rad last year, as a precaution - in case the auto oil cooler was corroding.
previous vehicle a 4runner, had done 180k miles and still going strong - a mate owns it - it also has the KZN130 engine, my mechanical injection, not electronic
and head was ok on that
 
Jon Wildsmith said:
Do the auto's have an aux cooler as well as the one in the bottom of the main radiator? If they don't then adding one of those would probably make the difference if it is a cooling problem - auto's do put a lot more load on the cooling system than a manual. OEM Temperature gauges are usually so vague that you could be running over temp most of the time and not realise it until it got really bad.


This has been discussed before and I think that the jury is still out as to weather it will effect the running temp of the box, ie does the engine temp increase the trans temp quicker thus getting the oil up to running temp quicker and would the trans oil temp really affect the engine temp?

As for gauges I have found that the Toyota one is good enough, mine has done 160000 miles with no cracked head or rad problems. Granted I do not do much towing nor do I thrash her but she does a lot off-roading in low range and spends a lot of time stationary and ticking over.

Steve
 
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