1997 Terrano II 2.4 X-Treme

[Wallace]

Bit of corrosion inside, not unexpected for a 21yr old car.

 

[Wallace]

In the shotblast for a bit of a clean up, holey moley.

 

[Wallace]

And one in the side of the main housing just to add insult to injury. :clap

 

[Wallace]

Luckily the casting is alloy and not die cast zinc so I decided to have a go at welding the holes up and that small hole had to go out quite a way before I could lay a reasonable bead.

 

[Wallace]

Was that one of the alloy ones? I've not seen one that bad before 7

With the right wire brush attachments I reckon you could bring that back to life as long as it hasn't pitted into holes :doh

It has pitted, I think it has been weeping and the bolt corrosion is the cause of the head shearing off. I'm attempting a repair! :lol

Turned up a new hose neck, almost starting to regret not making a complete new housing as welding the hole up was a pain.

 

[Blocky10]

Quality workmanship:thumb2
You may have several more to make when this lot see your efforts :lol

 

[Wallace]

Fitted the neck, linished the gasket face flat, spot faced the mounting holes for cap heads and cleaned everything up. All looked pretty good until I gave it another go over in the shotblast and a couple of gas holes showed up just where I don't want them. Job for the morning as I have a beer on the go.

 

[Wallace]

Quality workmanship:thumb2
You may have several more to make when this lot see your efforts :lol

Thanks. :thumb2 I rummaged through my alloy stocks that were to hand but couldn't find a big enough lump of alloy to make the main housing and nearly made one in steel but persevered with the original. Would have been quicker to make one! :lol

 

[solarman216]

New housings are still available, supplied one recently to a member, reasonable cost, Rick

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

Fitted the neck, linished the gasket face flat, spot faced the mounting holes for cap heads and cleaned everything up. All looked pretty good until I gave it another go over in the shotblast and a couple of gas holes showed up just where I don't want them. Job for the morning as I have a beer on the go.

Wow, that is very impressive work. Very nice job.:bow:clap

Out of the interests of completeness, I need to see the inside as well.:augie

 

[Wallace]

Wow, that is very impressive work. Very nice job.:bow:clap

Out of the interests of completeness, I need to see the inside as well.:augie

Thanks, there you go. Bit untidy inside but functional, it may get a rotary wire brush inside once I sort the blow holes out. I have a feeling the blow holes may win as I was chasing them for ages on the main body. :lol

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

I have to say I am very impressed.... I wish I could effect that sort of repairs... :bow:thumbs:thumbs

 

[Wallace]

I have to say I am very impressed.... I wish I could effect that sort of repairs... :bow:thumbs:thumbs

Thanks. :thumbs It's mostly down to having the right equipment available and an AC/DC Tig welder opened up a lot more options for fabrication and repair over my basic Mig welder. It was a time consuming process and I enjoyed the job but I should have just bought a new one or had a bit more of a dig about and found a piece of alloy big enough to make the body as chasing the corrosion and gas holes was time consuming. But I'm on holiday and it's my time to waste!

The new thermostat and housing is fitted now with stainless steel cap heads, I chased the last few gas holes out yesterday and tested the new thermostat against the old one in boiling water before fitting. The old thermostat opens fully and starts opening before the new one! I was hoping the old one would be the cause of my temperature problems as I'm still in head gasket denial.:augie

I flushed the block and radiator before fitting the thermostat housing, not much dirt came out but the flow through the radiator was not very good so I removed the bottom tank and it was very clean inside. I used a thin strip of brass to gently rod through each tube and they were all partially blocked.

Looks like this may be the overheating problem hence fixing the viscous coupling solid keeps the engine cool in traffic but not at a constant 60mph on the mptorway as cooling capacity is reduced. I will unfix the solid fan coupling today and try that on the truck before fitting the electric fans. (Still in head gasket denial!)

 

[Wallace]

Suck it and see day today, cut the locking straps off the viscous coupling and reassembled everything.

 

[Wallace]

A bit of bleeding and so far we have a stable gauge. I refitted the original Nissan temperature gauge sender and all seems tickety boo.

 

[Wallace]

Even Sooty is happy. :thumbs

 

[Wallace]

Checked for leaks today, none evident and the expansion tank has dropped back down to the max level. Put some miles on in varying traffic conditions, the warm up is better, heater good and temperature gauge stable. Happy days.

Electric fan conversion will have to wait until after the New Year so I can catch up on some other work.

 

[elty001]

Fingers crossed you've sorted out the hot running issue:thumb2

 

[Wallace]

Fingers crossed you've sorted out the hot running issue:thumb2

When my mate was driving it back in 2010 it was running a little higher up the gauge but not boiling, that's a recent thing after the lay up. He tried the gauge sensor as infrared readings showed nothing over 85-90°C on a warm day but ended up with two sensors that either read cold or hot as they were the wrong resistance. We drove it about locally and other than the gauge being a bit high it was fine and didn't boil even in warm weather then we parked it up in 2011 and I ran it up now and again to move it about.

Having had so much of it apart now what seems likely is the radiator had a small leak on the lower tank seal and quite possibly the corroded thermostat housing. The silt that came out was very pale so I suspect he kept topping the system up with water and slowly furred the radiator up with limescale and rust causing his slightly higher readings. Add some more corrosion from the 7 year lay up and I get the boiling problem.:doh

 

[Wallace]

Cooling system now seems to be tickety boo, I just need some workshop time to fit the electric cooling fans that were planned to replace the viscous fan to release all that power being sapped away. Unfortunately I think the heater matrix has suffered the same fate that blocked the radiator as the heat output in this cold weather is not exactly what I was expecting. Dreading the thought of taking the dashboard out I might try circulating some citric acid through the matrix as what was blocking the radiator seemed to be mainly lime scale.

The boot carpet seems to be damp and I thought that might be down to the roof aerial seal being rotten and after a fight with the trim and cable it would appear not to be leaking. Bought a pack of two (why 2 in a pack?) seals from PRC so I have to go through the battle again to replace my temporary motorcycle inner tube seal. Looks like I need to take a closer look at the door and window seals for leaks.

The washer bottle still needs removing to clean the debris out as the jets keep blocking. I ran gallons of clean water through the pump and it's still throwing out debris so more workshop time required.

The more I drive this truck the more I like it. Had a cruise along the A3 from Guildford after taking a guy from work to Guildford hospital. With 100kg of sheet steel in the back the ride was smooth and quiet doing 60mph, just wish it would do diesel mpg!