radiator over heating

[mitch86]

i have a 94 suzuki vitara swb carby.


daily road driving is fine. but when i go 4 x 4 my car over heats quite fast with just a few short bursts of acceleration.

i took out the thermestat and tried it running with coolant full time. which helped a bit. but its winter and my car wont warm up for daily driving.

then last week bought a new thermastat and tried it 4 x 4. and started to climb fast as per usual to over heating.

is there anything i can do to make it more effieficent?

[1Lzook]

here is just a few suggestions
there are many things that can corse a car to overheat,

- flush ure radiator,
- install an electric thermo to turn on when off road or in traffic
- use a anti freeze anti boil coolant
- drill a couple of holes in ure thermastat to allow a constant flow of water but at the same time still allowing ure car to get to an ideal running temp
- check radiator cap, a simple thing like a cap can course a car to overheat

there just a few things u could do, im sure there are many more options but i would start with the simple stuff and see how it goes

[Dee 4x4]

I had the same problems in my Sierra. Any medium effort work in 1st and 2nd would cause the car to start overheating and I'd have to pull over and wait. Really damn annoying.

Since you know that it works on the road, this indicates that there's definately a problem with air flow over the radiator because at low speeds you're barely getting any flow.

I did a full coolant flush with some $35 coolant premix (most expensive supercheap had) which is a high performance coolant. I then replaced my 8" thermo fan with a 13" thermo fan which blows a hell of a lot more air over the radiator and covers the whole thing rathen than 2/3.

This combination proved bulletproof on my next outing out. The temp guage didn't budge. Both tasks are things you can do at home if you have a spare day and maybe a mate to help out.

[joeblow]

10 bucks your core is blocked.spend a 100 bucks getting the thing pulled apart and cleaned out.

[Nev]

im with joe...in stock form 4wding or road driving they don't need thermos to keep their cool...theres obviously a problem with some part of the cooling system not doing its job...id just get a reco or new one and be done with it...they're cheap enough and gives you piece of mind and longer engine life...well worth it in my opinion

[mitch86]

thanx yeah i tried the :

flush
new coolant
taking thermostat out = still the same

but that core thing sounds the way.

where abouts would this bloackage be? possible to do at home or needs to be done by a mechanic?

thanx heaps hey!!!

[mitch86]

thanx yeah i tried the :

flush
new coolant
taking thermostat out = still the same

but that core thing sounds the way.

where abouts would this bloackage be? possible to do at home or needs to be done by a mechanic?

thanx heaps hey!!!

[joeblow]

take it to a good radiator joint so they can pull it apart.

[josh9465]

ive put a new water pump and new radiator. i had a cast iron blade. the new pump has pressed metal.

tested going crawling with a/c on...........no overheat. needle doesnt rise above 1/3. now sits at 1/4 from the bottom during normal driving.

i had the same problem with overheating whilst going slow and also driving at 100km/h

was going to put in a thermo fan. but ill wait till summer comes and see if i have any heating problems.

[lay80n]

Standard cars used in normal application should not need thermo-fans. Remember that hiding a problem doesnt fix it.

Layto....

[Guy]

moddified cars with good cooling systems dont need thermo's ( well I didnt) with a 1.3 rad cooling a 1.6