Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Thanks everyone for the replies.

When I idled it from cold, if I had to guess, it took maybe 10mins to get to the point where I decided it was too hot and shut it down.
I felt both the top and bottom pipes from the rad and they were almost equal heat, the bottom one might have been a little warmer though.
What I did notice was when I was feeling the pipes, I first touched the top pipe very close to the thermostat and it was flippen hot, so much so that there were expletives shouted when I touched it, so it seems the thermostat housing gets extremely hot!

I'll pull the thermostat out this week and chuck it in some boiling water and see what it does.

I was really hoping the cause was a dud rad cap, but the more I think of it, and reading here, it sounds like its just doing its job.
I'll check the oil filler as well this week and see if theres any mayo in there.

Morning guys,

So the break in rain gave me a chance to fiddle on the patrol. I pulled the thermostat out (after pealing layers of silicon off from the housing to get it free!).
The thermo opens in boiling water, so not the culprit.
I then wanted to make sure water was being pumped so I started her, let her idle for a second and shut down.
There was water that came into the thermostat housing, BUT the water had white foam ontop of it,kind of like a beer's foam. It didn't have any oily consistency to it though.
I can't put it all together now cos I broke the gasket that seems to fit in the thermo housing.

I'm thinking it might be best to truck the problem to Graham in pta to sort out. I don't know what to do now.

Edit: there's no sign of milkyness in the oil filler cap

Once you have it all together, check for bubbles in the water...

Peter Connan wrote:Once you have it all together, check for bubbles in the water...

Yip, will do. I'm going to get a thermo and rad cap this week and will put it all together and see.

Graham its not a big job to replace water pump while you at it and if that 's not working then it might be the fearfull headgasket :

Righto, Saturday morning update.
I installed the new thermostat and radiator cap. My little test on the radiator cap passed this time compared to the old one - blowing through the pipe from the reservoir there was no air leak at the cap with the new one, so a good start.

Started her up, let her idle for 15 mins, watching everything. The temp came up and sat at a quarter or so, just like it used to. Happy days.
So I left her idling, went inside, got my phone and came out, ready to take her for a drive, all of a sudden there was a puddle underneath, and dripping profusely.
Freaken water pump is leaking.

Im gonna have to contact Graham and get this thing to him to sort out, I cant do a water pump fix now. So now the mission of finding a flat bed to get this heap of junk to him.

Damn cars!

Well it looks like you find your problem....why dont you just get the waterpump done in durban ? Flatbed for such a minor job will cost pleanty ... one of my mates down there can do it for you ?

Oops. I must change my profile.
We're back in jhb now. In radiokop.

Ordinarily I would tackle this myself over a couple weekends, but we're moving to our new house in Harties next weekend, so I need the patrol sorted by someone else this time.

Cool then speak to graham he is on your front stoep in valhalla

Tinus lotz wrote:Cool then speak to graham he is on your front stoep in valhalla

Yup, will be good to get it to graham for him to do a good once over of the thing anyway, just the hack of organising a flat bed this week now.

Thanks again for all the input!