[hz_350]

Howd your warranty claim go

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[festy]

Howd your warranty claim go

Oh right, back to the alternator issue...

Before I try my chances with a warranty claim I needed to sort out a temporary alternator. Lucky for me, I too had an old alternator sitting on a shelf that I'd replaced because the shaft was pretty worn from the vacuum pump oil seal lip.

I gave it a half-hearted clean up to try and give the seal a chance of doing its job, and fitted an under-sized oil seal for good measure.

After reassembly I went to compare my current alternator with this one to make sure they were roughly the same, when I noticed this:

Bugger, thermostat housing is leaking.
At least I shouldn't have any dramas with that long bolt this time

 

[JFF45]

You sure that's not coolant coming out between timing cover and backing plate? It's another common TD42 leak area. I've just done mine, took the engine out to make it easier to do properly.

 

[festy]

You sure that's not coolant coming out between timing cover and backing plate? It's another common TD42 leak area. I've just done mine, took the engine out to make it easier to do properly.

I hope not, but that would be just my luck

I cleaned the coolant off and checked a day or two later and sure enough there was two small puddles again.

I thought I may as well replace all the bolts as well as the gaskets, last time I didn't have all the right bolts and had to make up a spacer for one and re-use another.

Parts ready to go:

Once disassembled I checked for signs of gasket failure, but nothing obvious. Possibly one of the lower horizontal bolts wasn't torqued up properly - I was nervous of the condition of the threads so was pretty conservative last time.

I cleaned up the surfaces and applied a thin coat of Permatex form-a-gasket and put it back together, and anti-seize liberally applied to the threads.

No signs of leaking after the first few drives, but I'll be keeping a close eye on it for a while.

 

[festy]

I checked for signs of leaks as soon as I got home this afternoon after a 30 minute drive, still no little green puddles.
I could hear a very faint hissing from that area though
It wasn't coming from the heater or radiator hoses so I was starting to get worried, then I bumped the radiator cap and it immediately stopped.

So now I'm wondering if I should replace the radiator cap, or the whole radiator while I'm at it...
I currently have a ~35mm thick alloy radiator with plastic tanks - which I'm lead to believe more or less matches the OEM TD42 type.
Are the original radiators still up to the job once fuel pumps and turbos are upgraded, or should I be looking at something with more cooling capacity?

 

[JFF45]

I used an all alloy 52mm thick rad with my conversion. Added the G35 fan later with 50ml silicone in the hub. Using 77 degree thermostat.
I have absolutely no overheating issues at all even with 2.5t caravan behind.

 

[festy]

Thanks - good to know those ebay ones are capable, and they're not a step backwards at least.
I've got a new decent quality hub and standard GU fan, and have only ever had one overheating issue which I think was down to overfuelling and a slipping clutch and a very long, steep climb.

Every time I'm working in the engine bay I'm nervous about accidentally leaning on the top coolant tank and cracking it, so would almost be worth replacing with an all alloy one just for that reason alone

 

[festy]

Anyway, back to that alternator...

With the coolant leak hopefully addressed, I swapped the alternators out and all was good, no oil leaks from the vac pump seal but not quite enough vacuum either. I pulled the alternator back off and re-rebuilt the pump (lucky I bought two of each seal) and it was a bit better, but still runs out of vacuum with repeated use of the pedals.

I messaged auto8 describing the issue with their alternator along with some photos, and asked about their warranty claim process.
While waiting for a reply I found their warranty T&Cs on another of their ads, and got the impression this is going to be a long and drawn out process :anger:

In preparation for that I ordered a $125 alternator that looks to be identical from a local seller, and assuming auto8 eventually come to the party with the warranty I'll keep that as a spare for when my new one dies

They still haven't responded to my message, but at least I'm not in a mad rush to get it replaced now.

 

[hz_350]

My $365 jaylec alt has just poood itself grrr gotta go back to patrolapart i guess. I hate these vac pump alts i cant seem to get a good 1. I wish i could get a hitachi

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[festy]

My $365 jaylec alt has just poood itself grrr gotta go back to patrolapart i guess. I hate these vac pump alts i cant seem to get a good 1. I wish i could get a hitachi

Yeah I haven't had a great run with the vac pump alternators either, although the 90a OEX on my GQ only needed the seals replacing once or twice in 100k.

I don't expect my new $125 alternator to last, I'm thinking next time I'll fit an electric vacuum pump which will open up my options.
I've got a nice big 130a Bosch alternator here that I think I could make fit the TD42 without too much trouble...

 

[festy]

We towed our camper down to Yarrangobilly for the long weekend - roughly a 1000km round trip, and had a few issues keeping the TD42 cool.

Cruising down the highway at 100km/h in 4th is comfortable enough thanks to the 315s helping the gearing, but I was having to drive up even the smallest hills by the temperature gauge.
The factory gauge never moved off half way, but the sender in the top radiator hose would rarely show below 90*, and was a constant battle to keep from climbing above 100*.

The trip home was worse, it was a pretty nervous 5 hours. I jumped online and ordered a new radiator as soon as I walked in the door.
This morning I found that the expansion bottle is full, and the radiator took almost 4L (it was full when I replaced the radiator cap before I left home on Friday).

I also noticed some coolant stains on top of the timing cover,

You sure that's not coolant coming out between timing cover and backing plate? It's another common TD42 leak area. I've just done mine, took the engine out to make it easier to do properly.

looks like JFF45 nailed it

I'm assuming that is causing the system to not suck coolant back in from the expansion tank as it cools because sucking air in through the leak is easier, which would explain the low coolant level and the overflowing tank.

Replacing the timing cover seals looks like a pretty involved job, probably a full weekend and that's if there were no surprises.
I'll replace the water pump at the same time (it's on the to-do list anyway) and I'd probably look to replace the timing cover too, because I'm sure it will need a new one
I'm not sure when I'll tackle the job, this is my daily so the long weekend would have been an ideal time

 

[JFF45]

Not sucking the coolant back in could simply be the rad cap.

To do my timing cover plate leak, I took the engine out because I just couldn't see myself doing a proper job leaning over the front bar.

I posted a few pics of the work in my conversion thread. It's an o'ring issue very similar to what happens with the thermostat housing.

 

[hz_350]

It would be a job in itself just getting the cone lock out while the motor is still in the car

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[JFF45]

It would be a job in itself just getting the cone lock out while the motor is still in the car

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Not to mention trying to undo and redo the 55mm nut @ 500 nm on the turbo engines with auto trans..

 

[festy]

Not sucking the coolant back in could simply be the rad cap.

It's a brand new cap, I replaced it because I thought the original one wasn't sealing properly.
I guess I'll find out when I fit the new radiator and cap in a few days.

To do my timing cover plate leak, I took the engine out because I just couldn't see myself doing a proper job leaning over the front bar.

I posted a few pics of the work in my conversion thread. It's an o'ring issue very similar to what happens with the thermostat housing.

Thanks, I've already read through your posts and can see the benefit to pulling the engine - but its not an option for me here. Its times like this when I miss my big shed the most

It would be a job in itself just getting the cone lock out while the motor is still in the car

The Gregorys manual says to release the cone lock you just remove the nut, loosely put it back on reversed, and tap with a soft face hammer. Are they being a bit optimistic?
The procedure in the book is for doing it with the engine in place, but if it really is more of an engine out job then I'll have to leave it to the local mechanics I think.

 

[festy]

The radiator arrived yesterday. Looks like they spent more time polishing the end tanks than they did de-burring the holes and cleaning up the welds

And so much for this being a 3 row radiator
My (possibly incorrect) understanding of '3 rows' was that the coolant has to pass through 3 different rows on its journey through the radiator, this would need the top and bottom tank to have a baffle each - in which case I shouldn't be able to poke a wire in the top hose port and feed it through to the radiator cap 2/3 the way along the core... but I can.

Or do they mean the core just has 3 rows of tubes in parallel, and the coolant only has to pass through any one row from the top to bottom tank? Except that this core only has 2 rows of tubes.

Is this typical of the cheap aluminium TD42 radiators, or have others actually received a 3 row radiator as advertised?
The listing for this one states "3 Row 3 Core" but it seems pretty obvious that its not.

 

[hz_350]

Yes your incorrect your thinking of a tripple pass. Every row of tubes is a core. 3 tubes is 3 core 2 tubes 2 core. Imo 2 larger core are better than 3 or 4 core. Make sure you have the right cap on it

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[festy]

Thanks - I wasn't sure of the terminology but 'pass' makes sense. In that case this one is a 2 row/2 core single pass, not a 3 row as advertised.
Any idea if the OEM radiators are single pass? The only radiators I've really looked closely at before are my 70's alfas, so I didn't realise that single pass radiators were even a thing :shock:

This radiator came with a 1.3 bar cap, I'll be replacing that with a 0.9 bar.

 

[hz_350]

Factory is 2 core single pass. To run a tripple pass needs alot more water pumping waters spending more time in radiator but also alot more time in the motor

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[festy]

Wow, it's been two years since I updated this thread

I finally got around to doing the timing cover earlier this year - I was going to be home for a week or two with a spare car, so a perfect opportunity.
It ended up taking me about a week. Everything was going smoothly, even got the crankshaft nut off without too much drama. My rattlegun has been on its last legs for a long time, so I took the opportunity to retire it and bought a new stubby but reasonably high torque model. It just fit in the gap between the engine and A/C condenser, and ugga-dugga-ed the nut off without too much fuss.

Next job - pop the balancer off. I remember asking here if the description in the manual was realistic - it turns out no, it wasn't

There's not much room to swing a hammer at the nose of the shaft while the engine is still in situ, but I gave it a go. Then I swapped the hammer for the heaviest lump of steel I could find, but I was buggered after a couple of swings.
So I came up with this brilliant idea, a brass hammer tool for my air chisel.

... which turned out to be useless, brass is not strong enough to dislodge the crankshaft pulley off the cone That was an hour or two wasted, but at least I'd had a chance to catch my breath again

After running out of ideas, I asked my BIL what I was doing wrong, (he'd done the timing cover in his GQ previously) - his advice was something like "you just have to hit it harder" :/

So day 3 of trying to get the damn pulley off, I moved the A/C condenser out of the way (hung it from the bonnet latch), dropped the winch out, and drilled a ~30mm hole through the bullbar behind the number plate, in line with the crankshaft. I then inserted a 1" solid bar through the hole, and belted the hell out of it with my big lump of steel. A couple of swings later, it finally popped off the cone.

I should probably add that I wasn't hitting the crankshaft nose directly, I'd made up a little mandrel to slip over the nose and protect the threads from damage. It looks a little secondhand now though, with a crack through the top plate from all the thumping.

Everything went smoothly from there (IIRC).
The water pump didn't look too bad (but was replaced anyway)

I was replacing all the usual studs, but was surprised to see the one behind the water pump looked pretty new. I really don't think the timing cover had been off in the last 20 years though...

The o rings on the timing cover looked like they may have been leaking just a little bit - but I would have been pretty annoyed to get this far to then find they were fine...

They'd certainly seen better days...

Re-assembly was much quicker, and amazingly I haven't had any coolant weeping out since