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Vg33 overheated. Need help


tr8er

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My Frontier just overheated going up a mountain. AC was on. I'm used to finding an empty coolant reservoir when this happens, but the coolant is bubbling over like mad. Any thoughts as to what to check? I'm on the side of the road, but loaded with tools.

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I'll check the cap. I just sat through 15 min. Stop and go traffic that should have shown a little heat, and nothing. Drove fine. AC off this time, no hill. Boiled off around 2.5 pints during that last fiasco. So I'm considering thermostat, AC compressor bearing, exhaust restriction, timing ( done 5K ago). I still need more Ratsun if you're feelin it.

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Fan shrouds increase the air flow efficiency at very low speeds or stopped.

Clutch fans limit the fan speeds at higher RPMs to around 1,500.

 

If climbing a mountain and going slower but revved up and working hard there will be less air flow from forward movement and also lots of fan slip. However Nissan would have covered this possibility. You should be able to idle all day in the desert with the air on high.

 

 

Check for a soft bottom return hose that will collapse from water pump suction at higher RPMs.

 

Belt tight? glazed or damaged?

 

Are you running anti freeze coolant?

 

If suspecting the thermostat... skip to the chase and replace. Spend over $6 for a good one, no $1.99 WallMart auto part.

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Right now it's water because I added on the road.  Overflow tank looked brown nasty.  Im quite certain the po used water and Ive got plenty rusty water.  I'd like to hear suggestions on what to do to get it to a good place now that the damage has been done.  I'm interested in having the truck run a while.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I neglected the truck cause 510. Gave me more trouble today. Traffic caused heat, and AC made it worse. Sounds like it's not effectively cooling normal operation. No surprise here. I'll need to flush the radiator this week.

 

Oh and fuck traffic!

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  • 5 months later...

Now, I will attempt to close out this thread and make it helpful to the next overheater.  

 

This is the state of the coolant passages in this used truck I now own.  Awesome!

6579CEE6-8455-4252-9345-0A6E58AC535C_1.j

 

So I flushed it three times with industrial strength car draino stuff.  Tried to get all that crud out.  

 

Found a leaking hose (tiny) and replaced it.  Didn't fix the problem.

 

Then I checked the radiator cap and noticed that the rubber seal was old and could be leaking.  So I replaced it, but this was not "the solution" either.

 

Then I replaced the thermostat (got a good one.)  The problem persisted.

 

Next I found another leaking hose and replaced it.  This was likely due to the increase in pressure from replacing the rad cap.  Not the problem though.

 

Lastly, after all of this I was moments from taking my mechanics advise to replace the radiator due to the crud I found reducing it's ability to cool water.  Though I decided to take the fathers old resonating advise (fix the easy/cheap possibility first).  I replaced the fan clutch.  Problem solved!

 

My clutch had resistance.  If I spun it by hand it would only make around half of a rotation before stopping.  When I started the engine it ran fast for several seconds before calming down.  People told me that that was how to test the fan clutch, and though it passed those tests, it is very clear that replacing the clutch solved the problem completely.  So do not rule out the fan clutch because it still has resistance!  That little bugger almost blew my gasket!  eight screws later, truck runs great without any excessive heat even idling with the AC on full.  (no desert to test in, but I'm satisfied)

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