Firstly 2 weekends ago from Gauteng to Bloemfontein running solo but with all my normal crap on the roof. Engine felt good and no water was used during the trip. It was reasonably hot and the wind was pumping and I noticed that on long uphills at speed in excess of 110km/h that the heat gauge slowly starting creeping up to the red. Getting to the top or tapping off quickly let the needle return again to just below middle. I was glad that at least it did not use water as on my trip to Barberton where the head was in fact already cracked, and wrote it off to paranoia and hot side winds. At least it was my second trip where I got home on own steam!
Last weekend was the big test. I hooked up my Xplorer fully loaded, hell it was good to go camping again, I last did it in April, and headed to Nylstroom/Modimole. It was hot as hell and with the extra load I could clearly see the heat gauge slowly rising on anything but a flat road and towing around the 115km/h mark. Tapping off to around 110km/h ussualy got it back to normal again. It never cooked at least but this is not how I know it. On the big uphill past Menlyn on the way back I had to slow down to 50km/h to enable it to cool down sufficiently. I never in my 12 years of ownership ever had any overheating issues. Not even "jaging" through the Karoo at 130km/h and towing with a head wind! Don't ask!.
So it is off to AB again tomorrow. I hope it is a small issue like fan shroud or new viscous fan clutch as the engine seem nice and solid although smoking slightly on idle, maybe due to the blanked off EGR?, and also using a pint of oil every 1500kms or so? Might still be sttling in?Engine rebuilds are not for sissies!!
AB has so far been great in aftersales service but being about 1.5 hours drive from me makes it a schlep of note. They are however collecting again but I am using all my warantee mileage to go to the workshop and back!
CATS
