Overheated last week, now not starting

[Nav Dan]

Hi guys, first post. Only just bought this guy not last Saturday but the Saturday before. Its a D40 STX 2007, and ran perfectly fine till last Saturday when I took it to a 4WD beach and cooked it because I was inexperienced with beach driving and had it in low 3-4 pushing the car pretty hard, coolant splurted out the overflow. Had to get someone to top up coolant and jumpstart it. That was enough for me to make the 6 hr drive home without any problems.

2 days later, didn't really overheat but kind lost power going up a small hill, engine cut off. Topped up with water and jumped it to get to work. After work got to the car, topped up with water, wouldn't turn over - turned over with a booster battery/jumpstart.

Got home, waited for it to cooldown and topped it up with coolant. Tried to turn over, didn't. Turned over with a jumper lead, but starting to struggle. Left it running for about 20 minutes as I thought battery was starting to go.

Got home today, tries to crank over but sounds like its thirsty for fuel.

Taking it to a diesel mechanic on Monday, or atleast I thought I was since it was running when I booked it in.

Thoughts? I'm in Wollongong, would love to hear some sort of good news. Already thought I was looking at a cracked cylinder head, hoping it doesn't get worse than that.

 

[Old.Tony]

Welcome to the forum.

First thing I'd do is measure the battery voltage before starting the car, and once it's been jump started. There's a good chance your alternator isn't doing what it's supposed to do and that may be part of your problem.

I'd also check the fluid couple (viscous hub, or any of a dozen other names people give it). It's the silver thing that the radiator fan bolts on to. When the engine gets hot enough, the fan grips the shaft rather firmly and as a result the shaft (which is on the front of the water pump) turns the fan quite strongly.

Test the fluid couple like this: get the engine up to operating temperature, turn off the engine, immediately pop the bonnet and try to turn the fan by hand. It should be quite firm and reluctant to turn. If it's easy, it's done for and the car will overheat easily when given a bit of a workout. Bretts Trucks on Central Coast NSW sell a good replacement at a decent price.

There's a test kit to determine if exhaust gases are getting into your coolant (cracked head) but a compression test will also give you some idea and it's cheaper.

Good luck!

 

[Nav Dan]

Welcome to the forum.

First thing I'd do is measure the battery voltage before starting the car, and once it's been jump started. There's a good chance your alternator isn't doing what it's supposed to do and that may be part of your problem.

I'd also check the fluid couple (viscous hub, or any of a dozen other names people give it). It's the silver thing that the radiator fan bolts on to. When the engine gets hot enough, the fan grips the shaft rather firmly and as a result the shaft (which is on the front of the water pump) turns the fan quite strongly.

Test the fluid couple like this: get the engine up to operating temperature, turn off the engine, immediately pop the bonnet and try to turn the fan by hand. It should be quite firm and reluctant to turn. If it's easy, it's done for and the car will overheat easily when given a bit of a workout. Bretts Trucks on Central Coast NSW sell a good replacement at a decent price.

There's a test kit to determine if exhaust gases are getting into your coolant (cracked head) but a compression test will also give you some idea and it's cheaper.

Good luck!

My first thought was that the battery in it was not the right battery, as it was too small to even sit in the battery case. Swapped it over to a heavy duty battery from my Astra. There was 12v going into the original battery.

The Nav sounds like its trying to turn over but not combusting.

 

[jonney]

is the engine turning over as fast as it used to when all was good ? also your losing alot of water by the sounds of things which could be not so good.
i think and do say think you issue is maybe a cracked cylinder head of blown head gasket which is causing water to get into the cylinder / piston area thus causing a hydro lock as water does not compress thats why the slow turn over of engine . waite for a cylinder head compression check etc to determin the result. lets hope you only need a new good battery and maybe a thermostat.

 

[Nav Dan]

is the engine turning over as fast as it used to when all was good ? also your losing alot of water by the sounds of things which could be not so good.
i think and do say think you issue is maybe a cracked cylinder head of blown head gasket which is causing water to get into the cylinder / piston area thus causing a hydro lock as water does not compress thats why the slow turn over of engine . waite for a cylinder head compression check etc to determin the result. lets hope you only need a new good battery and maybe a thermostat.

Turned over pretty well first couple days before the engine cut off on the third day. After that it started to get worse.

Doubt its the battery as I did swap my good battery out of another car and same thing happens. I had a pretty good bet on cracked head, thought it might be hydrolock aswell but didn't want to jynx myself. There's no water in oil etc, no bubbles from radiator. I highly doubt there are issues with the fueling system.

If its hydrolocked would a new head + gasket sort it out?

 

[Old.Tony]

My first thought was that the battery in it was not the right battery, as it was too small to even sit in the battery case. Swapped it over to a heavy duty battery from my Astra. There was 12v going into the original battery.

The Nav sounds like its trying to turn over but not combusting.

Forget an Astra battery, it won't have the CCA to turn over the diesel properly without destroying the battery. Our little diesels need about 500A minimum to turn them over - your battery should have 700CCA or better if it's going to survive.

Try borrowing from someone with a diesel powered car - even a V8 doesn't need as big a battery (much lower compression ratio).

 

[Nav Dan]

Forget an Astra battery, it won't have the CCA to turn over the diesel properly without destroying the battery. Our little diesels need about 500A minimum to turn them over - your battery should have 700CCA or better if it's going to survive.

Try borrowing from someone with a diesel powered car - even a V8 doesn't need as big a battery (much lower compression ratio).

I'm positive the Astra battery I have is around 500-650 CCA from memory. It was the same size as the D40 battery compartment. Will check when I'm off work. But I'm going to need a bigger battery for the Nav anyway when its all fixed, so no harm in buying the right one now.

 

[Nav Dan]

Sorry its been a long while. Just an update. It was the head gasket that went, but the mechanic AND the cylinder repair shop advised the head be changed due the head becoming malleable from overheating (not sure how true this was but I did cross-check with another diesel mechanic about 5 suburbs away, and he agreed), and that being an aluminium head (from memory?) seemed to ring true.
All in all it was $1600 for a new head from yd25 (minus head bolts VRS kit), and $2800 for labour including cooling system redone (new radiator, thermostat, waterpump).

Also got a new 760 CCA battery for $200.

 

[Old.Tony]

They're an alloy head alright. It might have been possible to check the head first for warping, but then machining and checking it (plus any valve work etc) might have brought the cost to near a new head anyway.

Good to hear it's fixed. The 760CCA battery is close to the battery Nissan supplies, so should do the job nicely.