Suzuki Club UK

Having trouble with my SJ getting hot

It's a 1.6 vitara engine on an su carb and it's gets hot under Load, especially on fast roads.
There's no thermostat in it and it has an electric fan.

I changed the rad to vitara one but it made no difference, rad has no cold spots so don't believe it's blocked.

I've changed the rad cap still no change.

There's no mayo under the oil cap and it doesn't appear to lose water

Where should I look next? Water pump? Head gasket?

I had a cooling problem, and it came down to a trapped hose. from the top of the water pump.

The identifier was the bottom hose wasn't getting hot. Is yours?

Is the matrix properly clean?

Have you got coolant / anti freeze in or just water?

It does have coolant in but it does need changing
All hose are hot

I would try and flush all the coolant through... Make sure your heater is set to hot when you fill it up otherwise it can trap air in the system

I am running a 1.6 16v engine with the 1.3 rad and an electric fan and there is plenty of cooling

Are you running the correct temperature sender? You need to run the one from the Sj so that its resistance matches the temperature gauge. People often leave the vitara sender on the engine and the gauge reads completely wrong.

So it's not blowing the water out when it gets hot then? That's a good sign. I would try the sender (get one for your car using the reg/vin) and if it's still reading hot investigate further.

Ps you should never run without a thermostat, it's there to regulate the engine temperature so that the engine runs as the optimum temperature. Yes it's ok to pull it in emergencies and you need to get home with cooling issues but refit it as soon as the problem is solved.

Quick update
Flushed and replaced the coolant but it still started to get hot. Temp stArted to creep up got to 3/4 before I turned it off. Still haven't fitted thermostat as beed supplied the wrong one!

Did you check what I have mentioned above?? About the temperature sender for the gauge? Is it the original one with the engine or the one that was on the original 1.3. It needs to be the one from the 1.3 I.e. The one that matches the original electrics.

ScottieJ wrote:Did you check what I have mentioned above?? About the temperature sender for the gauge? Is it the original one with the engine or the one that was on the original 1.3. It needs to be the one from the 1.3 I.e. The one that matches the original electrics.

How can I tell what sender it is? Or is it a case of just buying the correct one?

I would buy a new 1.3 sender