Update 15 – Nov 12

Well again it’s been a while since I last updated this. The Prado has been a real asset to the family, both as a daily driver and also for the longer trips. We did a number of trips around the Townsville area before departing in July of this year. Again we drove both vehicles down the coast, cutting through the VIC High Country to East Sale and then across to Melbourne.

Since being down here in Tassie it has done a couple of trips up to the Great Lakes, as well as a beach run on the Bridport-Bellingham area.

Unfortunately a couple of days ago the Prado decided to throw a head gasket, although I suspect it’s taken the head with it. It was just over 360k at the time and I was surprised that it had gone already. However there’s not much you can do about it.

Edit – wasn’t a head gasket. Upon further inspection it was a radiator of all things, but the way it was set up was a bit of a change for me. The (automatic) transmission runs a cooler at the bottom of the radiator as well as another cooler in front of the radiator. What has happened is the failure has allow the transmission oil to mix with the coolant, and the result is very similar symptoms to a blown head gasket!

As for the pictures below……

Well if it wasn’t such an expensive exercise I’d be enjoying every damn bit of a Landrover towing a Toyota – but I know this is going to hurt the hip pocket a lot.

I will try and take some pictures as we strip her apart and rebuild the top end.

Cheers
Chris

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