regnar11b

After looking on google and checking the forums here I haven't really found much info on this other than possibly a bad water pump. I have had my 90 4runner 3vz for just about 12 yrs now and its still in great condition and running good at 254k. However I just noticed something this last week that worried me, my temp gauge is going up and my truck smells hot by the front right tire area. The temp gauge has always been around 3/8 or 7/16... always just enough to the left of the little temp icon that you could see it. This last week after driving my truck about 15-20 miles at a time several times my gauge went up covering the temp icon and going to the right, probably around the 5/8 or even 3/4 area. I have let it idle and after about 20mins of idling the temp remains the same. I have also tried it with the AC on and without the AC and still the same results while driving. I'm in California and its in the tail end of summer which has been pretty cool this year, but I have never had my temp go up this much in the past. I checked all of my fluid levels and everything appears to be normal. The only thing that I'm due on is an oil change and I always change my oil between 1,500 and 2,000 miles. About 70k miles ago I changed my water pump and thermostat, it was leaking out of the barring, but since then never had any more issues with coolant. Also it has been about 100k since I changed my timing belt, but my idle has never changed and is still ok (I know I should change it though to be on the safe side). Could the PCV valve cause this? Around 50k miles ago my fuel dampener was leaking and I replaced it but neglected to change the PCV when my plenum was off. If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it.

PS I also read this post
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...tle-hot-85785/
Thinking about flushing my radiator to...