strategy400

If it heats up slowly while driving, suspect a partially clogged radiator

If it heats up while idling but not at speed, check the fan/fan clutch

If it heats up normally but just keeps on going hotter, suspect water pump, hose/leak/lowcoolant or total blockage

Sweet smelling white smoke from exhaust, foam/bubbling in oil or radiator, water in oil, oil in water suspect warped/cracked block/head/blown headgasket (try a compression check)

jode

Update, been daily driving this thing, and there is no overheating issues or symptoms of a warped HG. That mechanic was selling me for a sucker, and I will now commit to do nothing but talk smack about them to everyone I know. These are the same guys who said they couldn't mess with my third memebers because they don't have all the special tools for setting up gears....then they give me a blank look when I tell them Toyota thirds are like a Ford 9", so they can be dropped/swapped with no special tools.

....morons

Silicon_70

I just went through this with my 87RNR. The antifreeze that came out of my truck looks just like yours. I ended up flushing out my radiator core, engine core and heater core for 5 minutes until it was all clear. After blowing out all the garden water with compressed air, I put in distilled water and watched to see if the truck was losing any fluids. I observed the fluids for a couple days of daily driving. No loss of fluid occured. I also pulled the spark plugs to see if they looked abnormally clean. I had to take the HG out of the equation.

After all the test, I determined it was dirty coolant that caused it to overheat. I also changed the T-stat in the process.

jode

CRAP!

I guess I spoke too soon. The truck suddenly started belching white exhaust that smells like antifreeze today. I think I am up a creek. Are there any bandaids for blown headgaskets so I can continue to drive this for a bit longer?

Silicon_70

Crap is right. I don't think there are any bandaids for HG failure. STOP DRIVING YOUR TRUCK...until you get it fixed of course.

Now its up to you if you want to fix it yourself or hand it over to a mechanic.

jode

Why? What else could go wrong from driving with a blown gasket? (not being contentious - just curious)

Silicon_70

I tried to before on my little Corolla because I knew I was going to swap the engine with a newer one. So I said I'll drive it around with a blown HG.

Driving around with massive white smoke coming from the tailpipe is not good, especially for the drivers who were behind me. It was funny to me at first, until a sheriff's car showed up.

Besides that bearings don't like coming into contact with water/antifreeze.

Its best to minimize damage as much as possible. I'm sure there's alot more reasons, but whatever they are they'll all be bad.

Others will chime in.

toyota_mdt_tech

Yeah, get it fixed. And like others said, dont drive it. The water leaking past the gasket will corrode the deck, which will require milling of the deck. Not a low cost task. Do you have an open recall?

White83

Sorry to bring up an old thread but doing your own headgasket (if you haven't done it by now) is easy. Did it on mine taking it slow over a weekend, even swapped in a cam while everything was apart. Costs including the new cam were only around 200 bucks.

Here's where mine failed.

old4runner

i've seen head gaskets go w/no notice like you are describing in 1990's yotas. also the temp gets its input from the oil temp....so if you lose your coolant (which your heater not working indicates) the cooling system can't cool and your oil temp will sky rocket (i figured this out from a thermostat housing leak). Good luck

jode

I am in the middle of it right now (and have been for about 4 weeks) it is the bigggest PITA job I have ever done and I would gladly do an engine swap than undertake it again. I have sworn to myself a thousand times that I will never work on another vehicle that is newer than the 70s. All the wires, hose, tubes, etc. are a gigantic PITA, there are hidden bolts, half the alum. threaads are stripped from the DSPO, the other half are siezed/broken.

White83

Sucks your having so much trouble I made book time on doing mine and that was with putting in a helicoil for one of the camshaft hold downs. Hardly had to unplug anything, just unbolted the intake and exhaust from the head, moved them out of the way far enough to slip the head out. Hardest thing was putting the exhaust manifold back on since it was still attached to the exhaust and didn't want to move around easy.