mikhail

My 1995 4runner has the 3vze in it, I noticed lately its been warming up really fast, but it was actually just heating up and the guage doesnt display it past normal for some reason. Anyways I figured the coolant was low, and sure enough it was almost a gallon low, it was full about a month ago after I finished replacing the water pump.

There are no external leaks that I have seen and the previous owner told me it over heated a few times when the water pump was leaking, (he thought it was the head gaskets). Could it be possible the head gaskets blew just slightly and now its slowly loosing coolant into the cylinders which is being burnt off? Has this ever happened to anyone? Im worried that the gaskets could go completely at any point now...

swaycleveland

did you check the oil? is there a milkshake on the dipstick? id start there. if not start checking hoses for pinholes and such. i JUST washed my hands after changing the heater hose by the brake booster behind the manifold. damn ive been looking for that leak for a week and it finally popped. IF toyota thinks that ill by another toyota after 247k and 15 years. their crazy! i mean JEEEZ dont they make things that last????

DaemonFTW

If you have white smoke coming out of the exhaust (Burning coolant) or any particular loss in power, that would indicate that it may be your HG.

Did you check for leaks when running cold?. the coolant can evaporate before you see it (having the same thing happen, only visibly leaks from radiator when cold)

mikhail

ill check for leaks when cold, but ive never seen any... the engine runs great besides the knock sensor code i keep getting. it has the 4.88 gears so its not too bad on the street just on the highway it tops out at about 75-80mph, but its got a 4" lift and 33s.

its hard for me to check the exhaust since its open cat right now, I planned on putting an exhaust on (bought it like this) but if its got motor problems then it might be on hold for a while. and Ive only owned it a month so I dont know how it ran when it was new. i dont think its even the orignal motor though either.

mikhail

there arent any exterior leaks when its cold either, the only time it ever leaks water is when the a/c was used and it drips off the compressor, but thats normal. exhaust steams when its cold, only because its getting cold outside though. oil looks good too, I always check that because I have to add a little every week since it has leaky valvecovers.

affmondo22

pull your plugs.. thats exactly what happened to my truck and it was a headgasket.. When i pulled my plugs, one was wet with coolant and it looked like it had been cleaned off, the rest were white. good luck, and i hope its not a headgasket.. im about halfway through doing mine and its a pain

GorgeRunner

My 95 is slowly losing coolant as well. Plugs and compression are good, no oil in the water or water in the oil. I've replaced all the hoses, including the ones at the rear of the intake manifold. They are a pain in the butt to replace, I can see why people wait until they start to leak before replacing them.
A bit of smoke comes out of the tailpipe when I start it up. It doesn't smell like coolant and the 22RE on my pickup has always done this(a few drops of water come out as well) and there is nothing wrong with it, so in some cases, white smoke, especially on startup, doesn't mean the head gasket is leaking, although it might be.
Since I don't see any leakage, I gotta assume with the history of the 3.0, that my head gasket is leaking. I'll try one last ditch effort and replace the radiator cap, but I think I'll be replacing the head gaskets.

mikhail

I think its gotten worse now. Yesterday halfway to austin it over heated, so I fill it with water and this was after it had been sitting for about an hour so it was cold. Once I started going again I saw the temp shoot up to normal so i pulled over again and noticed the top radiator hose was hot and the lower was cold... so the water pump appeared to not be working. I pulled out the t stat and ran it without it, and that was the problem.

besides taking forever to warm up, it runs fine, no smoke or strange noise. it is chugging now though at idle, sounds kind of like a small block.

So i left the car there, 80 miles from home and rode to austin with a friend. Then I came back and drove it home, it got hot again once I got home. Its like its slowly heating up or loosing coolant somewhere. Could it be leaking through the headgasket and not be smoking at the tail pipe?

BMcEL

Old thread but any updates?