jeopardy98

Well folks the '95 started overheating yesterday when I was about 5 hours from home. I kept stopping and letting it cool down and added water to the radiator to replace what had boiled out.

Today I removed the t-stat and checked it with boiling water. It worked fine. Crap. I then put the truck back together with no t-stat, filled with water, burped the system, and went for a drive. The truck still overheated.

So I'm looking at a water pump, radiator, or the dreaded HG. Toyota wants $1800 to do the HG and I don't have that kind of coin. Can any of you experts tell me some signs to look for or things to check so I can determine if it's my HG or my water pump, definitively? I already know to hit the radiator with a later thermometer but I don't have one of those. Is there somewhere that will check that for me for less then the $50 the dealership will charge me?

I'm pretty broke since I just bought this thing not too long ago so any tips are appreciated. If it is the HG, I think I'll take my time and spend a week or two fixing it but the valve grind kit is still $400.

Thanks in advance for any help that you all can offer.

fillsrunner4

White smoke out the exhaust, low compression, coolant leaks and few other things.

If it is indeed the head gasket it is possible to do the job yourself and a new gasket and rebuild kit isnt even close to half what the dealer will charge you.

Also check into the HG recall you may be covered but I dont know much about it.

jeopardy98

Thanks. I checked into the recall and I'm not included. Also, could you give me more info on which parts I'll need to do it myself because I'm thinking that I will have to go that route.

woodendude

I'm suffering the same problems with my 95 4Runner. I'm blowing white smoke at cold start though, until warmed up. The last 2 days it's been getting so hot I have to drive with the heater running full if I'm in any stop n go traffic. My water pump, thermostat and rad are all fairly new, so it looks like it's the dreaded HG....

jeopardy98

Does anyone have any tips for diagnosing my problem?

Info on exactly which parts I need in order to do the HG myself?

I have no white smoke or coolant leakage (other then the overflow from boiling) and I need to do a compression test. What numbers am I looking for and which cylinders usually fail?

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

Not true. If it only gets hot when the truck isn't moving, i would be looking at the fan clutch.

Have the engine tested first so you don't go wasting money on a head gasket job.

abecedarian

Well let's see... a headgasket can go bad in a few different ways: blows out between cylinders, blows out between a cylinder and a water passage, blows out between a cylinder and an oil passage... or a combination of blows out between cylinders, water and oil passages....
So, given that...
...do you have a 'rainbow' colored film on top of the coolant in the radiator?
...if you let it warm up with the radiator cap off, do you get bubbles coming up?
...how does you oil look? ... lika a starbucks double latte' (umm. creamy)?
...any excessive steam out the tail pipe (steam after warm-up and it's 90F outside)?

jeopardy98

No oil in my coolant, warming up with the cap off produces no bubbles, oil looks good and the level hasn't changed, and I get no steam out of the exhaust. That is part of why I'm stumped here. I don't seem to have the usual tell tale signs.

Team420

Same here, and I even had great compression results, yet, I am almost 100% sure my hg is failing, My rig (the 93) has been getting less and less powerfull over the past 2 years, and I have a "cel" for code 52(knock sensor), which I have been unable to fix. Only just recently did it start showing signs of hg failure..White smoke on start up, bubbles in rad, low power. Yet, it still runs ok, just no power....there is no overheating, or oil in the coolant, or vice versa... just 1 of those yota things...the truck just wants to run.

abecedarian

fan clutch:
...with the engine off (of course ) if you grab the fan and flip it like you're trying to spin it real fast, how far does it spin when you let go? if it goes more than a few inches, the fan clutch is probably bad.

water pump:
when the engine's warmed up, can you see circulation in the radiator? how warm is the lower radiator hose?

quick question- what do you mean by 'overheating'? where does the needle sit on the gauge when you consider it overheating?

jeopardy98

Thanks for the suggestions.

Toyotero

If you had a blown headgasted, you'd probably have a white (steam) cloud from the exhaust pipe or compressed gas (from a cylinder) blowing out of your radiator overflow. I don't think your HG is blown from what you say.

How old is your radiator? Look in it (remove filler/overflow cap).. is there mineral crusty stuff?

Because of the drop in coolant temp in the radiator, minerals in the water precipitate out (ie, stick to the cooling lines). This causes a restriction and reduces the rate of flow... it's kinda like cholesterol sticking to your arterial walls, making the passages smaller and smaller... which will affect your truck at higher RPMs/loads...

I have the same problem with mine now.. it overheats on the highway... (combination of two issues... mineral deposits and pieces of silicon gasket materrial from a waterpump change a DEALER MECHANIC did (never use silicon on a waterpump!) If I turn on the heaters full blast, it runs at normal temp, even if I'm towing...

You can do that heater test, or pull your radiator and take it to a good radiator shop and they can run a flow test on it.. (it was free the last time I did it).


PS, always flush and fill your cooling system with distilled water/antifreeze mix to keep from getting mineral deposits.
If you need a new radiator, this is the best deal I found to replace mine for my V6.. . a PROLIANCE # 432272 (alluminum core) from rockauto.com for $140 delivered.

jeopardy98

Cool, that sounds promising and I'd be if it's just a radiator. I'll pull it and have it checked. Where should I take it? Local mechanic or to the dealer?

Toyotero

I pulled mine and took it to a small radiator shop. You might call around and see who can do a flow test.

Also, for starters, take the cap off and look inside... you can see tops of the tubes inside of the core (like the image at right)... is it crusty?

jeopardy98

Yes it is crusty. It looks like it has a heavy calcium buildup. Kind of like my sink looks when I don't clean it for a week or two and I have well water. I assumed that because it drained pretty quickly when I emptied the coolant that the radiator wasn't clogged but I guess it doesn't circulate through the fins when you drain it does it?

I'll call around and see who can do a flow test and keep my fingers crossed that it's just the radiator. If it is, I'll be buying one of those aluminum ones.

Luvmeye22re

Sounds like you need a radiator. Mine did the same thing and led to the HG failing. Quit driving it until you get this problem sorted out, trust me The thing about my radiator is the fins in the top looked somewhat ok when I took the cap off but when I pulled the lower hose and looked in there, it was a flat out chunky nasty rusty mess.

jeopardy98

Yes, it's parked. I'm not driving it. I sure hope it's my radiator as that would be fantastic news given the alternative.

jeopardy98

Well I pulled the radiator today and took it to the shop so they could run a flow test. The guy called me back and said it was completely stopped up so I bought a new aluminum core radiator and brought it home thinking all my troubles were over.

Well I can't seem to get any coolant to circulate through the system. I've filled it with the truck idling, on an incline and with the heat on full blast. The truck only took a gallon of coolant and then the steam started pouring out the top of the radiator. The bottom hose never gets warm and neither does the air coming out of the vents. The temperature gauge rose well past half way and the air was still cool but if I tried to put any more coolant in the radiator it would just spit it out the top.

Am I missing something here or what? I'm about at my wits end. Any other ideas? Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

abecedarian

pull the thermostat and fill it until you get coolant in the housing then install the thermostat and start the engine and continue filling.

jeopardy98

I read on here that I can disconnect the top hose and fill from there. Does that also work the same as filling the block from behind the t-stat?