CoedNaked

A guy I know and I were talking about how bulletproof our engines were a few years ago(he has an American built 3vze in a 93 Pickup like mine). I told him that I think one of the most important things with these engines is to make sure you keep your cooling system in top shape and you'll be fine. He said he disagreed and he's been running slightly low on coolant for a while now, about 1 quart or so he figured. And he said his engine has been bulletproof without issues. A few monthes gos by and I get a call that his head gasket failed, he had a few Q's, etc.


Now there are some guys in here who think the 3vze has major problems with head gaskets failing. And there are some guys who have had No HG's fail with high miles like several guys I know with 3vze's.

I'm curious for those of you guys with high mileage 3vze's without issue, how is your cooling system doing? Do you stick with stock Toyota coolant, replace your waterpump/t-stat and other neccessary parts periodically as preventative maintenance, etc.? Or do you run aftermarket/other coolant and don't take care of your cooling system?

I have this little hypothesis that if your cooling system is in top shape and you are on top of maintenance with this engine, you will not experience head gasket failures as easily or as readily. Sounds like an obvious hypothesis but you get so many other hypothesis about head gasket failure reaspons for this engine, many of which can easily be recanted (e.g. the differing metals, which Toyota has done on lots of engines without HG issues, etc. ) that I figured I'd throw it out there (again).

TNRabbit

I had two overheatings prior to my HG going. I attribute those to the failure, although both the block & the heads spec'd out WELL within warpage tolerances during the rebuild.

OutlawMike

I only put 3k miles a year on my rig, so, my experience is with a rig that sees very low miles, and only has 130k miles on it right now.

But, I do not run Toyota coolant. Designer antifreeze? I run Prestone, and make sure that it is mixed 50/50 with distilled water. Also, I only use a factory Toyota T-stat. The water pump was new when I did the timing belt.

Other than that, I check the overflow once a month and keep it at full. I pop the cap and look in the radiator whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Mike

space-junk

iTrader: (1)

i run prestone, but i only run that because i cant afford toyota antifreeze...

now, heres where it gets tricky...

when i rebuilt the top end because of a stuck valve, for some reason the petcock on the bottom of the radiator would NOT close all the way, so just normal driving around town would drain about half the coolant and she would overheat...

so i got pissed one day, grabbed a pair of pliers and tightened the petcock as much as i could, put some garden hose water in it and shes been that way since last april... and not a hiccup...

keep in mind tho that the hottest that itr usually gets here is around 100* and lowest around 27* so nothing too extreme for me...

xzyragon

only 100-27...

not THAT extreme lol

its like 50-80 where i live, maybe up to the 90's in summer, and it got into the 40's this winter

Jay351

I make sure my cooling system is in tip top shape. It seems an overheat is a death sentence for a 3vze.

My truck runs a little lower then halfway up the gauge..

I have replaced my water pump, rad and flushed all the old coolant out.
I run an almost exact mix of 50/50 toyota coolant and purified water.

toyota4x4907

You want to talk about extreme? Come live where I live. It gets -60F in the winter. We had -62F for 3 days in early January. Then in the summer it gets to 70-80F..sometimes 90F...

I have read and been told that changing the exhaust manifolds so the crossover isn't directly behind the engine by #6 cylinder helps with keeping the HG issue at bay. I don't have a 3vze, but I would agree that keeping the cooling system in tip-top shape will help.

aviator

That red toyota antifreeze crap is a major source of trouble in the 3.0 I run the prestone/green at about a 60/40 mix and have never had a coolant related issue.

CoedNaked

Aviator - this isn't about coolant relating issues. This is cooling related issues, or issues that arise because of lack of maintenance of the cooling system, particularly the head gasket. The Toyota red stuff, if done properly and complimented by replacement/maintenace of typical wear and tear cooling system parts (e.g. water pump, t-stat, rad, hoses, etc), is the proper stuff for our trucks. If you've had good luck with the Prestone good for you. I think I'm going to stick with my winning formula of having Toyota Red stock coolant put in my truck, by the best Toyota Master tech in all of Canada (which is the formula my truck has been the 3 times I've had the coolant changed in my truck since I've owned it).

Steveh29

I'm the original owner of my 95 and I've got 230,000 miles with no headgasket problems. I've never done anything more than normal repairs and maintaining everything. I'm on my 3rd radiator though - probably the 5th cap. First radiator lasted a hundred thousand miles. Second radiator was a cheepie and didn't last but a couple of years. Newest radiator is all copper/brass like the original so we'll see how it lasts. I changed the original water pump at 180K when I did the timing belt, but the pump wasn't leaking. (Heck I'm still on my original alternator.) My cooling system is totally stock and it's never had overheating problems but I do run regular non Toyota anti-freeze with hose water at a 60/40 mix favoring water. THe only time I had trouble was when I ran a Flex A Lite Black Magic electric fan. Removing that solves my slow overheat on a long uphill grade at speed or at crawl. Like I said, if I see it leaking I'll fix what's leaking and I eyeball the coolant when I check the oil during fill-ups but that's about it.

stoicheg2

I have 260,XXX miles on my 3vze. I never lose any coolant and has never had a HG go out, although it was replaced for precaution. i'd say im still on the same coolant for 2 years now and not a drop lost. i'll be changing the t-stat and coolant soon though before the weather gets hot

mrddk92

yeah when i bought my truck the radiatior had been fixed with jb weld lol and it came off when i was driving and it overheated and a little while later my hg's started leaking its just a tiny leak so i just used that stuff that you put in ur radiator but it stops working after a couple months . in about a month ima replace the hg's and while im at it ima put on lc headers, o/s valves, port n polish and some weasy cams. I think this will keep me satisfied until i can afford to do a s/c 3.4 swap. i think ima get a Silla all aluminum radiator too cause that stuff is stuck in my rad and im sure it aint good and when its 115 i dont want to constantly worry about overheating anyways ill quit rambling....

Alex 400

which cylinder normally blows most often, i might have a theory...

toyota4x4907

I believe #6, furthest most near the firewall on the passenger side.

Alex 400

I was wondering if it had to do with oil cooler coolant line coming out of the water jacket on that one side.

toyota4x4907

I think it has to do with he way the crossover exhaust pipe is....

space-junk

iTrader: (1)

you got it alaska boy...

now someone figure out why the #1 cylinder has been known to pop too...

toyota4x4907

Thanks.I know I did. I remember reading it on here once or ten times...

beeeeecause it's opposite of #6?

TNRabbit

I popped #1 TWICE; still not sure why that particular cylinder. I know I'm running 210 psi cylinder compression and didn't have the fuel system corrected to richen the mixture for that compression.

taikowaza

best things for keeping the 3vze cool are headers and trashing the stock manifold. Deathcougar and I took a look at a trashed stock manifold at nix99 and traced the heat path and points of failure. The design is such that the heat curls back around itself before being pushed out the exhaust. The headers remove this failure point. toyota4x4907 is right on the money.
The other good possibility for cooling are the weasy2k cams. I had a great talk with Johnny about how the cam/header combo prolongs the 3vz. Good talk!