hackatoyota

Hello all,
so recently bought an 88 4x4 pickup with the 22re in it. Runs good except a slighly rough start and maybe a little gutless(all and all its a 4 cylinder ).

My original problem was, the heat wasn't very warm. Long story short.. i've replaced the heater core, thermostat, radiator, radiator cap, and fan clutch. There was a head gasket and water pump put on in 2010.

My new problem is after doing all of this it acts like there is air in the lines.. intially the truck heats up almost to the red mark like its over heating and then goes down(maybe thermostat opening?) after that the temperature goes up and down hovering between 25% and 75%. I've backflushed it, parked on a hill, drove the hell out of it etc. still no luck keeps doing the same thing. I bought temp gun and pointed it at the thermostat housing and it reads around 210 degrees at what i think was its hottest point.

I checked the head gasket just to be certain it wasn't bad. Only thing i haven't replaced was the actual temperature gauge, temp sensor/sender unit, and water pump.

Although i really suspect that none of these are bad because if i let it run with the cap off it will eventually start heating up and want to puke water everywhere.

Anyone have any ideas?

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

I had a similar problem, if you look at #353 maybe yours is about the same. I just pulled it and cleaned it up.

BMcEL

Did you replace the thermostat with a two-stage OEM unit? More info:

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...tml#Thermostat

hackatoyota

Sorry for being a newb.. but what do you mean by #353?


I haven't tried the two stage thermostat yet. i did however originally bought a cheap ass one from cost less and since then have replaced it with a toyota one and still no luck

rworegon

Post # 353 in Terrys87 link under My 88 Rebuild.....

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f199...9/index15.html

My99

I too bought a Toyota brand thermostat when I picked up my 4Runner, only to find out later after reading on yotatech about the temp spike issue. The one in the truck quit working (basically wouldn't ever close) so I put in the Toyota unit. Sure enough, it would spike at about 1/2 way between normal & hot (scary enough on a road trip). There's a writeup on here, but essentially all you have to do is take out the thermostat and drill a small hole (I think I drilled 2... I think 1 would have been enough) in the thermostat to allow a stream of hot water to flow through at all times. This keeps it from heat spiking and AFAIK, is what that alternate thermostat is.

hackatoyota

Thanks i should have been able to figure that out... i thought the link was part of his signature.

Thanks to Terrys87 also, i had looked around for the temp sensor but kind of disregaurded it cause i didn't think it would help. Im definetly going to try what you suggested seeing as you had similar problems.

I had read about the two stage and talked to the parts guy when i was buying my yota thermostat.. sure sounds like what i am experiencing. im gonna try this too.

Thanks everyone! lets hope that helps.. i've been running out of solutions.. damn near replaced everything

hackatoyota

So toyota wanted 40 bucks for the two stage, 30 for the temp sensor.. so i took the wiggle valve out and drilled the hole bigger on the stock one i bought. it's idling at like 150-160˚ degrees now and the temp gauge stays pretty solid around 25%. guess my temp sensor or gauge is super sensitive.. or the thermostat was jacked up. the thermostat seemed to be completely open around 210˚and the gauge was damn near in the red but then would cool down, heat up, etc. seemed to stay at like 180-210˚. So still might not be reading right gonna try cleaning up the sensor.. got to late tonight. but finally.. peace of mind.. i was fine driving it didn't ever seem to over heat.. but i had to finish what i started lol drilling out the thermostat worked, thanks for the help!