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The 87' has been running great for me, no problems...until last Saturday. I was driving home from work at night, truck was running fine, I was almost home, coming up the driveway (our driveway is 2 miles long) when I had to stop because of a fallen tree across the road. When I got out to move some of the broken up tree, I could smell antifreeze, like my engine was running hot. I immediately went back around to check the temperature gauge, which is an aftermarket one that the PO had installed, and it doesn't illuminate with the rest of my gauges which is part of the reason I didn't notice it was running hot. The temp gauge was running really hot so I shut off the motor, and let it cool down. After it had cooled off I started it and drove the rest of the way home, about a half mile. I noticed the heater was blowing cold when as i started driving. It was starting to heat up again as I pulled up to the house.
I didn't have time to look at it till today. I was thinking maybe I had a bad thermostat. I went to check the coolant level in the radiator and I couldn't see any coolant, so I went to add some and a few seconds later it was pouring out the bottom of the radiator. The PO had replaced the radiator with an aluminum one with the plastic tanks. Tomorrow I will pull it, not sure if it's cracked, has a hole, or if the plastic is starting to delaminate from the aluminum. So that's where I'm at, I have no idea how far or how long I drove it like that. It's 24 miles from work to my house, I can't imagine that I drove it that far without coolant. The truck ran fine the entire time, no hesitations, or stumbles. I'm hoping the head isn't warped. I checked the oil, no signs of coolant in the oil....probably because there wasn't any coolant left.
I guess my next course of action is to replace the radiator, then determine if the head is warped/ blown headgasket. Anybody have a recommendation for a replacement radiator? I looked at one from Lowrange Offroad, LCE Performance, and one on E-bay:
Hey bud! Sorry to hear about the Overheating. Sounds like you did not drive it to far while overheated. I think that you would have smelled the Coolant sooner if it blew out earlier on in your commute home.
I would do a leakdown test or a Compression test and see what the numbers look like. Maybe give you some piece of mind.
I would just try to throw a Radiator in it and see what happens. These things can be pretty resilient at times.
I think the CSF three row all metal copper brass radiator is one of the better aftermarket choices.
I've had mine over three years with no issue.
Thanks donomite for the input, I looked at CSF and almost went with them, in the end I went with a Koyo aluminum radiator. I also with with a toyota oem 2 stage thermostat P/N: 90916-03070. I should get it next week.
Originally Posted by Gizler00
Hey bud! Sorry to hear about the Overheating. Sounds like you did not drive it to far while overheated. I think that you would have smelled the Coolant sooner if it blew out earlier on in your commute home.
I would do a leakdown test or a Compression test and see what the numbers look like. Maybe give you some piece of mind.
I would just try to throw a Radiator in it and see what happens. These things can be pretty resilient at times.
Let me know if there is anything I can do.
Thanks Mark, I think I'll just roll the dice and keep my fingers crossed!
Well I was looking through CL and found a guy that had probably a dozen sets of nice seats for sale, most of them were leather with power, and in really great shape. I found a set of light grey non-power seats in fantastic shape for $120. He wasn't sure what make of vehicle they came out of. I also bought a middle bench seat out of a dodge durango that he had for $80, its leather as well, but is a dark grey, they look almost black in the pics. I lucked out on the rear bench, I forgot to measure how wide my factory rear seat was, it ended up being the same width, around 52" wide. This was kind of spontaneous splurge on my part, I should've waited to see if I'm going to have any more issues after overheating the engine awhile back. But I reasoned that by getting some new seats it will hopefully give me the motivation to do an interior color change to grey, plus these front buckets are way more comfortable! The kids will appreciate having cupholder too.
Not sure if I'm going to try some SEM interior dye/paint on the back seat to try to match the fronts or leave them. Anyway, for $200 I think I got a good deal.
^^^The driver seat has a handle that you can raise and lower the height of the seat. You can see in the pic the driverside is raised all the way and sits close to 2" higher than the passenger side. Passenger seat has a little drawer under it. I can already see that I will have to modify the seat bracket as they sit to high, after looking at them, it doesn't look like it will be that difficult .
♢♢EDIT♢♢ I found a bar code sticker on one of the seat frames, it said 2006 Honda, but not the vehicle model. I tired searching the part # but didn't come up with anything. Then I did a Google search and found Honda CRV that has the same seats, I'm pretty sure that's what I have since they were listed as having side airbags and driverside height adjustment. Here's a pic online that I found:
Man what a nice score on the seats. I really like that passenger side compartment. Would be a great place to store snacks. Lol
Thanks, I happened to pull that side compartment drawer out, and on the bottom was a Honda logo, so at least I know what brand vehicle they came out of, I'm kinda thinking they are out of a Honda Odyssey or maybe a Ridgeline, just from the fact that they have the extra bracket on the seat base that makes them sit up higher. It seems like on the cars they sit closer to the floor, I'm just guessing, but anyway, they are comfy for sure, I'm pretty excited about getting the them mounted. I will probably wait until the weather warms up, in the meantime I will be gather some parts to do a complete interior color change over to grey. I have a tax return coming, so plans are:
On a side note, I was digging through some stuff I had I storage and came across a older Pioneer CD player DEH-4700MP I got in a trade from a member (1986yota4x4) a few years ago. I had forgotten that I had it, it needs the wiring harness plug for it. Quick search on Ebay, and I found one for $4.85, I didn't even notice before, but it has an Aux input jack in the back, so I should be able plug in my phone just need to get some decent speakers now.
YOu need this color for nearly a factory match!! It's not sem but apparently is the closest match. Here's a little info on it.
Btw great idea changing it to gray...can't stand that red haha. http://www.toyota-4runner.org/classi...im-pieces.html
Seats look great and hope they work out for you. On the overheating, I would try to give the block a good flushing. At work we have some high water pressure and I am able to flush my blocks out pretty good with the Prestone kit with the engine running and I will let if flush for an hour or so.
Using the flush kit doesn't do much for a radiator as I take mine to a local shop and he uses what looks like a carwash wand and the gunk that comes out of them at the radiator shop looks like mud.
On way to kind of get an idea of how bad the cooling system is, is to check the pieces that come out of the radiator when using the kit and also to pull the heater core hoses and use a garden hose to flush it and catch the water coming out. I flush the core both ways and get a general idea of what is in the system that way.
Thanks for the tips on flushing the cooling system Terry, but I think I might have found the culprit.
If you guys remember back to my original post about my 4runner overheating, you'll remember me talking about having to stop and clear this broken tree that fell across the road and that's when I noticed my truck smelled hot. What I didn't mention was about a 1/4 mile earlier down my driveway there was another tree down with some small limbs that I ran over, evidently one of them snaked it's way in and found my radiator! Costly mistake on my part, new radiator should be here tomorrow. At least I know I didn't drive very far with it running hot, still crossing my fingers and hope the head isn't warped!
Yeah it leaks bad, I started to pour some coolant in the day after and it poured right out through the bottom. I couldn't see where it was leaking with the front skid plate on, I was asumming it was from the bottom tank.
Edit: Just for my reference, new radiator was installed at aprox. 245,000 miles.
UPS delivered my new Koyo aluminium radiator today around 1pm. I had already received the new Koyo radiator cap in the mail a couple days ago, I had to order a cap since the new radiator takes a special sized one and didnt come with it. Yesterday I got the new toyota oem 2 stage thermostat and gasket, anyway, so I had all the parts ready to go and got it all installed this afternoon.
^^^Here's the new radiator, it's all aluminum and fully welded (no epoxy) looks to be pretty nice quality.
^^^Here's a couple pics of it installed, man I really need to clean up the engine bay! The installation went really smoothly, the site said it was a direct fit, but I always expect to run into a snag. To my surprise it was a direct fit, the holes were slightly slotted making lining up the holes easy. The shroud bolted right up as well, without any problems.
^^^Drove up on a snow pile to raise the front end up higher to help burp the cooling system. Pic doesn't look like it but fronts raised up a good foot higher.
^^^Here's what the 2 stage thermostat looks like, I never used one before, but after reading a good write up by 4Crawler, and reading the symptoms he was experiencing, mine sounded really similar, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Here's a link to the write up along with part # for the thermostat for anyone who's interested: http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...tatReplacement
Checked the oil, looks good, no sign of coolant. The exhaust looked normal, no white smoke, didn't smell like coolant. Took for a test drive, so far every thing seems good!
That looks to be a great quality radiator and glad to see it fit like advertised. I have never seen the thermostat that you have posted. Always wanted to try one just never got around to it. Thanks for posting a picture of it.
That looks to be a great quality radiator and glad to see it fit like advertised. I have never seen the thermostat that you have posted. Always wanted to try one just never got around to it. Thanks for posting a picture of it.
Thanks Terry, I hope the new radiator performs as good as it looks, lol, I couldn't really find any reviews on it, I'll post updates on it after I log some miles on it in case anyone else is interested in buying one.
Before buying the thermostat, and before I killed my old radiator, lol, I was doing some research, I was noticing my temperature gauge would spike a little high from time to time (I have an aftermarket one the PO installed, it normally reads around 190°). Anyway, after reading 4crawler's thread, the symptoms he was experiencing sounded the same as mine. He explained that toyota released a Technical Service Bulletin about this problem with the 22re's, and this thermostat was made available to eliminate the temperature gauge overshoot problem. I figured I would buy one and give it a shot, it's a oem toyota thermostat, so I figure it has to be better than the run of the mill Chinese made ones, lol. I picked mine up off Amazon for $34 and had to buy the gasket seperatly for another $4.50. I didn't notice the temperature spike at all yesterday on my test drive, and I was doing some snow wheeling, low speed/ higher RPM's too. I'll keep you updated since I plan to resume dd'ing the runner this week.
Originally Posted by Gizler00
Coming along nice Ed. I love the seats.
I need to get a radiator like that! I must have missed it, but where did you get it from?
Thanks buddy, seats are really comfy, can't wait to start in on the interior project once the weather warms up!
I got the radiator off Ebay for $295, and had to buy the radiator cap seperatly for another $26.85. I'll keep you posted on how it performs!
Got my tax return money, so time to do some upgrades! First, I mentioned earlier about the old CD player I had found in storage, took a chance on it and ordered a new wiring harness plug off ebay for $4.50. The CD player didn't work, neither did the aux input, where we live the radio stations are few, and dont come in clear. I was discouraged enough that I just went down and bought a new deck today. It's a JVC, wasn't very expensive, $98 but has bluetooth, aux input, remote, can take calls hands free, etc. It should suit my needs well, I don't need amps, and alot of bass like I used to have in the past, my hearing has gotten alot worse from all my younger days of loud working conditions, shooting guns, and loud music, and no hearing protection. I will eventually replace the front factory dash speakers, and get some for the back side panels, might mount them in those side storage compartments that are by the back seats.
^^^for some reason I had to trim more of the bezel to get the stereo to fit, I think the PO cut just enough to fit the stereo and didn't use the mounting bracket that the stereo slides into, they just pushed the old stereo in without it really being secured. I plan to eventually relocate the rear window and defrost switches from the console to the 2 empty blanks in the bezel.
I also finally got a new shop vac, now I can finally start cleaning up the inside (I'm to cheap to use the car wash vac, lol) and get prepared for the interior color change/upgrades.
Tonight I'm going to order a med grey carpet kit, was going to buy the full kit, but now just doing the passenger area front and back and skipping the cargo area for now. Also going to try one of those dash caps to cover my cracked dash, I'm ordering both the carpet kit and dash cap from Stock interiors.com.
The last thing I'm getting is some Med DK Pewter interior paint, adhesion promoter, and some other supplies from SEM to do my dash and interior panels.
PS: It's been a couple weeks since the new radiator install, the 4runner has been doing great, no issues, temp never climbs above 190°.
For what they want for the cargo area carpet it is pricey, I just go to a carpet store and get a remnant piece for about $20 and just cut it to fit. Your replacement carpet will come about 2 inches wider all the way around. Wish they would make it an exact fit but non of the replacement carpets are an exact fit. I get several of them one dollar yellow knifes from Dollar General for cutting the carpet. Patience is a virtue when installing carpet but gives it a fresh look when done. Also it makes all the other pieces look worse too, lol.
With your new seats and a fresh coat of paint on the plastic, you will feel like you are in a new truck and is a rewarding experience.
For what they want for the cargo area carpet it is pricey, I just go to a carpet store and get a remnant piece for about $20 and just cut it to fit. Your replacement carpet will come about 2 inches wider all the way around. Wish they would make it an exact fit but non of the replacement carpets are an exact fit. I get several of them one dollar yellow knifes from Dollar General for cutting the carpet. Patience is a virtue when installing carpet but gives it a fresh look when done. Also it makes all the other pieces look worse too, lol.
With your new seats and a fresh coat of paint on the plastic, you will feel like you are in a new truck and is a rewarding experience.
Your right about the cargo area carpet kit being expensive, I have a rubber mat I might put back there for the time being, just to cover up the red. Thanks for the tip about the carpet needing trimmed to fit, I will definately take my time cutting and installing. I ended up not ordering the dash cap to cover up my cracked dash, mainly because of the shipping cost with it and the carpet would have came to $80.
Originally Posted by 88ECToy
The Runner looks good, Ed, the radiator especially! Good tunes, no more red interior, shaping up rather nicely.
Thanks, I'm trying to make some progress however slow or minor it might be!
I went ahead and bought some speakers today, I wasn't planning on it, but couldn't handle the blown out dash speakers anymore. I bought some Scousche 4" speakers for the dash, and some Sony 6-1/2" speakers for the rear. I got the deck in and the 4" speakers hooked up, sounds pretty good for only having the front speakers hooked up. I still need to mount the 6-1/2's in the side panels
On another note, I ran my 4runner through the car wash today to knock off some of the mud and peeling clear coat. That's when some of the bubbling paint started flaking off on the passenger side quarter panel revealing more rust than I had originally thought I had. I opened up the back cargo area side panel and that revealed how bad the rust really is. I was originally planning on welding in some patches, but now I'm thinking of replacing the whole quarter panel with one from toyota fiberglass. On a positive note, so far the driverside looks good, no signs of rust bubbles showing through the paint, looks good on the inside as well.
01-28-2016, 05:58 AM
