Fahrenheit 451

Ok, maybe, just maybe, things are looking up.
I took my 4Runner to the machine shop where I had the head work done and talked to the owner for a while and we stood out in the parking lot trying to figure out what the heck was going on with the belching of antifreeze
The consensus was that there wasn't anything wrong with the head and likely not the block either, but some sort of plumbing problem in the engine. So, today, I tried one last time to see if the engine got airlocked after having the headgasket replaced. I pulled coolant hoses by the heater (highest point) and let some fluid run and even blew into the hoses to see if anything was circulating. I pulled the overflow tubes and blew through them and let some fluid run out of the tube closest to the water pump. After that, I pulled the cap to put fluid back in and now sitting right inside at the top of the radiator was a big wad of silicone that had been trapped somewhere in the motor.
I thought that really spelled success, but when I took the truck back out it did the same thing. I went ahead and let it get good and warm then took it home and pulled the thermostat just to get a look at what might be behind it. No junk behind it, but and this is a big , the thermostat was frozen up solid. After taking it out I couldn't get it to open even shoving a screwdriver into it with all my might. I grabbed a spare and stuck it in and no more antifreeze showers for the engine compartment so far.
Still have oil coming out where it shouldn't but at least I can drive it now!

Salue

At least it seams like the light is getting closer. How did thermo. get stuck? Hope you figure the oil leak now.

Salue

metal22lica

more and more i am finding that my 4R is really like a woman..when things are going good..they are great...but when they go bad..they get really ugly. and sometimes you just try not to understand the 4R either...cause you will never be able to fully figure it out..

Firefyter-Emt

OK.. so we have narrowed it down to over heating.. (sorry I didn't follow the eairler thread too much) did your gauge get reall hot?? I can see the problem with the antifreeze blowing out.. But where is the oil??

Give me a run down of what it is doing now, and I will see if I can help...

Fahrenheit 451

I think what may have happened with the thermostat was the result of the mechanic not flushing out the system after buttoning it all back up. I think a piece of that debris, perhaps even a small bit of the wire wheel got caught in the thermostat somehow making it gall up when hot. I could actually beat on it and not get it to open or even budge. I was there at one point and when I looked at the motor it was pretty gunked up where the headgasket had been plus the piston tops were pretty ugly from running too rich. I think what he did was take a wire wheel and cleaned the surfaces and various debris got into the engine through the water jackets. Once I'm satisified that it this fix has really worked I'm going to take the truck in somewhere and get the coolant system power flushed to get all the junk out.
I still have an oil leak coming from between the head/block/timing cover right in that area and have oil at the back of the motor. While I was at the machine shop I noticed a Toyota head sitting on a workbench and went over it with the owner. As far as the very back side of the motor goes there is no point where there should be oil moving around at all basically. The only holes in back are for coolant, alignment dowel and cylinder head bolts. I'm basically hoping now that the oil in the back is being slung up from the rear main seal. The excess blowby when the motor was running rich could have built up enough pressure to damage the seal or so I am told. At the point where the block, head, and timing cover all meet is apparently a thin area of gasket and the mechanic probably should have used some "Mac tech"(?? machinist's statement) to make a better seal.
So, anyway, it is at least slightly possible that what looked like one really big problem, cracked head or cracked block, may instead turn out to be a whole bunch of smaller more fixable problems. Fingers crossed, but not too hard yet. It just seems too simple for it to turn out to be a the thermo and that hunk of silicone. It should involve months of anguish and mechanic bills and not just get figured out and fixed by me right?

Firefyter-Emt

Yea, I think what you need to do now is to really clean it up good.. find the leaks and their source.. The rear main will not normaly "fling" oil up, but just leak down.. It is kinda blocked by the bell housing.. Now up front, it could be a cam seal? You may need to pull it down a little to find it.. But it will depend on just how much it leaks.. Heck I have a little leak some where on the botttom end of my 4Runner up front (I think it may be the oil pan) But it really does not use a lot of oil, and I will not fix it for what it leaks.. (Heck, I already oil the under side of my truck.. It is like an automatic re-oiler!!)

Kinda worried about that slab of sealent though... It that is floating, he uses way too much! A light finger coat is more than enough..