1st Gen Crawler

Greetings All,

This is my first post on here, although i have been browsing threads all over for years. Hopefully somebody on here can help me fix my problems.

I was driving across town in my 82 pickup and i noticed that my temp gauge was suddenly near the red! so i hobbled her home before it got too bad. Popped the hood and had a look around, i was expecting to find coolant from a blown hose, but there was nothing i could see out of the ordinary.

Get in it the next day to drive to school which is about 5-10 minutes away, and up one hill. By the time i get to school it has reached the danger zone yet again. keep in mind i am at 3600 ft elevation and it is usually around 30 degrees F in the mornings, and there was actually snow on my truck that day if remember correctly.

Get to school and park as fast as possible, and by the time i was about to shut the truck off and jump out i noticed that the temp gauge had started to go back down. Not a chance idling for 5 seconds in a parking spot is enough to cool it down that much. get out and check the engine bay again to find nothing, again. Radiator is warm to the touch, and the top of the engine (right by the 22r Sticker) is pretty dang hot, cant touch it for more than a few seconds. Inlet and outlet hoses are warm to the touch as well, so i have to assume it is circulating at least somewhat.

I should also not that i have been fighting some major electrical issues with my dash cluster. I would list the details here but it is something that needs an entire thread dedicated to it. That is why i am tempted to say that this could be a fluke with the wires somewhere, but i really don't want to risk it.

Engine was rebuilt (block out of an 87 i believe) with a new cam and stuff. i did not personally do the work so i don't really know what else was replaced along with it, but it is essentially a brand new engine.

I will link this to the electrical problems thread incase anybody thinks the two might be related.

Hope somebody on here can help me out with this!

83

Really hard to say with all your electrical problems. And scary! You don't want to mess around with overheating. Bye bye headgasket.

If the thermostat is opening and coolant is circulating, and the engine has been rebuilt, I'd check things like:

Air in the coolant system. Read up on how to burp it.
Bad engine fan clutch. Not too expensive to replace and kinda hard to diagnose.

And...that might be about it. I have a rebuilt engine, and trust my gauges, and was overheating a bit one summer. I just replaced my thermostat and fan clutch, put in new fluid, and that solved it.

But you don't want to be throwing money at stuff if you don't even know if your gauge is accurate. But you also don't want to be driving a truck that's overheating. Unless you're looking to get into another partial rebuild.

Gotta get those gauges fixed before you drive it much more.

snobdds

Get a cheap infared temp guage and take measurements all over the engine. If it's not hotter than 200*F then you have a guage / sender problem. If it's hot then I would hook up a coolant pressure tester and see where your problem is.

Don't over think this and start simple...always the best method to proceed from.

1st Gen Crawler

Thanks for the advice. How exactly can i tell if the fan clutch is shot without actually removing it?
Also of there any good way to tell if the thermo is opening other than to remove it and boil it myself?
I will be calling the shop that rebuilt the engine and asking them exactly what was replaced.

I will be doing a flush of the system soon just to be sure. truck needs to make a trip thursday over the pass. About 100 miles from 5000 feet to 100 feet elevation, so there will be some climbing of hills for sure.

Is there any efficient way to test the gauge and sender themselves?

I think i will go out and let it idle for a bit and see if the gauge climbs. If the engine were idling from cold, and the coolant was not circulating, how long would it take for the temp to climb to a dangerous level? (if it would take 15 minutes at idle, and it climbs in 5 i should be able to know that the gauge is busted right?)

1st Gen Crawler

Had to make another short trip to and from school. =/ showed near an over heat on the gauge within 7 minutes. There was a least 2 inches of snow on the hood, and it was about 33 degrees outside, seems like that would be enough to keep an engine from over heating in such a short time period.

Parked it and let it sit for about 4 hours while the snow melted. Drove it home down the hill using the engine as little as possible, yet it still nearly over heats by the time i get home. No way it is more than a 5 minute drive from school to my house. Got home and popped the hood. Radiator is significantly hotter than the engine, top radiator hose is warm, bottom is about the same. Radiator seems to be hotter than last time i did this a day or two ago, and the top of the engine seems to be quite a bit cooler.

I am going to let her cool down, then go out and let it idle for 10 minutes or so and see what happens to the temp gauge. Should a 22r be able to overheat itself without any load on it in a few minutes?

Bingle

30 degrees to overheat in 5 min seems a bit questionable, mine takes conciderable more than that but my girl is pretty cold blooded. It might if your timeing was too advanced or you were running lean. Thermo sticking closed causing spike then dropping quick when it finally opens (parked at school?). Check your plugs to see if you're running too hot and/or lean. Electrical gremlins causing mistrust for the gauges is why I run mechanical temp and oil press gauges. Also check what was said above. Good luck.

1st Gen Crawler

I think i would much prefer to have mechanical gauges for those, what does a conversion cost to swap away from the electrical? The more of the electrical i can get out of my truck the fewer problems i think i will have down the road.

1st Gen Crawler

Went out to my truck when it was cold just now and popped the cap off of the radiator and it is what i think might be TOO full of coolant. comes up to where the cap seals and the bottom of the cap would touch it for sure when sealed. Overflow container is dirty on the inside and is in need of a good clean for sure, and is about 1/4th full of fluid.

Fluid is bright green in color, so it's pretty fresh i'm sure.

Started her up and got her to idle (its a pretty cold blooded truck) then climbed out and walked around for a few minutes. after about 5 minutes or less the temp gauge needle was all the way to red, but the radiator and engine were still quite cold. However, after the 5 minute idle the engine was slightly warmer than the radiator, but the intake (right under the carb) was quite hot indeed!
I did not expect the stock intake to be that hot! is that normal?

Also, where does the temp gauge actually take a reading from on the engine?

1st Gen Crawler

Went and did the same test again with the same results. This time i tried it with the radiator cap off to see if it would "burp" up a problem. Waited about 3 minutes until the radiator fluid level started to rise and it began spilling out very slowly from the opening. Not much was coming out, and i debated giving it a few more minutes to level out incase there was too much fluid, but i didnt wanna make a wrong move.

Seems to me that i remember the gas gauge and the temp gauge reading while the key in in the on position, but the engine is not running. Heater still works, and the batter gauge goes real low and pulses. Should the gas and temp still read with the engine not running?

Toyota~Boy

iTrader: (2)

I'd go to local part store and buy a cheap (sunpro) mechanical gauge. Hook it up under the the hood and start the truck. Watch the gauge. See how far it rises. This will solve your questions as far as electrical goes. I see others have said the same but I do not see we're you have tried this. This mod only takes five minutes to do and it will give you a 100% accurate reading. Try this and let us know what the gauge tells ya.

Inu

Might be barking up the wrong tree but could it be the heater?
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...tml#Thermostat

1st Gen Crawler

I will try the mechanical gauge tomorrow for sure, problem is that i do not have a way to get to the auto parts store without driving my truck. Could be a 10 - 15 minute drive across town and the gauge will surely read an over heat by then. But it sounds like i really do need to test a new gauge and see what the temperature really is.

I like the sound of the stage 2 T-Stat, but i am not sure i will be able to find one of those in town tomorrow.... I will call around and ask, anybody have the P/N for the stage 2 T-stat and the gauge replacement? I know one was listed in the link above, but will that work for my 22R? I know that is a dumb question since most all 22r and RE pretty much run on the same basic parts through most of the years. Engine is out of an 87' freshly installed. Better safe than sorry, especially in my case.

I should note that i have not been having any cooling issues in the last 1,000 miles (2.5 months) at all since i got it back from the shop.

I do like the "bark" on the heater thing, i have been running defrost full most of the time, and never turn it off at the start. I started running it to hopefully help cool the engine when i was getting my ridiculous readings, thought it might help cool it. Sounds like a mechanical gauge and a stage 2 thermo are in order for tomorrow if i can find them in town. I will note that my heater has never really worked all that well, just kinda half-ass blows kinda warm air.

How much coolant am i going to have to drain in order to replace the t-stat, or should i just plan on draining it all just to be on the safe side?

Also where exactly does the mechanical thermo plug in and what tools will i need to swap it? i have looked, but i can not seem to find a good DIY for it for some reason.

Killgore Trout

a hot INTAKE manifold,.....weeiiirrdd, something is wrong, i know you have electrical bugs, but that wont make the intake heat up noticeably more than the surrounding area, if anything it should be a tad cooler, make sure someone didnt put a potato in your tail pipe, are you running a cat?
how is your idle, you arent backfiring through the carb or anything are you?
my first instict isnt to chase down a electrical bug personally, the hot intake is what i am fixated on, even if t-stat is a gonner, and temp sensor is a bust, the intake should still not get hotter than the rest of the engine at the base of the carb

smithyboy69

I had the same problems develop on my 86 22re, i pulled the T-stat and it was all sludged up and wasn't opening properly. I replaced it and it went away for like 2 months and then came back. I replaced the T-stat again and it made it worse then got better after a day or so and now it happens all the time, i checked with an aftermarket temp gauge and my temp is following the trend of the actual gauge, however not at all to the extent that my gauge shows. i just ignore it now.

1st Gen Crawler

No cat, no potato in the pipe that i am aware of, if anything i do not have enough back pressure. Running stock headers to a flowmaster that is hardly attached. (Flange gasket went out and now it leaks where the headers meet the pipe before the muffler, and the two bolts are so effed up they are impossible to remove, needs to be cut) waiting to get a set of headers before i tackle that issue sadly..

I have absolutely no idea why the intake would be hot either, i will test it again tomorrow and see what i find out. Wish i had an accurate way to measure the temp of different parts of the engine without spending an arm and a leg.

That does not sound good. I think i will try to solve the issue entirely, these trucks really are quite simple and with enough elbow grease i think most anything cam be remedied. Thanks for the input, i will keep that in mind for sure.

What temp should the engine be at during normal operating conditions, and when does it become a dangerous issue?

83pingpong

I think you got a bad thermostat. THAT WOULD EXPLAIN FAST ONSET- the thermostat is not opening, and/or flow is restricted-not opening all the way. Buy a good one and install it. If available, get the cooler one (can't hurt). I'll bet it is just the thermostat.

One other thing... If the radiator fluid is not visibly flowing when hot, it is not circulating right (also indicates thermostat). AND, if the fluid in the engine gets too hot, it WILL boil, causing the radiator to overflow if open (you saw this).

There is a chance it is just a clogged radiator as well. That would explain the fast onset as well. If it is not the thermostat, your radiator is clogged. It could be a combination of both. I am sure this is a circulation problem since it happens when it is COLD outside!

1st Gen Crawler

Engine was cold when this happened. I wanted to let the radiator stay open until i got some kinda of burp out of it, but it was barely flowing over, and not circulating like you said. i dont think the 3 minutes at idle were enough to pop open the t-stat.

Will be replacing it today just to be sure. This truck has to make it 100 miles tomorrow, and i dont wanna risk anything.

Best way to drain coolant is via the drain plug on the radiator correct?

83pingpong

A friend of mine bought a 2nd gen and was driving through to take it home. He kept overheating, and when he got to my place, we removed the thermostat to see if it would help. It did not! The radiator was clogged up. We replaced it, and flushed the system, refilled, new thermostat, and then we had (more) beer.

If the temp sensor is not the culprit (if it really is hot), you must have a flow issue, particularly if you really can't see any evidence of flowing when it is running/revving and hot (looking right in through the middle/top opening). You might just remove the thermostat to see if it helps. It should run cool, but at least not overheat.

1st Gen Crawler

Yesterday was a good day! Got up early and swapped the t-stat, also installed a mechanical temp gauge. Could not use the port that the electrical one is in because there was not enough depth. Put it horizontally on the side, and it seems to work great. Should have gotten another gauge probably though, this one goes from 130 - 280. Which means it will always register on the low side of the gauge.

Changed T-Stat, refitted the top radiator hose, added mech temp gauge, and topped her off with fluid. (took about a 2 liter of 50/50 mix to refill the radiator) Let her run for about 5 - 7 minutes with the radiator cap off to try to get a burp, started out by rising up to the top and spilling out a bit again, then eventually burped itself down a half inch or so. (not as much as i was expecting, but i really didnt lose that much changing the t-stat). capped it off and drove her around the block for a mile or so then came home and parked, and checked the new t-stat for leaks. After a cool off i popped the cap, checked the level (had not changed) and cleaned the nasty-ness out of my coolant overflow and filled it to the appropriate level.

I am going to consider this particular issue closed for the moment as long as my new temp gauge stays under 200 degrees. Any body else know of anything else i should consider?

foxx1952

I have a 1993 Toyota P.U. 4x4 ,with a 22RE 4 cel. My Prodlem is its blowing Head Gaskets , I got the truck New , and right after the warranty expired, The Head Gasket let go , This is the 4th one I put on this 22RE, theres not many miles on it , 75,000,and now its no.5, the Head Gaskets were put on by a Auto shop , Not the same one , I have a two part question , #1, Do you know of Toyota haveing a call back on this Problem,? #2, Will a 1993 6 cyl, fit in my truck , doing away with the 22re , will it bolt up to the 22RE, bell housing ,If so I would like to put a 6 cly back in iy , Tird of Head Gaskets blowing ..