IN my 82 4wd Pickup the heater doesnt seem to be working. It's obviously not equipped with A/C but I would like to get the heater in working order so I have something to defrost my windshield. The fan works but all its doing is blowing cold air. I have checks my cooolant system for leaks but havent tried anything beyond that. I have had the truck in my posession off and on since 2005 and i dont thing the heater has EVER worked. Any advice is appreciated.

 

I assume that it is hooked up to the coolant system properly? If it is hooked up then I would check to make sure that a) the cable is connected to the slider on the heater control and the heater valve on the firewall and b) the valve on the firewall isn't seized up.

 

drain coolant. disconnect the inlet and outlet tubes in your engine bay from the heater core. get a garden hose. use your hands to route water in and through it. get all the gunk out. Fill your system with new toyota coolant. If its not a mechanical problem with your lever etc then it could just be from build up. Good luck. Report back

 

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yeah don't tweak out lol

 

Most likely you have a bad or plugged heater core or control valve. The valve is under the hood on the firewall above and behind the engine cam/valve cover. Check it for proper operation.

If it's a heater core plug do like was said before and try a garden hose after disconnecting the coolant hoses. If that doesn't work you can use compressed air as well, just be VERY gentle and do NOT use the full pressure. Use a rag around the head of the air nozzle to 'seal' it in the passenger side coolant inlet and gently, slowly increase pressure into the core, not going overboard.

 

Also, report back your coolant coniditon. If your engine coolant is old or foul I'd recommend running water and laundry detergent through the coolant system for a while, changing every couple days until the crud is out of the system. After unplugging or replacing the core/control valve if that's your problem. Just keep radiator flushing it with soap and water (if it's above freezing in your area) until the water coming out looks ok.

I say laundry detergent because it won't sud and works well to break up crap in the cooling system. Another couple of common problems with Yota's is having the coolant hoses routed wrong. The passenger side should connect to the head under the intake, the driver's side should go to the radiator or to a fitting that leads to the lower radiator hose. If none of this works, make sure you have at least a 180 degree thermostat. It's common to run 190's in R series engines in colder climate areas becasue they will run cold without a 180/90 thermostat.

 

What if theres a 22R block in place of the 20R? Are you supposed to use the lower coolant hard line bolted to the block that has the T in it? That part of the coolant system confuses me for the flow of coolant thru the heater core. :-p

 

That small coolant passage that bolts directly to the head on both engines between runners 2 and 3 on the intake, should lead to the passenger side inlet for the core. For some years it goes to the heater control on the firewall, then to the passenger side inlet. On early year trucks it goes directly into the truck and the valve is mounted in the driver's side footwell area next to the heater vent.

The hard line coming from the water pump on the passenger side of the engine block should go to the intake manifold.

 

How about that u shaped hard line within the motor mount on the drivers side that has a T in some years, looks like the outlet from the heater core is routed to it.

 

I have no idea. If it hooks up to the head I'd think that's where you'd want your 'in' to the core.