Hey folks,

My son was driving my 84 Toyota PU 4x4 with a 22R to our new house this afternoon. As he was leaving eastern, NC, after about 45 minutes of driving, he saw steam coming from under the hood and pulled over. The lower hose coming off the block had exploded and was shooting out coolant. We called a buddy and he drove over and they took the hose to the parts place and replaced the hose and added coolant. They drove about three miles and the truck started overheating.

AT this, they pulled back over on the side of the highway and let it cool down some and pulled the radiator cap. It was low on coolant and they thought maybe an air pocket had cleared so they added more coolant. Now he called and told me that the truck is taking coolant almost as fast as they could put it in.

Additional info... I thought the truck had a "strange" rattle/ticking noise when I heard it running yesterday but forgot to check it when they came home last night before we left for the new house about 3 to 4 hours away. The noise sounded like it was near the front of the motor. This wasn't the typical valve noise that these things make. Hard to explain...

Either way, does it sound more like a head gasket or possibly the timing chain worn through the plastic guides and eaten the cover of the water pump. Prior to this, the motor ran smooth and was not smoking or anything. This is the second motor in the truck and I am not sure how many miles it has...

Any surefire way to test before I have to go back and start stripping the motor down. Long drive there to show up without the right tools. (hehe)

Thanks in advance,
Chris

 

Does the oil look like a milkshake? When a hole is worn through the timing cover the coolant dumps into the oil pan. I would lean more towards head gasket.

 

Not looking milky yet, but it happened real sudden. (Plus it was starting to get dark when they checked it on the stick) They said it took two jugs of coolant and thought it was full again and it made it two miles before it was bone dry again and the temp gauge went up.

As they started to put more coolant in, they now see smoke coming from the tailpipe. The rattling / ticking noise I heard would have possible been coming from the front near the timing chain, which is why I was initially thinking it might be the water pump with a hole in it.

It sound like it's time to make some hard decisions. Start to tear it down and rebuild as I find bad parts from front to back and top down or just invest in a "new' motor and that has already had the work done to start with...

The bad thing is that I am up against a time crunch that leans me more toward the replacement since the thing has now overheated so bad... Decisions... decisions...

 

rent a coolant system pressure tester from Autozone. You should be able to tell where the problem is pretty quickly if you have a big leak

 

just pull the timing cover and inspect it. you dont need to pull the head, it wont take that long. just be careful as there is a bolt in the head above the timing cover. it gets covered in oil and is easy to miss. or pull the valve cover to see if your guides are broken.

 

Thanks! I am going to call them this afternoon and let them know what to check before we start to fight the head. I did some checking with the original owner and it "supposedly" only has around 15K miles on a complete rebuild. I think he had some wool pulled over his eyes on that one.

Thanks again!

 

well, a rebuild with low quality chinese parts is worthless. thats why unless they have receipts from a reputable engine builder, i assume its not rebuilt. if you were about 3 hours west, id offer to lend a hand myself haha. also another tip, draw a timing cover on a piece of card board and cut holes where the bolts go, and place them in it to keep track. it seems like they're all a different size. (let me know if you dont understand,)

 

Thanks Yodafan93. It's going to be a week or so before I can get back to Oak City to trailer it home. We just moved outside of Charlotte in Concord so at least I have a garage now to roll it in to work.

 

I haven't been able to get back to the truck lately, so a good friend is taking care of her for me. He pulled the head (hard way to start) and did find a "weak" spot between cylinder 3 and 4 on the head gasket. Definitely not causing the water issues. He then pulled the timing cover and found the culprit. Guides wore through and chain destroyed the cover and pump.

He is milling the head and doing a rebuild for me. He also found the exhaust studs had some issues so he is repairing them as well. He had it down to the block last week and all the parts had been received so he is hopefully finishing up soon so I can get my baby back. This guy has become like a dad to me and has been around this truck since it was new in '84.

More to come if things change later...

 

And so it changed. We were going to drive the truck back last week as it appeared to be ready. We got about 10 miles and the temp ran up to around 240. We cranked on the heater and it dropped back down some so we could get it back over the barn. After swapping thermostats and checking the fan clutch, it was determined to be the radiator somewhat clogged up. He had a spare radiator sitting there waiting to go back in another truck that we used to test. With the test radiator, the truck would run at 190 and only get above that (195-200) when the truck was really being pushed hard.

I ordered a radiator today and it will be swapped in the next few days, hopefully as a final step in preparation for her final drive to her new house about 4 hours away. I can't wait to get the old gal back. I'm starting to miss her after a three month separation.

 

Glad you got it figured! Let us know how the drive goes...best of luck!

 

I'll be heading down Monday morning to pick her up. I'll let you know how the drive goes.

 

She's finally home! I was able to run around 65-70mph with the AC running and only hit 202 degrees. Not bad for a 4 hour drive. Now to fix the small exhaust leak at at cat converter.