my 22-re in my 94 2wd pickup is getting significantly hot (but never touched red or overheated) when idling in a drive-thru or during stop and go traffic. the weather out here in so cal has been pretty warm lately and having the air conditioning on at idle seems to speed up this process. i deliver pizza for a living, so my rig sees alot of stop and go driving. once i get up to crusing speed the needle drops back down. this condition sounds normal to me, but i wanted to run it by some of you yotatechers.

i thought about maybe installing an aftermarket electric fan, but that might be kind of expenisive. i saw a kit from lc-engineering for about 300 bones.

lc-engineering also had this interesting flex fan:

http://www.toyotacatalog.net/M1WebGe...4-36F6A5C0BDC2

does anybody have any experience with these types of fans? can they help pull more air through the radiator than the stock fan at idle so my engine doesn't get hot?

 

t-stat ?

 

i replaced the thermostat when i bought the truck in october.

 

It still could be a bad t-stat -water pump - timeing. might check to see if the radiator is flowing good or claptsing hose after warming up, could be several things that need looking into. let us know as you check these things out,

 

Usually when you get cooling issues at low speeds it indicates a real issue. Fan clutch, maybe general cooling system capacity issue due to internal crapola.

*Most* electric fans won't cool as well as the stock fan with a shroud.
I've never used the flex fan, I've used several electrics. I'd be looking to a fan clutch, maybe drain and have a look at the radiator internals. A quasi-stock 22RE should have a lot of cooling capacity.

 

My truck did the same thing and it turned out to be my clutch fan died on me. So I just put an electric fan out of a ford taurus.

 

My guess would be a plugged radiator. And you want to be careful on overheating. IIRC the 22RE's temp gauge is not a dircet corelation of exact heat. Getting halfway to red can be enough to cause the minimal warpage needed to blow a HG. I would try a cooling system flush.

 

i DID put some cooling stop leak in it. ummmmm hopefully that didn't plug my radiator.

but you would think if the radiator was plugged, it would overheat on the highway. the temperature needle goes back DOWN when i get back up to moderate cruising speed.

hopefully it is something simple like my fan clutch. there is a buildup of greasy dirt all over it. i might even consider replacing the water pump while i have the fan and belts off.

 

It could be a radiator issue, a malfunctioning thermostat, hose pinching, or some of the other stuff already mentioned.

My first car, a 77 Corolla, did the same thing. It was the radiator causing the problem. If the radiator is restricted it may cool fine on the highway, but stop and go traffic will cause the temperature to climb due to limited airflow.

Mine wasn't getting enough flow due to corrosion and gunk that had built up.

 

How to test the fan clutch, Roll up a newspaper and get the engine up to operating temp. Brush the fan with the newspaper if the fan stops easy the clutch is dead.

IMO electric fan conversions are not worth the trouble or hassle.

 

In my experience, the highest load on the cooling system is when the truck is slow and the engine load significant - IE - slow cruise. Second to that, when I've had fans (electric) that didn't cut it, I'd get heat up (very very slowly) at idle.

Your radiator isn't totally plugged, otherwise it would overheat quickly. My guess is it's headed that way.

A few options (least to most expensive):
1) Check fan clutch as mentioned. (free)
2)Reverse flush (the reverse is important) your radiator.
3)Have a radiator shop tank and clean the radiator - standard radiator R&R
4)Replace the radiator (radiatorbarn.com)

 

Well cooling stop leak is nothing more than a plugging agent.....soooo...

But yes I am not suprised the temp drops as you move, think of all the increased air over your radiator and engine with speed, you have much more cooling potential, and your rpm's are slighty higher (somtimes a TON) so you are flowing more water.

like dcg said check radiator bar, cheap quality radiators....

 

Check radiator flewns make sure there not stopped up with bugs and dirt.. I had simular problem with mine, it turned out to be a stoped up radiator on the inside.. A local shop wanted 85 dollars to rod it out and a new 1 at Advance Auto parts was 105, so i put a new 1 on and been fine every since

 

My '89 Civic hatch did that and it turned out to be the fan motor was fried, but our fans are belt driven, so...... did you make sure your fan is spinning at idle? lol

Rob

 

I put some stop leak in ONCE , then the radiator got very plugged . Same problem , check to see if one side of the rad gets warm/hot while the other will be cool. If so replace the rad.

 

flushed the coolant today at school with the flush machine. so far so good. except stupid me forgot to open the heater control valve before i flushed it. oh well, i might flush again. it didn't take very long and it's way easy with that flush machine.

 

hope it helps...

 

well, even after flushing the coolant the other day, my truck still gets hot when idling for an extended amount of time.

there are a couple things i want to do:

clean any crap out of the fins on the radiator (doesn't look too bad, but still),

perform a backflush,

and rule out the fan, clutch, and water pump as possible causes before i blame the radiator.

i think either not enough air is getting pulled through the radiator when idle or the water pump isn't circulating enough coolant at idle.

the stop leak i used is called bar's leak and GM puts it in the cooling systems of their vehicles when they are built.

 

H2O pumps rarely fail on 22RE's, engnbldrs words not mine. So my guess is still a old plugged calcified radiator, but it is good to rule other things out first.

 

make sure you haven't developed a cooling system leak.....mine had similar symptoms due to this issue