Nice trick!

Not bad for a first post!!!

 

to burp the cooling system all you have to do is run the truck with the raditor cap off so its not under pressure and all the air bubbles come up to the top and do that for about 10 min and you should be good

 

Tried that several times. Tried it with front end flat and up at an angle. The engine temp would get into the red and water would be boiling out of the cap. When i would shut the engine off, it would make "tink, tink" noises and the grime on the engine would be smoking. IT WAS HOT!!! But NOTHING would burp.
I have a 1991 6cylinder 4runner. The thermostat is very low on the block and did not heat sufficiently enough to open before water was boiling into the radiator from the top radiator hose.
I had replaced the thermostat and was looking into replacing the water pump thinking it had to be the problem as water just wasnt circulating. But its the fact that when theres no water, or little water, at the thermostat it just doesnt get hot enough to open.

 

If all of this fails, run to an auto parts store and get a gravity cup. They come with different adapters and basically you fill it with coolant and the cup sits so that it is the highest point of the cooling system, just run it until there is no air bubbles or burping, put the plug that it comes with into the cup so you dont make a mess, remove the adapter and put the cap on. If THAT FAILS then have someone hook it up to a machine, and if that fails then sorry to say you are getting exhaust gases into the cooling system which means you have a bhg. Those 2 methods are 1000 times easier than disconnecting hoses and head aches... this is what we do at my toy dealership. Good luck

 

I too was having an overheating problem after changing a thermostat...half of the engine was overheating while the other half was cool to the touch due to the TS not getting hot enough to open...meanwhile the other half was getting no water.

It tried to pour boiling water on the TS housing but that didn't work...I then tried your idea and that did it. Rotate the hose up, poured almost a gallon in the end of the hose, reved it up a few times and violla...no more overheating, the air inside the truck warmed up, and the revs of the engine settled down.

Great Idea!

 

Mine is doing this crap, but my heater works fine. I hear a lot of sloshing if I drive it above 3500 rpm and it cools down. Any slower and she overheats. Same story, replaced the (gutted) thermostat with a new one and have had overheating every time I try to drive it since...

I'm considering taking the thermostat out and drilling a small (1/8") bypass hole in it like a factory Toyota thermostat has and orienting it to the top. Wouldn't that let air go by until the hot water would come into contact (finally) with the thermostat bulb ???

Dang, this is pissing me off !!

 

Mine was doing this too until I did what someone on the forum said to do; disconnect the top radiator hose on the radiator side, loosen the other side a bit, rotate it up so it's pointing in the air, and fill up hose; I was surprised by how much fluid it took. Run the truck with the heater set to hot with fan on full blast, truck nose inclined up a bit. Worked well for me when nothing else would. I tried the incline, filling slowly, burping the line etc etc.

Hope this helps you!

 

lol...these threads always kill me but not for the reason some might think. It's because in the four or five years I've had my 4Runner it's had that "water trickle" sound in the heater core. Ive changed the thermostat (OEM) & I've tried all the burping methods. My jiggle valve is at 12 o'clock etc. No overheating issues, no loss of coolant over time (so no bad head gasket) but that annoying trickle has never left. I've given up trying!

Well, maybe not but about the only thing left is Mt.Goats "T" mod. I might try that this summer.....that sound just crawls up my spine every time I hear it.

 

Just finished my water pump / timing belt job tonight.. this worked great! (was running super hot w/ high idle and no heat coming from the blower vents)

Thanks for the great advice.

 

Well my daughter has been driving the 4Runner all summer with the guts removed from the thermostat and it runs around half-scale on the temp gauge. I finally got fed-up and removed it. I'm sort of convinced it's my water-pump, the heater-core was plugged when we bought the truck and I found the radiator-hose spring really rust when I removed it. Maybe the rust and scale half-way wore out the water-pump impeller that's what I figure for now...

I did the test for combustion-gas and verified the head-gaskets are just fine so that's awesome...

 

ok, I tried this trick with limited success but I forgot to have the truck running. What do you plug the radiator with because all the water I pour in comes out the top of the radiator where the un-hooked hose goes. If I try to block it off with my palm I guet burned...

Rags would work I guess. I'll try again with it running this time. At my wits end...

Can timing affect the overheating ? I didn't check it yet...

 

Okay, smarty pants I'm ready to kick your butt now... I went and tried this I unhooked the upper radiator hose from the radiator and turned it straight up and started the engine. I got coolant/water mix all over me because this is the motor-outlet (return-line to radiator) so I'm not sure why you would run the motor except to pump all your radiator-coolant thru and out your engine all over the friggin' place. On top of that, my engine still overheats. I did read somewhere on here you can't do this procedure until the thermostat is open meaning engine up to full-temp but that will be tough to tell just normal or overheated ??

I'm about ready to sell this POS. Toyota has built a lot of great stuff and their quality is tops, but this 3VZE isn't impressing me on any front...

 

I had the top of my rad split on a 10 minute drive one cool evening, and knowing it had some leaks and corrosion I didn't think much of it and replaced it along with the t-stat. After i get it all set up it's still overheating and the bottom rad hose was cold. After much attempts to bled/burb it driving, incline, massaging, and getting very much annoyed I came to the conclusion that something else was amiss. I got to the water pump and found that the bearing was shot and the whole side of the impeller had dug itself into the side of the water pump housing. So I guess once the water pump failed it blew the top off of my old rad (could have been original-90'). So after a new water pump and some issues with silicone on paper gaskets (DON'T USE them contrary to two employees at partsource) I've finally got the engine to run smooth and cool. I was in desperate need of a new timing and v-belt anyways so the althought the job took forever it was all worth it in the end. Now i need to flush my cooling system a few more times becasue of years of yellow coolant rusting away my engine.
I hope you dont need to go through that whole job but a bad water pump could be your issue, you can test it to see if it spins without taking it off and maybe without taking off your timing belt, maybe.
Goodluck hope this helps.

 

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I am having the same issue!! I took my truck to Toyota to do a radiator flush and they called to tell me that I had a thermostat installed which was gutted out. When they put in a new thermostat, it overheated. I am so frustrated, I have a road trip in 4 days and I need my truck. arrggh!!!!

 

Same symptoms. Just replaced water heater and thermostat when I did the timing belt. Going to replace radiator and see what that does.