Well I'm pretty sure but I'm hoping someone convinces me otherwise;

Cruising back from riding the RZRs doing about 85 downhill for "an extended period of time". I hear a hissing, look at the gauges and temp is in the red. Pull over praying to see steam from the overflow but nope, it's coming from under the intake plenum somewhere. Hobbled home and refilled the radiator. Cranked the engine to get the air out and happened to noticed a healthy amount of water from the exhaust. It does this everytime I start the engine now.

I haven't had time to change the fluids and check them. Using the touch method the heating of the radiator is very intermittent. I noticed this with the heat inside of the vehicle as I was trying to cool the engine off, could have just been low coolant level.

I'm HOPING clogged radiator, I doubt thermostat because it wouldn't have affected the heater core, or water pump? Not sure about Toyotas but I'm used to being able to see coolant swirling around through the radiator cap from the flow.

What do you guys think? 91 4runner v6 215k 4x4, I'm reading most of you guys are redoing the gaskets with a lil head work and the burnt valve or 2 for $500 bucks?

 

I did almost the exact same thing. I'm halfway through a long block swap because I couldn't justify paying for headwork on a 250K motor.

 

If you overheated it you probably blew a headgasket too. If it was mine I think I'd run a compression test on it.

 

if u change the oil and its white then u blew the headgasket

 

I second the above two comments. Oil change and compression test could tell you a lot. I don't think that coolant visibly moves past the open radiator cap when everything is working properly, but don't know for sure. Water in the exhaust sounds potentially dire. My money is on bad radiator led to overheating led to hg blowout. Bummer.

 

Well I'll be back to my house tonight so I can drain it and see. I'm hoping there are coolant feeds that go through the intake plenum/runners? Can anyone confirm this? The steam seems to be coming from pretty high up. It also ACTIVELY leaks as I'm refilling the radiator, I've never had a blown HG do this. Fingers crossed for a hose or something higher up on the motor. I did have the HG recall done.

 

HEYYYY It's a hose!!!! There's a 3 inch lenght of hose that does a sharp 90 right above the exhaust crossover in the rear, after letting the engine sit cold I was able to crawl all over it this morning with it running and sure enough right at the clamp I can see it leaking out.

Still going do an oil change, reverse radiator flush and then a complete drain on the cooling system. WOOO GOOD NEWS!

 

Lucky you! When my hg failed, the old beast never overheated or gave any other warning. Simply started running rough and blowing smoke after a 5 mile highway trip at 55 mph. Count your blessings!

 

Woohoo for you! Glad it was something small. Sorry to be a doomsayer.

 

Hey, don't apologize man, the symptoms where there it just turned out to be something else. That's what this board is for! I've got the FSM diagram of the offending hose, hopefully this will help someone out in the future. After an oil change my oil is definitely black and 100% oil... mmmmm texas tea.

I've still got about a tablespoon of water on engine start from the exhaust, she's just old. Compression test in my near future.

This hose was a NIGHTMARE to remove, 4 hours??? The hose was shot and inaccessible, I ripped it to shreds pulling it off. Had to use a flat tip to bend the spring clamps apart since I couldn't get pliers on them. New generic 90* 3/4" hose with screw clamps. DEFINITELY get a universal joint for these bad boys and you'll be done in half the time.

 

I'm happy that your issue wasn't a headgasket - that would suck. I'd do a compression test though and make sure that you didn't blow the gasket after you overheated it.

 

water from your exhaust..haha

am i wrong but doesnt combustion chemically create h2o?

 

It does... but you shouldn't have that much spit out. At lot of water on startup usually comes from a blown HG, coolant slowly leaking into the cylinder while parked.