Hi All,

It started to get cold this winter and I discovered that my heater was not putting out any heat. I didn't think to much of it, figured a stuck TS. Checked the water shutoff at the heater core lines first. The cable had disconnected itself so I re-attched that. Next I changed out the TS, new coolant, and fired her back up. Funny thing was is that I couldn't get it to burp. The truck wasn't getting hot though so after an hour or so of trying to burp it I folded and buttoned it up. Ran it for about a week. I was messing around in the snow, running it kinda hard and it steamed on me. Temp gauge never came up. I added some more coolant, figured it finally burped and went about my business. Couple days later same thing, running it a little hard and it steamed on me again. Temp gauge never got hot. I cant see much fluid movement in the radiator with it running. My guess is busted water pump? No screaming from under the hood. Little bit of leakage but nothing significant. Any help would be great. I'd really hate to give up my rig but if I'm in for a rebuild I'd rather spend the money and find myself a '97.

 

It would really help if we knew what you were working on ?, year and engine ?.

 

Sorry about that, 94 4runner 3VZE

 

You could have a bad water pump, but usuall when the happens your truck will run hot all the time. When you replaced the thermostat did you replace it with a stock thermostat ?, it shoud be in the range of 190-195 degrees, anything less and you could run into problems. Another thing to have checked out is the radiator.

 

It was a stock TS. I considered the radiator as well but I figured if that was the issue it would have the same run hot all the time issue. I'll check it out anyway. Seems to me it's acting like there is air in the system somewhere. Is there a special way to burp these? I just left the cap off and waited for the TS to open like I would on anything else. I didn't see any bleeder valves or anything. With the TS being so low on the block it's got me wondering. Last time I drove it I got some water out of the back of the motor though. I've got a pressure tester on the way. I'm wondering if I didn't blow a head gasket and it's pushing air into the cooling system. It's not pushing steam through the exhaust, and it's not really drinking any water that I can tell. I'm guessing I'm in for a rebuild.

 

With a 3.0, a blown head gasket is always a posibility.

 

So, back to his question...How do you burp the 3vze engine?

 

Have the radiator flow checked.If you don't have any heat from the heater also,then I'm leaning towards a plugged up rad/heater core from the system being dirty/not maintained well at some point.