Heres the story:

I bought this 87 4runner for $400 w/ a warped head, or so I thought. I dumped roughly $1000 into fixing the problem and some others with the truck and now.... the worst happened.

After I rebuilt the engine and everything seemed fine, It started to boil the coolant. I thought since the engine had that oil/water sludge in it maybe the thermostat was bad so I changed it and added some pre-mix coolant. It ran fine for one week. After that it started to boil again and lately its been 20 degrees here. When I went to add some water to my engine today (thinking it boiled a lot of the water) I noticed that there were some Ice chips inside the radiator and the coolant in the overflow canister was frozen. I added some water and started the engine. I let it warm up and checked once more before I left, everything seemed fine. After I arrived at my destination (2 miles away) I checked the radiator again and it looked milky so i touched it. It had OIL.
I checked the oil and same thing.

So now I don't know what to do.... I don't have a lot of money or time left for this engine so I'm open to suggestions.

Just outa curiousity how much could I sell it for??

87 4runner SR5
white w/ rust around all wheel wells and a little on tailgate.
FRAME AND SUSPENSION GOOD
Almost every part in the engine compartment is new
NEW BRAKES front and rear.
New master cylinder
Factory COLD a/c
Sunroof
Power everything
The only thing that doesnt work is the parking brake.
240k on the body
decent tires

 

is there any coolant in the oil? if not flush the coolant again and add the right mix back in it. see what happens.

 

Sorry... I meant to say that the oil is milky as well

 

if the oil is milky then you got a major problem, best case its just the timing chain cover, but its more likely that the head gasket went or the head may be cracked. what all did you have done to the truck anyways?

 

I rebuilt the engine: rings, bearings, gasket set, new water pump, alternator, main seals.

I also forgot to add I replaced the torque converter as well.

 

did you put the warped head back on or a new one or have the head decked, if you had it decked did you use the copper shim and gasket to make up for the deck job on the head if not maybe the pistons hit the valves and cracked the head also if you used a decked head did you use copper coat on the block and copper shim gasket, regardless of what happened, you blew another head gasket and thats that. let me know exactly what you did on the build!

 

No, i didn't use the warped head. I used a head from another 22re engine I had laying around. That head seemed to be "straight". Are you sure I didnt crack the head and/or block from possible water freezing in there?

 

did you check the head you put on to make sure it was in spec. ie did you have it milled?

 

Sounds like a head gasket. I had the same thing with one of my trucks. Pressure in the coolent system. After a while the coolent just gets to hot and boils.

 

if you didnt use a strong enough mix of antifreeze it is very possible that it did crack the head and cause the problems you now have. but the moral of the story is use more anti freeze and now you are going probably to have to tear back into it and redo the top end again.

 

I don't see how it could be a head gasket... I put a brand new one on. And no, I didn't check the head before installing it.

 

It could be a cracked head I guess. The block is iron so it's pretty hard to crack that. You used a torque wrench on the head bolts right?

Rob

 

If the head was cracked or warped you could have an issue. No matter what you should always check that the head isn't warped. If it was warped the HG wont last too long. You also shouldn't see ice in your coolant, or you're not using a stong enough mix.

If you filled the entire system with 50/50 premixed coolant it should be good down to around -30. You can get a coolant tester to check the freeze protection

 

Well, I did check the head with a straight edge and feeler gauge. And yes, I think my mix was off. Im tired of messing around with this engine though. Ive already with through replacing some much on it and 2 gasket sets (dont ask). I think I just want to buy a long block, rebuilt or new. Any thoughts where?

 

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