warminghut

First, hello to all here. This is obviously my first post, but I've searched all over the net, and this looks like the best source of info I can find on Toyotas and my 94 4Runner w/ the 3.0. I'll also ask you to forgive my ignorance when it comes to what I suspect are elementary issues, but I don't trust many people, and my local mechanics are no different, so I've decided to do all my work on my own from now on, for better or worse. Hopefully some of you can help me fall on the "better" side.

Moving on. My 4Runner started leaking coolant recently, near the back of the engine. Sometimes it leaks, sometimes it doesn't. I suspect the head gasket, although there are no symptoms (no oil on the dipstick, no white smoke from exhaust). However, my first problem was the radiator that had a small crack in it and wouldn't hold pressure. The coolant inside was also a sludgy, rusty brownish orange, about a year and maybe 5,000 miles after a flush done by a fairly respected shop in town. So i replaced the radiator yesterday, and that's where my question comes in.

The rusty coolant is obviously still everywhere in the system except for the new radiator. Can I just fill it up with straight water, and run it through for a while, and then drain and refill with coolant? Am I doing any damage to bring obviously bad coolant into the new radiator? Are there any other options? The garage I had do a pressure test (to see if my problem was the HG) told me to that the coolant was filthy and to make sure I flush it out 2 or 3 times.

Also, before anyone suggests I take it to a shop, I, like 15% of the rest of Oregon, am unemployed and barely scraping by, so $70 for a flush might work for Donald Trump, but not for me. I'm happy I was able to buy a new radiator.

Anyway, many thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.


Jeff

ps. On the topic of the HG, I'll also say that I have about 135,000 miles and that the recall was already done in 1997. So it would seem to be about that time.

mmcpeck

Hi Jeff, welcome,

You can run water through the system for a while, drain it and re-do it a couple of times, no problem. It won't hurt anything. I don't think it will do anything to your new radiator since you will be diluting it so much with the fresh hose water.

I used to just leave the pit cock on the radiator open slightly and fill up the radiator with the hose, then run the engine and keep the hose nearby and constantly filling up the radiator with new fresh water until I see clean water coming out of the pit cock on the radiator, that way you keep a constant supply of fresh water running through it. You can also just fill, run, drain and repeat also.

As far as your coolant leak in the rear of the engine, check the upside down U shape by-pass hose in the back of the intake plenum. It will be connected to a little coolant manifold with 3 coolant sensors on it as well. This hose dry rots from all of the heat back there and starts to slowly leak. Mine did the same thing, it would leak, then not leak, until it finally got bad enough where it just poured out.

The hose costs $15 at the dealer, and it is a little tight to get to, but can be done without removing the plenum or much of anything else. You will cut your knuckles and wrists a bit, but with some long needle nose pliers and a little patience, you can get it.

Good luck with it, this forum will walk you through just about anything. You can also use the Search feature for a lot of things, it's pretty helpful.

Good luck on the job front too, I've been there before, I know it's tough.

Take it easy.

wheatus

you do have a head gasket symptom, oil in the coolant or that is what i assume from the sludgy comment but it could just be that nasty. so you had a pressure test done and the hg was ok, it is a little unclear from your post.

GSGALLANT

When you drain the cooling system enough to remove the radiator, there is not much coolant left in the engine. A little bit at the low points in the block, that's all. There are block drains that you can open, but I wouldn't bother. Refill your system (including the radiator) with clean distilled water, then run the truck for several minutes to let the demin water mix with and dilute what's left of the old coolant. Drain the system again, then refill it with fresh coolant/distilled water mixture.

warminghut

The shop couldn't tell me anything about the HG because they said the truck wouldn't hold enough pressure for them to look because of the radiator.

TNRabbit

I agree 100% and will tell you ahead of time REMOVE THE HOOD; it will GREATLY enhance your experience with this little PITA hose. It's (the hood) only 4 bolts, they are self-centering and it's a piece of cake to get on/off with one person. Just be sure you remove the washer hose & don't break off the plastic tab like I did...

Richjrosa

You can also get some radiator cleaning solution and run it through your engine under pressure for about 15minutes then flush and fill with coolant. Good luck with the job hunt I know it's ruff out there. I live in Central Oregon and several of my friends are out of work and have been for quite a while.

RR

mmcpeck

Yeah I thought about doing that, but didn't have enough patience, but it probably would be easier and give you more light back there.

Mine basically ripped apart when I started to pull it off, but the hardest part is to get the clamps squeezed and moved out of the way. The long needle nose make it a lot easier.

Doodlebug

I bought one of those plastic garden hose attachments for reverse flushing the engine. You cut the heater hose and insert this hose attachment. Its permanent and you don't take it out. When you're ready to flush, you take the cap off of the hose attachment and attach a garden hose, insert the water diverter into the radiator, open the heater valve and turn on the water and crank the engine. The dirty water will come flying out of the radiator. Let it flush until the water comes out clean. Drain the radiator and block, add anti-freeze and distilled water. I usually remove the thermostat when I do this and replace it with a new one when I'm done. No muss, no fuss.

warminghut

Done with the radiator. I ran straight water through, and everything seems good. The reservoir was filthy though, and had a thick, dirty grime on the bottom. I had to use two kettles of hot water, a stick and a green scrub brush to get it clean enough to put back in. At one point I had about a golf ball sized lump of sludgy tar. But it's finished and I'll be running it around town in the next few days to see if I can make it leak from near the back of the engine again.

You can see the rusty brown/orange on the radiator here.

Many thanks to everyone for the help.

Lummpus

Hey Warminghut where are you in oregon. I have a pressure tester and depending on where you are I would be more then happy to help you out finding where that leak is.

warminghut

Hey Lummpus. I'm in inner Southeast Portland, wondering if I'm pissing the neighbors off by doing the work in the street.

Lummpus

who cares I live in gladstone. all old retired people here...lol they hate me. I'm off work tuesday thru thursday. we can hook up then if you like. i'll dig throught the garage and find the pressure tester and we can check it out.

Lummpus

I sent you a pm

warminghut

I thought I would just update this post instead of starting a new one, since this is the same project. I drove with the new radiator in yesterday, about 5 miles. Today I went to grab an oil filter since I was crawling under to look for coolant leaks anyway, and I got about 2 miles before I started loosing more than ever before. I got it home, and it didn't overheat at all, but it was pissing coolant enough for me to finally find my leak.

The pic is from reaching under the driver side tire. You can see the stream of it. You can also see what looks like a missing bolt up and to the left. Is there any story to that? Or is this just the head gasket? I'll also say that after flushing, and getting decently clear water out of the radiator, the coolant that is pissing out is the same rusty brown color, less than 10 miles after being brand new and green.

Squeebs

Is there any reason you cant disconnect the hoses from the radiator, and just run the water hose through the top hose so it just runs out the bottom hose and takes all the old crap out of the block?

warminghut

I don't see why not. But then what? Am I still going to be pissing new green coolant?

Tubbyfatty

If you wanna save that new coolent, get a bucket, make sure its clean tho haha.

I have that same leak on the back side of the engine, im just too lazy to fix it and it doesnt leak that much.

Is the unemployment rate that high for us, 15%? geez.

Lummpus

Yeah and for those of us lucky enough to have a job. hrs are being cut way back for a lot of us. I'm averaging about 25 to 30 hrs a week.

Phate

I had a simular leak in my 90 4runner for me it was the water bypass pipe. under the intake manafold the rusty stuff was comming from coolant setting in the valley where the bypass pipe connects to the block (next to the knock sensor) an easy way to check for this is put the rig on either a steep hill and see if fluid is pouring from the back of the block or run it up on ramps and check. was a pain in the butt to find but tearing down wasn't too bad


scratch this, just realized what that picture was of coolant shooting from between the block and head i would say HG time. ill go out and look at my 4runner in a few and see what that bolts supposed to do.