77440Wagon

Hey guys, great site you have here. I'm new to the Toyota scene and just bought my first one yesterday, a 1990 22re 5 speed 4x4 with 137k on it.

During the test drive the needle stayed slightly to the left of being straight up and down on the gauge. After I bought it I drove it 60ish miles back home, about halfway back I noticed that the temp would rise if I went over 60mph for a few minutes. It never got hot but did warm up to 2/3 of the way to the rad line on the gauge. When I would let off the throttle it would cool back down to normal until I ran over 60mph again or downshifted and held it at higher rpms to climb a hill or something.

Today I went out and bought a new thermostat and hoses. Pulled the old 'stat out to find out that it was a 190, the auto parts store sod me a 180 since it was the factory temp according to them. I thought that maybe the system has some corrosion in it so I filled it with water and was going to flush it out over the next few days. During a drive tonight it seemed as if it was running on the warm side more frequently than it had yesterday. Im thinking it might have a clogged radiator or maybe a bad clutch fan since it doesn't have much resistance. Any ideas?

77440Wagon

I did burp the system while it was running too, it was sitting level though. I forgot to mention that this is in 85 degree weather.

Killgore Trout

Mine runs cool in town, traffic, idling but gets hot after about 30 min on the freeway. I flushed everything, new hoses, new t stat, still ran hot at 60mph...then i saw.........single streak of green from the head near cyl 3 running down the block. Its a small leak, but im 99% sure my heat issue is the headgasket failing, allowing exhaust to heat my coolant. I have Zero oil/coolant mixing, no smoke or steam....yet...fwiw, i had a 20r run for over a year with a blown hg, even passed smog thay way haha

nothingbetter

could be a radiator clogged with bugs and dirt too. take it to the car wash and give your new toyota a good wash. Take 10 min and do it right. A quick wash is just a waste of a few bucks. Wash the engine bay and underneath it too!

77440Wagon

Ive checked for coolant leaks and this thing is dry but I will for sure keep an eye out for that. I am actually about to head to town and give it a good washing so Ill try and clean out the radiator too. Im probably going to buy some of that radiator flush stuff for it and try that too because I ran a lot of water through the rad before I put the new hoses on and the water seemed awfully cloudy/white when it was in the drain pan. Besides this issue though I love the little truck.

77440Wagon

I figured out tonight that if I run the heat on full blast it will run normal... Im guessing the radiator is clogged up now.

Discombobulated

How does the coolant look, possible PO used some radiator seal crap which we all see too often and it causes havock on the cooling system. You should be able to tell by the coolant or signs of leaks that have been plugged by it. I think it will also cause the thermostat to clog too or stick sometimes.

Oh just saw you replaced the t stat

77440Wagon

Well I was just messing around with it out here in the dark and shined my big mag light down in the radiator to get a good look at the cooling tubes.. turns out most of the ones I could get to were clogged, I stuck a piece of wire down each tube and most of them started bubbling when I went down so far. Looks like Ill be making a trip to the auto parts store tomorrow! I sure hope this is my issue. The coolant looked alittle watery but besides that it looked fine, no signs of any stop leak being used at this point in time. Ill keep yall posted