I am looking for some expert advice on an issue I have with a 22r motor. I've been told that this site is a great resource and it sure looks like it after searching through some of the posts here... Anyways, I just bought an old 89 toyota pickup to fix up. When I bought it, it was running like crap. Very rich and somewhat rough. I assumed a carburation issue. This truck has apparently been sitting in storage a very long time, only 90k miles on it. (I got the truck cheap enough I don't care even if it needs a new motor, but what I have found has me a little stumped.) When I bought the truck I checked the oil and noted no milk shake in the oil, just very dirty and a little gassy smelling (still thinking it is just running very rich). I begin to drive it home after I bought it and it begins to overheat on the freeway (I only drove side streets before I bought it, and it did not overheat.) So I shut her down before it hits the red line and figured maybe with all of the sitting, it is a stuck thermostat. I open the hood and my coolant reservoir is boiling... Dang. Maybe the temp gauge is off, since I shut it down before red line I didn't expect it to be boiling hot... So, I tow it home.

A few days later I fire it up and it runs the same, still no milk shake. I decide to flush coolant and replace thermostat. I remove the old thermostat (which was stuck closed by the way) and put it back together with no thermostat so I would get better coolant flow during the flush. So I have drained out the old coolant and put in water, I am still suspecting a possible blown head due to my hot episode, and who knows what the prior owner did... I observe the coolant through the open radiator and there are some very small bubbles and about every 30 seconds a little eruption of fluid from the radiator filler neck. Is this the water pump or combustion gas? The fluid also surges out when I accelerate the motor. So I've heard of this thing called a block test kit, I rent it from oreilly and try it out... It actually gives a negative test (meaning no combustion gas in the fluid) but I really don't trust this thing, one I've never used it and two, it started to melt from the steam coming out of the filler neck... So, I take the block tester back and get a compression checker. I plug that bad boy on and I get about 95s across the board! I figure this gauge is wrong as I have read this 22r won't run below 114s. I don't bother doing a wet compression check at this point. As a side note the plugs are blackened and slightly sooty, but only slightly moist on the #4 plug, which still makes me think the fuel air mixture is too rich, but that is a different problem....

I still strongly suspect a blown head gasket due to the history, but I have honestly never seen a blown head that didn't make milkshake. I don't mind pulling the head (I've never done it on this motor, but it looks relatively easy and would be a good learning experience.) but I don't just want to tear into it for grins... I am going to pull this carb and rebuild it anyways while I figure out if I should pull the head. Any and all opinions are appreciated.

 

Coolant system pressure tester done with the engine cold.

If your gasket has failed and pushing coolant into a cylinder it will show up.

The Milkshake is caused by a mix of oil and coolant or in the autos tranny fluid and coolant in the radiator.

Also these engines have a habit of air pockets in the coolant if it is not bled out.

If you got it cheap enough rebuild the engine and carb you will be good to go.