Hope I'm posting in the right section. If not, my apologies.

Just bought an '88 4Runner. The 22RE was swapped out with a 22R. Sounded good when the engine fired up.

Got her home, barely, overheating and sluggish. Noticed water/coolant coming out of the tailpipe. Freeze plug popped out somewhere close to home, found a nice spot in the engine compartment for me to find.

So I'm thinking either cracked block or blown head gasket. I'm no mechanic so I'm looking for "Well first I would..."

My first thought is to get a compression tester and check the cylinders. Right step or no?

Any help is appreciated!

 

if you have coolant coming out of the tailpipe you need to tear the engine apart. unless you hooked a coolant hose like from the heater core to a vacuum port on the intake, but then it likely wouldn't run at all. Also, freeze plugs don't generally pop out unless there was freezing involved. I would say you have serious issues.

 

Dude, "tearing the engine apart" and "you have major issues" isn't exactly constructive.

No ˟˟˟˟. Blown head gasket or cracked block. Have you ever changed a spark plug?

 

Never changed a spark plug ! Not sure just what they are

Why do you ask??

Is this from a part of the world where it could Freeze ??

Myself I do a coolant pressure test before compression

 

^^I would do this too. It may pinpoint which cylinder or cylinders the coolant is getting into, however, it may not reveal exactly where the failure is.

Did you notice the water/coolant coming from the exhaust when the engine was fully warmed up? I want to make sure you are not confusing coolant with condensation created by the engine when it is not up to operating temperature. These engines create a lot of steam when cold.

A compression test never hurts, so I would do that next. When taking out the spark plugs to do the compression test, inspect the spark plugs. They give you a "window" into the combustion chamber and help you figure out how the engine is running. You can post pictures of what you find.

Freeze plugs are are not really intended to save a block if the coolant freezes. They are actually "core plugs" to plug up the holes left from the casting process to get sand out of the castings.

However, they could pop out due to expanding ice. I agree with Akwheeler in that the plug shouldn't just pop out. It may have popped out if the high pressure from compression entered the cooling system.

If you want to be scientific , you could try this, bit isn't necessary. Just note that the following test doesn't pinpoint a leak, but confirms that exhaust gasses are entering the cooling system somewhere.

If the above results are inconclusive, you may have to tear the engine apart just to find out what is going on and inspect everything.

 

You can waste your time with a bunch of testing if you want, but if you have coolant coming out of your tailpipe it won't tell you anything except that you will have to replace gaskets or head or block and you will find that out by tearing into it. And yes I have changed spark plugs, I was a master mechanic for 13 years. So if you want to be snotty, just put some stop leak in it and run it up your ***

 

^^ He is right, you will need to tear down the engine regardless of testing if coolant is truly entering the combustion chamber. Visual inspection works wonders when dealing with head, block, or head gasket failures.

The tests above give you more information about the health of your engine as it sits.

 

No kidding, I might have a cracked block or blown head gasket. Just like I said in my original post.

"Master Mechanics"...

@old87yota, thank you. I just got off work but will watch the video tomorrow am. I'm figuring compression test first, then pull the head. Water in the tailpipe usually means one thing. Smelling coolant out of the tailpipe means another. Darned exhaust reaked of coolant.

25 mph on hills. If you think of anything else please let me know. I borrowed the money to buy a "dependable" vehicle. Now I'm borrowing a dependable vehicle to fix this.

 

I understand your frustration with a broken truck, but there is no test that will pinpoint the difference between a blown head gasket or a cracked head or a hole in the block except to pull the head off and visually inspect it. you tell us, is there coolant coming out of the tailpipe and I told you if that is the case it is nothing you can fix without major repairs. you said you are no mechanic, but you sure are a smart ass. and as far as I am concerned you are on your own.

 

88 4Runner Will be great after spending a few thousand $$ to get it up to speed after all it is only 30 years old

To me if the Op has coolant in the exhaust why waste time .

I would already have the head off.

Plain water in below freezing temps . Sudden Cold snap in a place it does not happen for the most .

Add antifreeze after the damage maybe stop leak unload vehicle it happens all to often holds together for a few miles.

I have seen that take out blocks and heads on fleets to cheap to spend the money on antifreeze