Ok Toyota folks. Just had a scare and I'm not sure it's over yet, but maybe...

Short story: Rebuilt head, new head gasket. Fires up fine, wanted to overheat but then dropped down to normal. Drained oil. Water in oil. Re-torqued head bolts. Filled everything up again. Seems like no water in oil now?

In internet searching I saw that maybe that much condensation could actually build up?

Long story:

20R. Had the head rebuilt. New head gasket and everything else. I did not chase the head bolt threads but sprayed them out with compressed air and dried them. There were chased when I did the head gasket just a year and half ago (engine has since started burning oil and I think it's mostly the head so I pulled it again).

It sat for three winter weeks, with the drain plug open (wanted all oil and water in oil from pulling head to drain). Then I put it all back together, filled with oil and water (straight water, since I wanted to let it circulate, then dump it and whatever contaminants out then fill with coolant). It has since started getting into the 60s during the day, but 20s-40s at night. Frost last night.

Started up great. Took a while to heat up. Temp started climbing past normal. But then it dropped. I figure, maybe the thermostat got a little sticky.

Drained oil. It came out fast and hot and THIN. And chocolate milky. Not foamy, but brown. Kinda foamy up in the rocker panel.

So...CRAP. Re-torqued the head bolts. Drained water. Filled back up with water, filled back up with oil.

Still wants to overheat but just isn't quite doing it. Keeps dropping back down. It seems like the oil is staying clean now. Definitely no milkshake, no foam. Haven't drained it yet but on the dipstick it looks OK, certainly isn't overfull.

Could condensation create that much water?

Think the fact that it wants to overheat is related to this coolant in oil, or just because I'm running straight water and haven't bled the system? I'm sure there's a lot of air in there.

Water in radiator looks really pretty good. A little film on the top, but I'd think that's pretty normal, especially after pulling the head and all that.

So I'm not quite allowing myself hope that my block was maybe not warped and the head gasket isn't sealing...but maybe it's ok?

What do you think?

 

Did you torque the head bolts to 65 pounds??

 

Yep, in 3 stages like it says in the manual.

I have a big "clicker" style torque wrench.

So far so good, though. I changed the oil again and the old stuff didn't look brown and chocolatey. The new oil looks good so far. I'm going to take it on a little longer drive and see if everything holds together.