4 1/4" holes is too much... its basically rendering your tstat inoperable.... if water flows around it, it will never need to open.... roger brown actually told me this when i sent him an email about possibly going to get the dual stage tstat...

 

with out running an electric helper water pump i had no choice to be able to cycle fluid to the rear radiator. you can feel the diffrence in the lines when it opens. its still doing its job, it just had to have more flow.

 

ah ok... didnt dawn on me about the rear radiator....

in general though for a regular truck, that would be a bad thing...

 

so last night i was having all sorts of overheating problems and after reading jim's advice above, i went and bought the dual stage 90916-03070 tstat this morning. Also, i checked the radiator this morning. it was NOT full. i put in approx 64 oz of toyota red coolant/water in it. and now its not over heating anymore. so here are my questions/concerns:

1) should i replace the tstat with the 90916-03070 dual state tstat even though its not overheating anymore or follow the "dont fix it if it aint broke" mentality?

2) after i put in the toyota red coolant, i saw some green coolant mixing. looks like the previous owner had he green stuff in there. so now i have green and the red in my system. is that bad? should i flush it immediately and replace it all with red?

3) while the engine is still cold, during 1st and 2nd gear i hear gurgling sounds from the engine, definitely sounds like a rush of water somewhere. is that the coolant ? why do i hear it only when its cold? and is that normal?

 

its normal right now as the system is still working it throug hte system.... yes install the dual stage... keep the otehr one as a backup... the dualstage eliminates possibly having problems later... why was it low? that could be an issue as well

 

i have no clue why it was low, the radiator is maybe 1 year old. i will keep an eye on it and see if its leaking somewhere.

 

I know you have a newer radiator but you should have a radiator shop do a quick check on the sleeves that can be reached thru the cap area. They'll poke a small flat rod down into a few sleeves and can tell if the bottom of radiator is plugged with crap. I had it done when my 87 22re was running hot and I was convinced by how far(not) the rod went into the few sleeves that I needed a new radiator. After new radiator, no more overheating. I also hear water rushing in heater hoses from inside the vehicle, as others do?? That does not seem to affect anything. Heater always works good. How's the fan belt?? GOOOD LUUUUCK!!!

 

ok, so a heater hose coming out of the firewall is going right into the heater block. it is very loose where it connects to the metal hose at the engine and thats where i see it leaking. i put on a couple of worm clamps there but it still seems to be leaking. went to advance auto parts and they have two hoses listed that look very similar:

1)15" long, 5/8" diameter, heater to pipe ($14.88)
2)19.25" long, 1/2" diameter, auxiliary heater to tee ($30.99)

anyone know which hose it is that im looking for?