98 4runner overheating problems
Greetings to all and sorry in advance for the long post.
Having some serious problems with the wifes 4runner and hoping for some direction. The car is a 98 4runner automatic with 4 cyl engine. The problem:
Wife drives to work and car over heats. I picked it up after adding radiator fluid and made it back home just in time as it began to overheat again. The car was also driving like it has the first signs of a tranny slipping as it would rev but not engage immediately. I flushed the coolant and replaced it with new coolant. The old coolant was a chocolate milk color. I started the car again and it began to over heat. Waited to cool down and checked the coolant again...Same oily chocolate color again. I did a partial drain of the tranny and it to had the same chocolate milk color as the coolant. I checked the tranny dipstick and it to has the chocolate milk, pulled the oil cap off and it looks good (no chocolate milk), oil dipstick looks good, thermostat works fine. So I believe I have narrowed it down to 2 problems; blown head gasket or timing chain issue. I did read that the 4 cyl engines very rarely have head gasket issues and thinking maybe it is the timing chain.
Any recommendations or thoughts would be deeply appreciated. TIA
Regards,
Tom

 

if it were not for the overheAting, i'd say its your tranny fluid
leaking into the radiator due to a bad radiator.
Your truck is overheating sitting still so head gasket sounds
more likely.
And your tranny is slipping??
huh? maybe the tranny oil is contaminating the antifreeze
causing the vehicle to overheat.....losing the fluid causing the
slippage....hopefully thats it otherwise theres some work
to be done!
good luck

 

Thanks Sharrack, I goofed in my original post as I had partially drained the tranny fluid and not the oil. The oil looks fine btw but the tranny was pouring out chocolate milk and the tranny dipstick shows the same

 

Your radiator has failed and mixed coolant with trans fluid. Get your transmission flushed asap. You need a new radiator also. Start searching and reading threads on strawberry milkshake, pink milkshake, external transmission cooler. Since it looks like chocolate I'd say your trans fluid was some burned up stuff! And I guess this answers the question on whether this happens to the 4cyl runners...

 

Thanks KBall. I did the pink milkshake search and that opened up a flood gate of information. After reading countless threads on this common occurence of the pink milkshake I am thinking of doing the following... any input would be great:
I intend to buy a Tru-Cool LPD thin, Stacked Plate Cooler Kit on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Tru-C...Q5fAccessories
Thinking of keeping the original radiator as it doesnt leak, covering up the holes from radiator to the tranny lines, and installing the trucool to the front of the radiator with the tranny hoses connected to it bypassing the original radiator.
Then a radiator flush, transmission flush, replace the fluids and repeat the flush again after a short drive.

 

You're right, I wasn't too clear in my first response. If you are going to install an ext cooler you can keep the old radiator and just bypass the cooler part. The cooler you picked out I think is a little small. I would go 4454 or bigger. Or B&M 70268 or bigger, 264. Both the engine coolant system and the trans need to be flushed good. It's important right now though to get the trans flushed asap. The longer the coolant is in there, the more damage it can do. It will take a lot of trans fluid to flush it. Once you think you are done, wait a week and do it again. So I would use cheap Walmart Dex III for the flush and then put some good stuff in the last time.