My 88 4runner with 89 22re has been acting up on me lately. The temp gauge goes to the bottom of the red zone once after warm-up, but then drops to the middle of the gauge. Also, I have no heat, and my idle is pretty high almost all of the time, but I don't have a tach, so I can't say exactly where it is, probably close to 2,000 rpm. On a side note, the 88 22re came equipped with the auxilary air box, and the 89 didn't, so I'm concerned that that's where my high idle issue is coming from. The heat and temp spike is a little harder for me to figure out. I've already flushed the coolant multiple times. Any help is much appreciated.

 

I'm sure you already have done this, but make sure the coolant is full and you have no air in the system. Also, the T-stat may be sticking which is causing the high temp/no heat. check/replace the T-stat...and dont turn your heat up all the way when you first start it.
as for the idle, im sure someone else will chime in.
edit: Your heater core may need to be replaced if you have no heat.

 

A blockage or a lack of water.I run a garden hose through my heater core to un block it.Hot water has to run to the throttle body for it to idle down.Unless someone messed with the idle screw.
Bigblock

 

replace the thermostat....the no heat is a dead giveaway for a sticking thermostat.

 

Vaccuum leak = High idle. Valve on heater hose lines controls flow to heater core. ck\heck for good operation! Kev

 

um before you go ape snit on everything did you check to see if your water valve is working? its on the firwall and has a wire going to it like a cable on one of your heatercore lines it has to be open for water to go though it keeping it warm or hot if its closed wqater wont go though it and thus not giving you heat happened to me so i just opened it and left it

 

A bad head gasket can cause a temp rise on warm up.

 

check for coolant flow, u could have a broken water pump impeller

 

Thanks guys for all the good advise. I was working all weekend, and didn't get to work on my truck, but I will try all of the above mentioned advise and report back.

 

dayum, you're gonna be busy LOL

the 'heat spike' usually means your thermostat is in backwards... it has difficulty opening against the water pressure, then suddenly its able to push itself open... I've done it....

 

See below for the temperature spike:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...tml#Thermostat

 

So I just pulled the t-stat, and what did I find? Little bits of what appears to be pieces of paper towel. How would paper towel have gotten in there you may be wondering? I used paper towel to plug the coolant lines when pulling the motor out of the old truck, damn! So now the question is what damage have I done, and how can it be erased? The coolant I drained was full of tiny pieces of paper towel, the t-stat was covered in pieces of paper towel, and I have to assume that the heater core is fully plugged with paper towel. As a side note, it's a 3 core turbo radiator, if that maters at all. Is there a heavy duty cleaner, kinda like a draino for the coolant system, that I could pun through there to fully flush the system?

 

well a paper towel's going to break down after sitting in water long enough, I don't care what brand it is weather it be quilted or not, lol.

you can probably flush out the heater core pretty good by unhooking the lines to it, then trying to run some water from a gerden hose backwards through the core; I did this on my old Jeep and it worked great, it flushed all kinda crap out.

could maybe even pull the same thing off with the rad, although the fins in the radiator are probably a little larger and should't clog as easily as the heater core

more than likely it was overheating cause the t-stat was cloged to the point of restricting the flow.

 

Assuming you are not running hot you should be alright. You sad you settled into the middle range so that seems fine. Best guess is pieces of the towel where screwing with the valve operations. Clean, test valve, flush again and run. Shouldn't be a problem.

 

you could try back flushing the system. force water opposite of coolant flow through the heater core and radiator

 

Well, I didn't have much time last night, but I was able to get a new 195 deg. thermostat installed, and the heat spike is no more. I still have no heat, so I'm going to flush the out of the heater core as mentioned above. I'd really rather not have to remove my entire dash. I'll let you know.

On a side note, I'm going to look at an 85 short bed sr5 tonight. It's got a rebuilt 22re, and the guy "just wants it gone." I can't wait!

 

scribed

 

So, after driving to work this morning I can report that the truck is idling much better, and the heat spike is definitely gone. The truck warms up and settles in at just under the half way mark on the temp gauge. I'll back flush the heater core on Thursday and report. Thanks again for all the helpfull advise.

 

it's just started to get a little chilly here in Fl, I wish I could get my heat to work, lol. I think it's my t-stat, it doesn't heat up normally...