Hi, my name is Alex. I am having some serious problems with my truck. It is an '88 Xtra Cab 4X4 Pickup with a newly rebuilt 22RE engine in it. I noticed that a few days ago my truck was starting to come very close to oveheating (and it's 13 degrees here) so i checked my coolant was close to empty and almost none was in my radiator much to my horror. So i looked for a leak and discovered a little was coming out of my bottom drain plug in the radiator, so i replaced it thought the problem was fixed but it still isn't. I am losing a large amount of coolant and every morning before i leave i have to fill it up. I have had my truck up on a lift in the shop and looked and looked for a leak but cannot find one. I looked at my oil and it is fine so none is getting in there....i do not know where this leak could possibly be PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Check for sweet smelling smoke out the tailpipe, and also, check for water/coolant in your oil. Sounds like a blown headgasket.

 

Yeah, check the exhaust... just in case because if you cant see white smoke, doesnt mean you can cancel it out right away

 

or its a leak in the radiator. remember, when running and at operating temp your coolant system is at high pressure..so a leak not apparent when off becomes noticable when on. The pressure literally shoots the coolant out. Id fill it up, get rid of air pockets turn it on and look. If you dont see steam, or fluid then it may be a blown HG.

 

Inside the cab? Heater core? Check all hoses and clamps, etc...

 

Said your oil looked clean so I'll skip the HG. Try this, fill up the radiator and the overflow tank, run the truck until hot and thermostat is open check for pissing when running. Have someone turn the truck off while you are looking. I had an 85 Toyota that would only leak coolant when the truck was hot and just turned off. I guess the pressure in the hose would push coolant out the pin hole. The best part? It pissed straight down so it never hit anything. For me it was the lower radiator hose. Also, check the waterpump top. There is a pee hole on the top that may be your problem. Good Luck.

 

Yes, as mentioned above try checking it for leaks while running or try to get one of those pressure testing pumps to pressurize the system to check for leakage. Like 87LVRunner, I saw one once that sprayed right onto the exhaust manifold where it immediately cooked away, leaving no evidence of the problem. Also, with a recent rebuild an internal problem seems unlikely. Not impossible, but unlikely.

 

I'd keep looking at the bottom of the bay, if it was somewhere in one of the upper hoses it would make a shiit ton of steam when the engine got hot...

 

i would defenetly check for white smoke comming out of exaust,with some kinda sweet smelling fumes,if you do notice that its a blown head gasket my friend !

 

thanks for the input guys i'll check that stuff tomorrow and see if anything turns up.

 

Have you checked the overflow tank? Mine was doing the same thing. The blow HG was blowing the coolant into the overflow and out the top. I never saw a leak anywhere but my overflow would always be full.

 

I've had this problem before on a 22re as well. You mentioned a newly rebuilt motor... not knowing any details of that, this may be irrelevant so it would help if you gave up some more details... like was it a shop rebuild, shade tree rebuild, you or your best friend did the work.. Machine shop work done after quality checks for head cracks or warpage, etc? I'm also assuming you have an MT, if it's an auto, check your ATF level in case the radiator core is leaking into the transmission cooler portion of the radiator.

OK, check this out. Get a good flashlight and look down the side of the block as best you can UNDER the center portion of the head on the exhaust manifold side of the motor. If you can see any evidence of a coolant leak there, it's a warped/cracked head, a bum head gasket or both. It's a hard place to see into well, and a small inspection mirror from underneath may help.

The evidence ((if the motor is clean)) will be a dry off color from the surrounding area, streaky looking splotch that will eventually build up a thin crusty layer. It will rarely leak bad enough to puddle, and it dries pretty quick after shut down, as the pressure bleeds off, so it's very easy to miss unless you are looking at that spot closely. The best bet is watch it right after shutdown, look for a slight steaming coming off the block up between the manifold and Block. One time, the only way I was able to see it was at night when shining a flashlight across the top of the motor, the steam became visible in the beam...

The water jacket holes on the head gasket are narrow and very close to the edge at that area and prone to leak there first. If it isn't caught soon, it can steam cut the head surface and the milling can be extreme causing potential deck height problems unless shimmed. That's another story tho. Find the leak first.

I've had this exact problem on several 22r's that I owned or maintained for friends in a small alaskan village, We'd get extreme temperatures that played havoc with that aluminum head cycling back and forth between operating temps to sub zero week after week. For whatever reason, the problems I saw frequently happened at this exact same spot every time.