Firstly I have researched this all over, and although suggestions are made, nobody ever posts their results!

Truck :
1985 Toyota XtraCab
Miles:
112,XXX

What I have replaced (brand new):
Radiator
Water pump
All hoses
New coolant
Headgasket

I'm tired of my blood pressure going through the roof and having my eyes fixated on the temp gauge. Any suggestions would help.

Here are the facts:

*Basically on the highway going faster than 55mph the truck will start to heat up toward the 3/4 way mark. Going 70 is not possible.

*Driving around town the truck stays just below the half way mark.*

*If I stopped and got gas than the truck's gauge almost goes to the red upon turning it back on, and after starting, runs cooler than before! 1/3 of the way on the gauge.

*If I am driving at highway speed (55mph) and come to a stop, the temp will go back below the half way mark.

*No overflowing of the coolant, no coolant/oil mixing, the radiator hoses are both under pressure*


I am so perplexed on this issue. I have replaced nearly my entire cooling sysem, where should I start??


Thanks everyone for taking your time to read. I'm just tired of limping around like this! It has been months!

 

Did you get all the air out of the cooling system when you put in a new radiator,tstat,and water pump? Sounds to me like you got a little air in the system! Just me 2 cents.

 

need to burp your system

 

Thanks I will try burping the system again just to be sure there isn't.

 

I noticed you replaced some expensive stuff, but did you do the thermostat?

 

This may seem dumb but do you have anything blocking the radiator? i.e. foglights?

 

If you just run the truck in your driveway @ idle, with the radiator cap off, do you see a nice steady flow of coolant? Have you replaced your cap by the way?

 

Fan clutch? Just a thought since you didn't mention replacing it. I've never really had an issue burping these 22re's.

 

Thank you for all the feedback guys. Ok went outside and tried to burp the system - nothing purged.

* Bajarunner, I took the radiator cap off and nothing is flowing!
* 2DoorRunner I did replace the thermostat and checked the timing and replaced the radiator cap.
* Pruney I don't think it is the fan clutch, at highway speeds there is more than enough air flowing.

** What I noticed once the engine was reaching operating temperature was nothing in the radiator was flowing whatsoever.
** The coolant is boiling, but nothing is going into the reservoir.
** When I touched the upper and lower radiator hoses, the upper was hot, the lower was not hot at all. I could put my hand on all around it. Is this normal?

 

Going to take the thermostat out and test it first.

 

Fan clutch would give him problems in slow driving situations, air flow takes care of it on the freeway

Nothing is flowing...

Thermostat in the right way? (Dont know how much that would affect it)
New water pump might be defective?

What i would do to figure out which of the 2 (if it is one of those) is bad is, pull the thermostat then go for a drive, see if that helps. If not, then my guess would be the water pump.

And sometimes it can be hard to see the flow of coolant. Somethnig i never thought about till birnbrain did it. Spit in it.

EDIT: You posted that as a was typing

 

do you have the proper temperature Thermostat installed? Is it in correctly, there is a right and wrong way to install it(upside down/right side up)...just saying.

Something isn't correct here...
You say that the coolant is boiling, but you can place your hand on the bottom hose, and nothing is flowing through the radiator? Either i misread that or you need to re-diagnose the issue and be more exact with your findings. No way is that coolant going to boil without movement/flow from the water pump(thermostat open).

I am going to say your fan clutch is bad, if the above all check out correctly.

 

How I figured my fan clutch was bad was it would get hotter on long freeway drives, around town it was fine. Also, when climbing mountain passes out here in Colorado it would overheat and boil over. Put in a new fan clutch and it will climb any mountain colorado has to offer with no issues. The fan clutches on these do fail and if I am correct the fluid burns out and they won't cool it enough(causing it to slip) even if you are on the highway.

Just a suggestion, not to say that I am wrong or right, but if you have replaced everything else and are confident that you did it properly, the fan clutch is the only component left and IMO, sometimes the most overlooked.....

 

Also, my 22re with the dual stage thermo stays at about the 1/4 mark pretty consistently. I would buy an AISIN fan clutch and throw it in. I have replaced everything in my cooling system except the water pump and mine doesn't even get up to half climbing 7% grades up to 13K feet in the summer time. I can't say enough positive things about the toyota dual stage thermostat. It was the first thing I replaced when I bought my 90 last year.

 

Tested the thermostat and it functions fine. Still getting very little if at any circulation at idle. If I rev the engine the coolant looks to be starting to circulate, but then just stops. The more I rev the motor there is very poor if any circulation that I can see from the top of the radiator. Do you guys think my water pump is bad? It has less than a 1000 miles on it, if that, and if it was wouldn't it be overheating at idle?

 

Ok here are some results:

*2DoorRunner I spit in the radiator, that was harder than I thought lol. But anyway, the spit it not circulating.

*Reinstalled the thermostat it is in the correct way.

*Pruney, I actually went camping in the mountains last weekend in asheville, nc. The truck was ok, however it was 40 degrees at night. There is no sign of any coolant loss. In fact I drove 7 hours two days ago and when I opened my radiator cap to start diagnosing this, it was still topped off.

To sum it up:

No circulation from what I see from the top of the radiator. At idle, When I rev the motor. The spit just sits at the top of the radiator.

Tested the thermostat with a pot of boling water on the stove, and the thermostat opens and closes.

The coolant is not boiling.

I really appreciate all the help fellas.

 

What I don't understand is how coolant is not circulating, yet the car is not overheating BOTH driving around town and on the highway????

 

take it to a radiator shop and have the system flushed and checked.

 

Have you tried accelerating the the motor at operating temp, to see if one of the hoses is collapsing ? It would be odd with new hoses but not impossible. I have heard of the impeller coming loose on water pump.

 

Swampfox I did tried feeling the hoses while it was being accelerated and they were fine.




Update:
*I did run a hose through the radiator to see if it was being blocked, but water was coming through the other end perfectly fine.*


I am going to take the water pump off now and check to see what kind of condition it is in.

Thanks for all the input and advice.