Howdy folks,
If you have a 22R-E, would you please look at your coolant with radiator cap off while engine is still cold?
When engine is cold, meaning thermostat is closed, there should be no movement of the coolant except for minor splashing from vibration, correct? My engine temp kept rising last Friday despite me using max heater control on freeway speed in cold So Cal. When I started it again, cold on Sunday, I saw bubbles. Possible HG failure? My theory is coolant passage is pressurized from the HG leak, opposing the flow from water pump so radiator does not get proper flow. TIA!

 

Bad head gasket would also mean loss of coolant sooner or later, right? Also, I am thinking out loud here, if the headgasket is bad and it is pressurizing the coolant system, wouldn't that push coolant through the radiator cap and into the reservoir? The spring on the cap is for some set pressure and maybe the head gasket leave is adding high pressure air into the system?

You can solve the problem by adding another heater core lol.

 

ray-did you verify overheating? or just that the gauge showed too hot?

 

Looks like vibration from here, didn't see any air bubbles and figure the few big splashes where just the oscillation syncing up.

For a headgasket typically you'd find lots of coolant pushes out into the overflow and your radiator is constantly low. An example of this would be me pouring my overflow tank back into the radiator daily and telling myself "it's just an air pocket expanding, it will work its way out.."

Drain two or three ounces out of that radiator and watch after the thermostat starts to flow for "foamy" or airated water, these are signs of a head gasket leak or a water pump issue. It's kind of subjective to tell the two apart. However if you have the safety style radiator cap you can flip the lever and if it goes "burble burble" in the overflow it's probably not the pump cavitations.

 

I'd like to ask those with 22RE's to see what theirs look like when engine is cold.

Thanks, Wally! Need to do that.
I hope it's just the gage sender wiring because the last thing I did was tighten my oil filter where that loom is near.
Do you guys think Harbor Freight non-contact (infrared) temp gage is good enough?
Where's a good part of the engine to shoot with an infrared thermometer?

Thanks, Co. It seemed like normal amount of water went into overflow tank and overflow tank did not get full nor overflow.
Was sucked back in when engine cooled.
Could still be just be early stage of a bad HG.
Will report more later.

 

Ray i use the HF infrared thermometer on my 22re pointing it right at the thermostat housing. It reads just about exactly the temp rating of the thermostat, in my case 195F.

How old is your thermostat?

 

Thanks!
Thermostat is about 3 YO. Got the Two-Stage one: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...l#post52338756

Mind checking if your coolant/rad splashes like mine when cold?

 

Sorry, I cannot check right now due to my oilpan being off the engine due to a rod bearing replacement. But I wouldn't expect much turbulence in the radiator unless the thermostat was open. That said, not 100% sure.

 

The latex glove trick to check for bad head gaskets?

 

There are lots of rubber mounting bits that will cause the vibrations from the engine to transfer to the water like this. Again this is very reminiscent of sliding a paper or foam coffee cup across a table to me from way over here.

Ray has the two stage thermostat, which if I'm not mistaken always flows some coolant across the radiator.

In my play book running hot isn't a sign of a bad head gasket, I always suspect the cooling system, it causes head gaskets to fail due to hot spots and localized thermal expansion.

I haven't gone out to the farm to look for you either, sorry. In my defense it snowed and its an ~=80 mile trip.

 

I would swap the thermostat and re-evaluate. Only need to drain some of the coolant and twist a couple bolts.

 

I go straight for the water pump typically but I've killed a couple of those already so always suspect them.

He has replaced the fan clutch (fluid thermo coupler) not super long ago, maybe the replacement wasn't up to par?

 

Thanks, guys!
Somehow, today when I started the engine again. Not as much splashing as in video. Little splashing stopped within a few seconds and coolant welled up gently as in thermostat opening.

I drive this truck to places where I could be the only one who can work on it so I want to understand exactly how this system works. Therefore, I'm not quickly handing it over to just any mech. I'm taking my time to verify if there really is an overheat, and also doing what you guys suggest.
1) Will find an infrared thermometer to verify.
2) Googled The latex glove trick. https://www.toyotanation.com/threads...esting.425475/ Makes sense and free so worth a try...
3) Yes, Co, and Thomas Two-stage thermostat installed in 2016. However, I will remove and test, as Thomas suggests. Also will run without the t-stat and monitor how temp goes.; San Diego is warm enough I guess.
4) Yes, Co, Liquid Coupling aka fan clutch was replaced with Aisin in 2013. Checked and it closely follows engine speed. It stops 2 seconds after engine is shut off. My old one continued to run 6 seconds after hot engine was turned off.
5) Radiator had signs that The Truck Shop at Miramar in San Diego re-used the old radiator and charged me for brand-new parts; Inlet port was dented, inlet hose was reused and 3 years after supposed replacement, radiator fins were already badly corroded (posted here). So, guys in San Diego. Be careful of The Truck Shop at Miramar.



Will keep you posted.

 

Well, det107, I had a 1-hour window with daylight so I did the old-school Glove Head Gasket Test.
The test just makes so much sense. We want to see if cooling system is being pressurized, so why not detect pressurization with a simple, inexpensive setup, instead of having to buy a tool detecting chemicals (hydro-carbons)?
All spark plugs left in BUT EFI disabled, Ignition disabled, Alternator - water pump belt tension relaxed to minimize water pump agitation of the coolant.
I did not notice any inflation.
I'll try the same test with combustion enabled tomorrow.

THIS TIME WITH COMBUSTION BUT WATER PUMP DISABLED SO IT DOES NOT AGITATE THE COOLANT:

 

MY Thermostat Test Setup

Whats that bolt for? For Reference. FSM specifies that at opening temp, t-stat should open by 8mm
I have a two-stage t-stat. Small port opens at 85°C, main port opens at 88°C. They both opened at specified temps.








From the tests I've done, it seems that the splashing was caused by the water pump agitating the coolant. When I disabled water pump, I saw no splashing.
Now the part that is most suspect is my radiator whose fins are badly rusted. I suspect that P.O. replaced the cracked original radiator with this junk one, and I saw evidence that The Truck Shop did not replace it.

I am now researching replacement radiator. Since I'm gonna put my precious man-hours into this, I'm leaning toward OEM - possible one for the V6 if I can get reasonable testimonies that it would work better than stock.

 

I believe both O'Reillys and Autozone offer the chemical block tester in their Loaner Tool Program. You may have to buy the fluid, but a small price to pay to get a pretty definitive answer regarding the presence of exhaust gas in the cooling system. I don't see a rubber glove taped to the radiator neck giving me much confidence, regardless of the outcome. My luck only the middle finger would inflate.
The chemical tester is pretty straight-forward to use, but if it's your first time watching a quick Youtube video by someone with all their teeth may be beneficial.

 

Thanks, Jimkola.

LOL! You mean, not a hill-billy youtube video?

 

I don't know if it helps you much at this point but today when working the air out of my radiator ( for the third time now) I didn't have fluid shooting up like that. It just welled up gradually after the thermostat opened . It is an aftermarket radiator tho. I don't know much about it ether . It came with the truck .

 

Sounds like you've got it tracked down to the water pump. What kind is it? 22RE performance had some information about Aisin not beeing as good these days . I got an NPW from them. The pump in it was NPW.

https://22reperformance.com/22re-cooling/water-pump

 

Thanks, Damion.

All,
No coolant loss despite driving 51 miles while past half-gage, no splashing on the past few trials, no pressure built in gloves.
With water pump disengaged, no splashing out of rad opening, so most likely the splashing is from water pump agitating the coolant - especially if there's air in the system.
My cousin and I suspect air in system causing that running hot condition, because that was my first long drive after flushing and re-filling cooling system.
So.... I McGyvered a burping system with gallon water jug sealed against radiator opening with old wetsuit material - LOL!
I observed no splashing in my burper, I only saw bubbles when tstat opened (approx 70 degress Celsius with non-contact thermometer aimed at manifold with the CSI switch and ECU temp sender), then coolant in burper got sucked in. More coolant was sucked in when it cooled.
Drove it several miles today with no cooling issues.