centralman

I understand your concern, I think about that too and I would just do a moderate test on the vehicle see what happens. Did you know what he put in?

What do you think if we use 16psi cap instead of the 13psi one and give it a try?

Looks like no one has any major issue on the road yet ... Makes me having more confidence now, as I would like to make another long trip from Vancouver to Arizona this Christmas ... Hopefully all went well.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen ... May I ask what kind of mechanical breakdowns you have experienced with your TOY MH on the road? It would be a good learning experience if we pull together and share our stories. I have owned my 87 Toyota Dolphin since May 2009. In the past year of ownership, I have traveled over 8,000 miles with my family with it. My home town is Vancouver, BC. I have experienced two breakdowns on the road thus far: (1) New year's eve, 2009. San Francisco, CA. 950 miles from home. Right after visiting Golden Gate bridge I noticed cooling (few drops at a time) appearing on the hood, water temperature started to rise. Opened the hood, a small stream of coolant coming out from the water outlet hose. Added water made it to the nearest autozone and gotten a replacement hose and a couple of clamps along with coolant. Find a spot at a local 76 gas station and asked the manager for a spot for me to do the repair. Pulled the old hose out but the new hose wouldn't fit. Autozone gave me the wrong hose as one side should be larger than the other side. Finally the manager at 76 called in his friend who owns a shop nearby and helped me finding a replacement hose and repair the problem. After getting back home I took it to my mechanic and had all the rad hose replaced along with new radiator. (2) May, 2010. Kamloops, BC. 250 miles from home. On my way back from Banff smelled something buring albeit only a slight smell. ATF Temp Guage suddenly starting to rise, RV is losing power. Parked along the road and noticed ATF leaking (actually more like a stream) from the cooler hose (at the end of the hose that attached to a metal pipe going to the tranny). Took my tools out and cut short the cooler hose and made a temporary repair. CAA came and picked me up to a local gas station to pick up some ATF as they don't supply it and I only got a bottle (1L). Turns out it leaked a total of 4L out. Put the ATF back and started to worry as the tranny doesn't want to shift up to 2nd gear at first. After a little while it worked and then I was very relieved. After getting back home took it to the shop and changed all the cooler hoses. Recently had a 500 mile trip on the Cascade Loop (photo attached, at Rocky Reach Dam) and all went well. Love to hear from all of you!

Still not sure what it is, do you have a link or photo for illustrative purposes? Thank you for your advice.

Thanks for the suggestion the support (I suppose the metal frame that mounts to the radiator) is not sealed. I'll try to seal it with something and test it on the next available opportunity.

I followed this member's route to upgrade my converter. It worked well for me.

Yes, I know what you are talking about in fact my mechanic friend has one yellow rad funnel kit and does the exact same thing we did that in the first place and don't seemed to be it. The fan shroud is in place I don't know what you mean by air dam. I think it's getting likelier that there's a leak not from the head gasket because I have had that replaced before along with new head bolts but my mechanic friend told me the combustion chamber looks cleaner than usual so maybe there's a leak from either the cylinder head or the engine block. I use Toyota Long life coolant 50/50 mix. Both rad cap and radiator was replaced earlier this year, and this happens even before the radiator replacement. UPDATE: No change after coolant temp replacement today. Checked timing again today - it's right on.

Yes, it's quite annoying. If you find a fix don't forget to mention here! Last owner of the MH replaced the Distributor, Cap & Rotor in 2008, so I think this scenario is highly unlikely.

Many thanks for the reply and suggestion. That's why few days ago I went to my mechanic friend's shop and he did a coolant flush for me. He used a Vacuum system to suck all the coolant out and replaced with new coolant. So I think in my case shouldn't be any air bubble forming in the cylinder head.

I did try that before. What happened was after highway driving the next morning same thing happened and the coolant is sitting a bit lower from the top of the radiator, nothing in the expansion tank, and I have to put roughly the same amount into the radiator to make it goes to the top.

Will do that next time I have a chance to bring it into my friend's shop. The thing is, if I just let it idle the coolant temp will only stay at 1/3 of guage and won't go up. Coolant won't be rushing out from the expansion tank either. Water pump was replaced in my MH along with all rad hoses when doing the timing gear kit/head gasket replacement, Yes, now it won't reach the top of the normal operating range (white zone) on the guage but still up to 2/3 and coolant rushing out at highway speeds. I believe in the end there are many things that contributed to this problem. At some point you'll either have to move to some more expensive item or try to live with it. I rely my MH not on everyday basis but when I am on holiday with my family. Although it has this problem it did take me from Vancouver, BC all the way down the Los Angeles last Christmas and back. And I went to the Cascade Loop in Washington (5477 ft elevation) just a couple of weeks ago. My mechanic told me that it's not something really major at this moment but keep monitoring it so it won't get worse. So if nothing happens after the coolant sensor changes then I would most likely call it quits for the time being.

Hi Maineah: I don't mind the 3/4 guage but for coolant keep pushing out from the expansion tank that's scary. Really don't want the MH to breakdown in the middle of nowhere. And I need to add coolant everyday when I took it to the highway. Antifreeze I use is 50/50 mix Water with Toyota Longlife Coolant. New temp sensor, not yet, but will try that soon. After highway driving when I open the hood I won't actually see the coolant spilling out (I guess it spills out during driving) but the expansion tank is all full of coolant. The next day, everything cools down, there's no coolant left in the expansion tank and upon opening the radiator cap inside you always need to add about 1/4 of a liter of water/coolant to fill it to the top of the rad.

No, I haven't got the problem fixed yet. I took the MH to my mechanic friend's shop and he checked the timing for me, it was ok. Also he used the coolant flush machine to do a coolant flush, and the problem remained the same. It only happened when I drive on interstate speed (60-65mph continuously) but if I drive slower then it was ok.

Hi Allen: The thermostat is 180 I believe. Spark plugs were replaced too, the gap was correct. Fan clutch is new. Hi ILIA: Timing was checked after the head gasket/timing gear job. Hi Maineah: Yes, the expansion tank is the plastic container to hold the coolant. The radiator cap was replaced along with the 3-row radiator. It says 0.9 on it. Do you have a brand/part number I can try? This seems to be a low cost thing and definitely worth a try, thanks.

Many thanks for everyone's reply. Please see my response below: Hi John: Thanks for the reply. I did do a flush on the cooling system when I replaced the radiator. Hi Maineah: Head gasket was replaced along with the timing kit, with new head bolts. Friend that owns the shop did an emission scan on top of the radiator neck shows no CO nor HC. The timing kit (chains, gears) have all been replaced along with thermostat, water pump, oil pump and fan clutch. Hi LW: My friend uses Mobil 1 5W50 for me, and he chooses the 2 stage Toyota Thermostat for me, check this for details. Part #:90916-03070.

Hi everyone, I have had my MH for a little over a year now and I think my 22RE engine (1987 Toyota Dolphin Auto) needs some serious cooling. It is because at interstate freeway speeds (I have to try keep it up at around 60-65mph range constantly, I think driving at the 50-55mph range is just not too practical on the interstate) the engine heats up pretty quickly and soon the temp guage is reaching around 3/4 towards hot and sometimes even higher. The expansion tank keeps overflowing and the next morning there's always the need to add coolant directly to the radiator (usually around 250ml). The timing kit, head gasket, fan clutch, oil pump, water pump, thermostat, radiator (3-row) all have been replaced last year or early this year, before the replacement the temp needle will reach the top of the normal operating temp range (but never cross into red). After those parts replacements the temp will reach around 3/4 of normal operating range. I would seriously appreciate some suggestion as to how to practically lower the engine temp and thus at least the coolant won't be so hot it overflows the expansion tank. Thanks for your help.

I have a 87 Dolphin, the battery compartment is on the passenger side (opened in the pic). The compartment can only take a group 24 battery.

Thank you for your repsonses. As I live in Vancouver Canada I need to find out where I can buy some Seafoam additives. But I will definitely give it a try and will let you know of the results later. I don't really suppose injector cleaning will significantly improve the gas mileage but I think my MH is on the high side of gas consumption, as the tank is already small the worse MPG translates to even shorter range. Thanks again. Additional Note: My Dolphin runs 150 miles with approximately 12 gallons of gas, my goal is to run 150miles with 10 gallons, and I'm a happy camper.

Hi Everyone, I am interested in doing some sort of injector cleaning to improve gas mileage ... I know there are tons other way (spark plugs, filter, cold air intake ... etc) but I would like some specific information regarding injector cleaning. If anyone has experience on injector cleaning of a 22RE I would be grateful if you could share some information so I could try to improve my gas mileage. My MH is running at around 12.5MPG, it's 87 Dolphin 22RE with auto tranny, so I would definitely like to have it run better. I cruise at around 55-60 mph on the highway.

Thanks for the link. May I ask if there is a good sensor (brand/model) to pick? Any particular guage to match?

I think our MH's engine and tranny worked harder than they were originally designed for because of the constant heavy weight(definitely more so than our pickup counterparts), and in that respect, I would recommend using both synthetic engine oil and synthetic automatic transmission fluid. Comparatively, if I drive a twenty something years old Toyota Corolla, I would just use ordinary oil and tranny fluid.

Thanks for your reply. Could you kindly describe your setup with more details?

Hi there, I have a 1987 Toyota Dolphin MH. I would like to know if anyone has installed a automatic transmission fluid temp probe into their AT pan. If so please describe it and give some details also pics help too. I am seriously thinking of installing one so I know my AT fluid is not overheating. Thanks for your help.

Thanks for your info. Since I have absolutely no idea on how to add an ATF temp gauge I would adhere to your advice by changing the ATF more frequently and try to drive a moderate speeds.