[Cooling down the 22RE]

No hydrocarbons. So the head gasket it ok. I've replaced the thermostat and radiator cap, and that helped a little, but no much. I think I'm gonna get a new radiator; it's more expensive to rod it out than to buy a new one. I'll keep you posted.

Victor G.

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

[Mechanical Breakdowns?]

Have owned a Sunrader and now the Gulfstream. One flat tire, that's it. Oh, my alarm system wigged out so I had to pull the fuse. Its just the coach door sensor though. About 8500 miles total.

Had to replace a fan belt while on the road nice guy at a garage lent me some tools.

Toyotas don't break down!

Now my past campers and other rigs I've traveled with others in, are a completely different story! I can't help but smile from ear to ear just thinking about all the fun "experiences"! It would be fun to write a book on some of these adventures, because you sure as h-e-ll can't make these up! I've dropped engines in the "dirt" on several occasions, jerry-rigged suspensions, used vice-grips as tourniquets for brake lines, crammed driftwood between leafsprings to keep tires from rubbing, pantyhose for belts, gas cans strapped atop roofs for faulty gas tanks, windshields that were so cracked and shattered, it was easier to just knock them out, broken clutch cables, broken accelerator cables, broken clutch plates, stuck in sandpits for days, transmissions FALLING out of cars, Flashlights for headlights, jump starting cars with mules, losing a car in the ocean after a flash flood... on an on! Somehow through all of this, I have NEVER had the pleasure to experience any kind of an "accident" - Knock on wood! Of course I drive like an old lady and my wife gives me a hard time about that.

Somebody should create a blog called "STRANDED!" I bet it would be a good one.

Anywho, I used to practically haul a second drive train around with me, hoping to be prepared for anything, but now after all the experiences, I just tote along some basic tools/parts. A good pair of tennis shoes and plenty of water is a good thing to include in your spare parts list. Sooner or later you're going to have to abandon your vehicle especially if you travel in remote places. If you own a $50K+ rig, it's gonna hurt. My advice from a world of experience, don't own anything you can't afford to have stolen, sell cheap, or just flat out give away!

If/when I do get stuck again, I pray it's only a mechanical issue like a broken water pump, brake failure, or even the motor seize up for all I care. I can fix those even if I have to go home and bring a second motor or even a donor car, which I have done now on 2 occasions! An electrical or computer malfunction on the other hand can be a serious disaster and send you on a tailspin trying to figure out what is wrong! It might take weeks! I had such a problem with a faulty Air Flow Meter Box last year. Luckily I was only 2 blocks from home.

3vZE cranks, but won't spark, HELP!

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.

[Mechanical Breakdowns?]

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!

[Cooling down the 22RE]

air dam is the pice below the bumper I riped the one off 1989 toy 4X4 truck and my milage went down and the temp went up

thx ken

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

Thank you for your advice.

[Cooling down the 22RE]

Back to WAGs. Is the radiator sealed against the radiator core support?? There should be a strip of foam rubber between the radiator and the support. The idea is so ALL the air coming through the grill is forced through the radiator. If its missing you can bypass a lot of air around the radiator

If its missing use some home A/C wrap around foam and see what happens.

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.

[Charging coach battery]

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

[Cooling down the 22RE]

I am with the Air Bubble in the head folks but I have a trick for ya

take a 1litter pop bottle

chop off the bottom

tape bottle to the radiator filler neck.

fill with coolent to top of the bottle.

start truck and let warm up

bubbles with start to bubble out of the radiator

let cool then take off bottle spilling coolant all over

if you do this right it should run cool

this is a trick I used on the trickey 2tc hemi head bubles hide in those all the time

hope this helps

Ken

I hope this helps

PS if you dont have the fan shroud and air dam in place get them I was impressed with the diffarnence

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 have the exact same problem and was told by a mechanic that these vehicules frequently leak from the head, and that the gases escaping from the combustion cause the thermostat to malfunction. Either way, what he recomended was take it to an emmissions place and have them check the radiator fluid while the care is hot and running to see if there are exhaust gases in it. Heating a high speed then would be a sure sign of leaking head gasket. I'm gonna try it

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.

Might as well add 2 cents worth we had heating problems with some new Equipment only in 100 deg weather They used something called water wetter and cut down on the Anti freeze ratio for the Summer. In a different unit with a heating problem or so we thought after a lot of work and wasted time it turned out to be the fill neck on the radiator the ramps where the cap turns down as the cap is tightened were worn so the 10 psi cap wasn't down far enough to hold the correct pressure spitting out water when running like a head gasket, was a bad call, replaced the fill neck problem solved.

Here is another idea, too much anti freeze?

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.

[Cooling down the 22RE]

oh goodness! I just took my MH out for the first long trip and had the same exact problems as you guys. When going 60-65 mph the temp gauge sky rockets. It goes up to right before it hits red, this is usually the time i would stop and let the engine cool down. After cooling the rad would be really low and I would have to add water. I'm not liking having to drive 50 mph on 65-75 mph roads . Keep us updated if anyone finds a fix. I was thinking of changing the temp gauge soon.

Yes, it's quite annoying. If you find a fix don't forget to mention here!

What about your distributor? Has that been checked. Bearings can wear, advance mechanism can wear. If it does not advance correctly the timing will be incorrect at the higher RPM's. Just a though. What about the computer having a brain fart. Disconnect the battery and reset it.

Last owner of the MH replaced the Distributor, Cap & Rotor in 2008, so I think this scenario is highly unlikely.

[Cooling down the 22RE]

22re are famous for forming an air bubble in the head and it can be a real pain to clear it out. 2 simple tricks.

Keep adding water to the over flow and never to the radiator. A 1/8" hole in the thermostat flange will let the air bleed out over a few days. Also jacking up the front end when the engine is hot has help some get the bubble out of the head.

In truth I cant see the bubble lasting this long, but it sure caused me grief for a while last time I replaced the antifreeze.

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.

[Cooling down the 22RE]

OK that's good the tank is doing what it should do, next time put the 1/4 liter in the the plastic tank instead of he radiator and see if it equals out next time you drive it. What it maybe is over full of course it all expands when it gets hot and has to have some place to go and the tank is it.

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.

[Cooling down the 22RE]

Use a point and shoot IR temp sensor gun and check the actual temp of the header tank.

Start with a full radiator and the expansion tank filled to less than the cold line and see what happens.

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.

I had a problem once with a 1977 FJ40, I did everything i could to lower the temp, but noting worked... It turned out to be when i replace the watter pump, it worked too good for the old rubber hose that looked in top shape. I bought a complete new set and had perfect cooling. Of course it was the last thing left to replace on the cooling system...

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.

Any luck yet? I have exactly the same problem with exactly the same rig you have, same tranny and engine.

How irritating to not be able to go over sixty with peace of mind, huh. Please let me know what you find. I'm going to start from the very beginning with replacing the small stuff. Thanks. Victor

You can email me at vgonzalez4630@yahoo.com appreciating any info.

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.

[Cooling down the 22RE]

OK I'm guessing what you have is a .9 bar cap that would be about 13 psi. that's about right. So there really is nothing wrong with your MH it's all in your head! Have you considered yoga and meditation? ¾ scale is not really hot I some times running the A/C on a really hot day can do that but I still don't get the coolant being forced out. Can your guy pressure check the cap? (they are small he would need an adaptor). Another thing could be too much antifreeze it should be no greater then 50% (-32F). I'm running out of ideals as I'm sure you are have you tried a new temp sensor?

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.

[Cooling down the 22RE]

Did you get this problem fixed? I am having the exact same problem on my 88. I think it may be a plugged radiator.

Thanks

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.

[Cooling down the 22RE]

Is the engine running too lean? Proper fuel mixture keeps the head cool(er). Spark plug gap correct? Changes timing. Is it the thermostat? 160, 180, and 192 degree thermostats are available. Fan not operating correctly?

Just sayin'

Allen

Hi Allen: The thermostat is 180 I believe. Spark plugs were replaced too, the gap was correct. Fan clutch is new.

Please excuse me. Just saw that you mentioned already using a three row radiator.

Allen's advice seems dead on. Definitely inspect the timing.

Hi ILIA: Timing was checked after the head gasket/timing gear job.

When you say expansion tank I assume you are talking about the plastic one? What is the pressure of the radiator cap? There is a small brass ring below the rubber seal on the cap the ideal with that is to allow the coolant to be returned to the radiator from the overflow tank as it cools. You may try a cap that has higher pressure rating water under pressure will absorb more BTU's and will raze the boiling point.

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.

[Cooling down the 22RE]

Many thanks for everyone's reply. Please see my response below:

It sounds like you're engine is working too hard for the speed you want to drive at. Maybe your radiator needs to be removed and flushed out as well as the engine block.

John

Hi John: Thanks for the reply. I did do a flush on the cooling system when I replaced the radiator.

Hi,

I drove my '84 Sunrader with a 22R and manual transmission over 1000 miles this last week up and down mountain passes, 60-65 mph on the freeway, and up to 90° heat over the last week and the temp gauge never went up over about 1/4 of the way. I suspect you have a problem that needs to be fixed. Looks like you've already addressed the most likely culprits, but something's not right!

-Brad

Hi Brad: Yeah, I suspect that too but don't know what it is!

You have an interesting problem sounds like you have tried all the normal stuff. If it was not for the fact you seem to be losing coolant I would say your gauge is laying. There is a small band near the top red zone that is hot any thing below that is not I know that does not seem right and most are lower but it's true but still the issue with it pushing out coolant. Has any one approched the possibility of a leaking head gasket? If you are friends with a shop that does emissions checks have them scan the radiator just above the water and see if they come up with CO with the probe.

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.

The first thing is to be sure you have the correct thermostat .

I have a v-twin motorcycle that is air cooled,in slow traffic it would run hot( I have a temp gage in the oil tank on the side of yhe bike.) I changed to a synthetic oil and the oil temperature went down.

If you change the oil yourself it will cnly cost about $8 more than a good dino oil.

LW

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.

[Cooling down the 22RE]

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.

[86 Granville]

Where might this be:)

House battery that is.

Large compartment on the driver side with nothing in it only some wires, Gen area? Batteries?

Thanks,

Tom H

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.

[Improving Gas Mileage With Injector Cleaner]

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.

[Improving Gas Mileage With Injector Cleaner]

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.

[Requesting help on installing ATF temp probe]

Here is a thread on that subject Sensor in the pan

Thanks for the link.

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

[synthetic vs. regular motor oil]

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.

[Requesting help on installing ATF temp probe]

I installed my sender in the line that goes to the transmission cooler. That where the fluid is hottest. Others have dropped the pan and welded a bung low on the side.

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

[Requesting help on installing ATF temp probe]

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.

[overdrive]

More info then you would ever need http://www.patentsto...escription.html bottom line engine output at altitude is reduced.

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.

[What's your rig and where's it at?]

1987 Dolphin. Our hometown is Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Picked it up May 2009, loved it very much, it's dependable, reliable the only downside is it travel at a significantly slower speed than most other MH and the fuel economy (and hence, range) is not as good as expected.

It served our family well, and hopefully it will bring a few more years of faithful service to us.