deadflo

Im disheartened all right, but I havent paid the shop yet. The guy is driving home at night now to try to track it down, I'm imagining he feels somewhat sheepish about something that should be an easy fix that he hasn't solved.

I really appreciate you helping me the way you did, and the 3 ideas they came up with are all things I had already tried. The exhaust system is brand new, it was the first thing i fixed on it.

Wow, this has become the worst ever experience I have ever had with a vehicle in my whole life. I feel humiliated that I even have to tell the rest of this story, My mechanic became convinced that the reason for the overheating was corrosion in the water jacket of the engine. The last bit of info that convinced him of that was determining with an IR thermometer that the rear cylinder was running at a whopping 400 degrees, while the other three seemed much cooler. He assumed that crud in that cylinders water jacket was causing the whole engine to overheat.eventually, after it ran for about 20 minutes, or 15 or so miles on the open road at 60MPH. Futher, he noticed that when he was running it in the shop at about 2500RPM, it was blowing blue smoke. I had not noticed the blue smoke in the month I had owned it. He stated that the oil ring the bakc cylinder was going, even though the compression must have been OK , as it showed good compression , when he was checking to see if it was the head gasket. Ok, this is where my stupidity, allowed him to convince me to have the engine pulled out and get it rebuilt. I had him pull a freeze plug after he got it out, and he said there "was corrosion, but not as bad as he thought it would be." The engine and head came back from the shop this week, and they installed it. I dropped by to see how it was going today, and he said they couldn't believe it, but it was still overheating! OK, it's a"new " rebuild. New head gasket, freshly cleaned cooling passages, all new cooling system which I changed out to begin with.He said he drove the car to his home last night, which is about 12 miles form the shop, out in the country near me, in an effort to track down the problem. He also specifically looked at the radiator hoses to see if they were collapsing, and said that was not the case. I feel sick that I was so stupid to authorize the rebuild. At this point I have a fantasy of just parking this POS on my property. Maybe I can sell the rebuilt engine for cost or something. I don't know WTF to do. I had been looking for a Toy camper for a couple years, and this was supposed to be my wife and I's fun camper rig as I hit 60 years old. If anyone has any other ideas Im open to checking them out. If someone wants to make me an offer on the rig or the engine, Im willing to talk as well. This really sucks.

bump

Yeah, that's for sure! I have been looking at a few similar threads over there as well, thanks! I'm thinking I'm narrowing it down now to two rather expensive issues. It could be rust and corrosion in the water jacket in the engine. I'm having my mechanic pull out a freeze plug this week to take a look inside. Although I have had tests done to check the head gasket, that were negative, the Toyota mechanic from my other shop says that could still be a possibility, and it may be so minor at this point, that the tests are not showing it. It has to be driven for about 15 miles at near hiways speeds before it starts to get real hot.

Yeah Ive read her thread, and the resolution seems a bit odd. I guess what Im pointing out is that it appears there have been a few people that have had overheating issues that never got resolved, or at least they never posted what the end result is, leading me to believe they never figured it out after trying the normal routes for overheating vehicles.

Yeah, plugged cooling passages seems very likely.

I wonder if the intake plenum gasket also played a major role, in that you would be running lean if you were sucking in a bit more air? I have a similar overheating issue, and have hit a dead end pretty much. I have found three other threads on the forum that just ended cold (pardon the pun) with no resolution to the overheating issue. Here is my thread..

This is the third thread on overheating I've found that ends without any resolution. Just chiming in , cause Im having very similar issues with a new rig I bought. Here is my thread if anyone can chime in, but it seems like this a problem others have faced without ever being able to fix.

This is about the third thread I've found on overheating that ended with no resolution. Im having this exact same problem in my new rig, here is the thread if anyone has any new ideas, but it sounds like an all too common problem that no one is solving.Here is my thread on this issue. Sorry to say, Im disappointed I ever bought this rig.

Good ideas! I especially like the one about the lower hose. It is brand new, so pretty 'stiff". It would be cool to know a way to check and see if it is collapsing at higher RPM.s

I had the shop put in a new sender for the temp gauge. I had the after market set, but wanted to see if a quick change of the sender ( much cheaper to do than install a set of gauges) would change anything. It didnt. I drove home in 80 degree temps, 15 miles to my house from the shop. Im out in the country and have to climb a big hill about two miles from my house, the gauge climbed to above the normal range, but not into the red. I cranked the heater, and that brought it down a bit. Sorry to say at this stage, Im not getting much help from the shop Ive been going to. There is another guy who does imports just down the block I have had do lots of work for me before. I told him about my issues with this rig, and he didn't seem to have too many idea, as I ve done pretty much all that everyone recommends. The summer camping season is here, but there is no way Im going to be using this rig. I've become disillusioned and feel I made big mistake buying it.

By the way, I wasnt sure of the location of my temperature sensor for the actual in dash temp guage, as opposed to the temps sensor that goes to the ECU for the fuel injection. These pics show I do not have any sensors that attach on the thermostat housing, there is a cluster of sensors underneath that area that you can see in the top pic, I tried to highlight them with a drawn circle.Hope you can see it. I took some readings from the sensor on the far left.

OK, well this is very inconclusive info, please bear with me. I took readings at several locations, the first time when the truck had been warmed up by driving five miles and was back in my driveway, with the in dash gauge reading at about 40 percent up the guage (it is running a 160 degree thermostat). Then I drove for about 15 more miles at 60 to get it to start reading high. It is a cool day today (60 degrees), and eventually it went up to the very top of the normal range, then I parked again and took readings. Bear in mind with this IR thermometer, you can get dramatically different readings if you move the gauge just a few millimeters, pointing at the relatively same location.So I tried to point as close to the first location as I could.The only reading that seemed much higher was at the top of the radiator , near where the upper hose comes in, but if you moved the laser dot just a bit the readings were several degrees different . The top of the thermostat housing was hotter too, but again, you could move the laser dot just a hair and get a much different reading.The other readings didnt seem much different , in fact some appeared LOWER when I got back from the longer drive than when I took the first readings, when the in dash gauge was reading normal. I think it's going to take installing the aftermarket gauge, or even just a new temp sensor , to tell if there is overheating, but Im starting to think it's not overheating at all. I sure hope so. Here are my chicken scratch notes,

OK, I got an IR thermometer at Harbor freight. I called them about honoring the website coupon, and they said just bring the number in off the page, but when I got there, their computer wouldn't honor the number. But I got it anyway for 27 dollars. Bummer, oh well hopefully I can use it for some other purpose. (also bought a tire for a big rubber maid wagon, but when I got it home, found it had a big tear in the sidewall, hidden by the wheel. Wow, what a crappy store) OK, so I'm going to take a few temp readings today. Im not wuiter sure where the temp sender is on the engine block, one source described it as between the intake runners on the block somewhere. i think today i ll take couple reading from the side of the block, thermostat housing, ,upper and lower radiator houses, and compare readings when it is warmed up to normal on the gauge, and when it has run for 15 miles or so, and it is on the top of the normal range on the stock temp gauge.

Thanks again for your help! I appreciate you talking to them! I went to a sports car./race event yesterday couldn't call in! LOL. Im getting an IR thermometer today, but already have an appointment to install an aftermarket temp/oil pressure gauge. Im hoping thats the story, cause the cat is brand new, and I already checked timing, both static and fully advanced. Thanks again!

OK, cool, thanks Linda. I wonder which specific areas I should check temps at. Thermostat housing, top and bottom of radiator? Im guessing there will be quite a range of temperatures in those areas. I borrowed one of those once from a shop to test my Datsun 240-Z and the temp range was quite wide in all the readings on the radiator. I think what I want to know is the temp of the water inside the engine block, like where the stock temp sending unit is located.

The fan clutch is brand new, and it does not spin freely at all, stops after about a third of a turn. I was going got an IR (laser?) thermometer, but already got the new temp/oil pressure gauge that's going in next week. I may price those IR thermometers anyway this weekend. Thanks for the info!

Good info, vrocrider! I just got my 88 Dolphin with 22RE, and decided to have the AC repaired as I am in the eastern part of Washington State, where summer temps are very hot.. I had to replace the condenser and the compressor, and went ahead and did the dryer as well. The shop recommended I stick with R12, which I did, but two weeks after we got it up and running again, it looks like the expansion valve died. I'm getting that taken care of next week.

Good info, Darrel, maybe you missed that I am installing an aftermarket temp gauge, I already bought one, just waiting to have it installed next week, hopefully that is the culprit!

Good info on the freeze plug. I got a brand new old style copper radiator.

OK, thanks my friend. I did not install oem water pump, but the problem was happening before I updated the cooling system.

Yeah we checked the timing first thing, it was normal.

I found an interesting thread about a special Toyota T-stat that might help my situation, I wounder if anyone else has had this issue or tried this? http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/index.shtml#Thermostat

Uh, what prompted it was the rig running at the upper end of the normal range on the guage when I drove it home on the hiway from purchasing it from 150 miles away. I got it for 2400 dollars, thought it would be a good idea to renew the 29 year old cooling system.