Cooling Issues, Frustrating

[crispyke35]

Well my little 4k seems to not be liking me at the moment and has decided it wants to start getting hot argghhhh. anyway so far i have started the process of elimination to the find out if the final outcome is a blown head gasket. this is how far i have got, including reading as many threads as i could

 

What it seems to be doing is heating the water enough to build up pressure and almost fill the overflow bottle everytime i drive it. my daily drive is 45km and for the most part 100km/h so i would have imagined that if it has a blown head it would be getting hot along way before that. now the temp needle itself is sitting a bit above halfway (alot hotter the i ever remembered) after driving the whole way to work, which is also more then what most people have seem to posted in other threads. I have also looked at the Rad core and it seems to be alright (this may be the problem?)

 

 

- So first thing i did was flush the radiator and put some of the cooling treatment stuff through it, no luck

- also don't seem to be getting excessive bubbles from the rad when i take the cap of and start it

- did a pressure test on the system, didn't drop pressure so probably not leaking

- then replaced the radiator cap, marginal improvement

- The oil in the sump is not milky, but there is the slightest bit of moisture on the oil cap on the rocker cover?

-then pulled out the thermostat and gutted it, went for a good drive and thrashed it to get the temp up which sate a fraction above halfway. then i pulled in back home and let it idle, temp started to go way up.

 

So thats were I'm at. going to try a carbon dioxide test tomorrow and see if that shows anything.

 

Can anyone point out something obvious i should check ? could it be as simple as a new Radiator or is it looking like the head will have to come off and see whats doing?

[Evan G]

Well my little 4k seems to not be liking me at the moment and has decided it wants to start getting hot argghhhh. anyway so far i have started the process of elimination to the find out if the final outcome is a blown head gasket. this is how far i have got, including reading as many threads as i could

 

What it seems to be doing is heating the water enough to build up pressure and almost fill the overflow bottle everytime i drive it. my daily drive is 45km and for the most part 100km/h so i would have imagined that if it has a blown head it would be getting hot along way before that. now the temp needle itself is sitting a bit above halfway (alot hotter the i ever remembered) after driving the whole way to work, which is also more then what most people have seem to posted in other threads. I have also looked at the Rad core and it seems to be alright (this may be the problem?)

 

 

- So first thing i did was flush the radiator and put some of the cooling treatment stuff through it, no luck

- also don't seem to be getting excessive bubbles from the rad when i take the cap of and start it

- did a pressure test on the system, didn't drop pressure so probably not leaking

- then replaced the radiator cap, marginal improvement

- The oil in the sump is not milky, but there is the slightest bit of moisture on the oil cap on the rocker cover?

-then pulled out the thermostat and gutted it, went for a good drive and thrashed it to get the temp up which sate a fraction above halfway. then i pulled in back home and let it idle, temp started to go way up.

 

So thats were I'm at. going to try a carbon dioxide test tomorrow and see if that shows anything.

 

Can anyone point out something obvious i should check ? could it be as simple as a new Radiator or is it looking like the head will have to come off and see whats doing?

 

you running a fan shroud? using green coolant?

 

water in the sump is a defenat give away

[TE278U]

excess pressure in the cooling system happened to my car when i blew a head gasket.

 

It didn't have oil in water or vice versa either.

 

I ended up running the car without a radiator for three weeks, cause i got sick of always topping up the water... still ran fine after three weeks when i got a new motor

[crispyke35]

you running a fan shroud? using green coolant?

 

water in the sump is a defenat give away

 

yes running a fan shroud, yes tried coolant, no there is not water in the sump.

 

excess pressure in the cooling system happened to my car when i blew a head gasket.

 

It didn't have oil in water or vice versa either.

 

I ended up running the car without a radiator for three weeks, cause i got sick of always topping up the water... still ran fine after three weeks when i got a new motor

 

 

Hmm the bit about excess pressure is a bit alarming and yeah my car is running fine also. so yeah that seems like a similar situation

 

Cheers for the ideas so far

Edited November 30, 2009 by crispyke35

[Evan G]

go to the car wash a give the fins of the radiator a blast, possibly blocked?

[philbey]

Car will always get hotter on idle, less airflow through the radiator.

 

Most engines will tend to get some condensation in the crankcase due to combustion, it's not necessarily a sign of a blown HG.

 

Excess Pressure is standard when you blow a HG, it's combustion pressure leaking into the water jacket. A sure sign of a blown HG is to check that the water coming out of your radiator is hot. I blew my 3K and did a quick dirty HG swap. Only after about 15 minutes at idle did I start seeing water come out the overflow and it was cold. Gasket - still kaput.

[eiriksmil]

Mine has overheated twice and always run higher than it should when cruising above 120-130 km/h. Don't think it's the head gasket as it behaves normally when not on the m-way, warms up quickly and the heater blows (really) hot air. Maybe you just, like me, need a new radiator, simple as that? :D

[silverra23]

Every toyota I have owned thus far has had its original radiator in it, and they have all been farked.

 

I always fiddle around the edges.. do a thermostat, change the coolant, change the water pump, but ultimately end up getting the radiator reconditioned and my problems go away.

 

The core clogs up with rust and everything else that floats in the system and eventually hardens to the point where DIY methods arent going to budge it.

 

One way to check this is to put you hand on the front face of the radiator once the car is at operating temperature.

 

You can often feel where there is no flow by the lack of heat in the core.. some parts of the radiator will be cool to touch, others will be uncomfortably hot.

 

Put a thermostat back in it too, they are there not only to allow the coolant to flow through the system, but also to restrict it when needs be so that the coolant spends enough time in the radiator to be cooled down.

[philbey]

+1 on thermostat.

 

It's commonly thought that taking it out will improve cooling, which isn't necessarily the case. Plus, your engine is designed to run within a set temp range which varies too much without the thermostat.

Edited December 1, 2009 by philbey

[crispyke35]

I always fiddle around the edges.. do a thermostat, change the coolant, change the water pump, but ultimately end up getting the radiator reconditioned and my problems go away.

Put a thermostat back in it too, they are there not only to allow the coolant to flow through the system, but also to restrict it when needs be so that the coolant spends enough time in the radiator to be cooled down.

 

Yep a new thermostat is going back in tomorrow. just was checking if that was the issue, turns out it wasn't.

 

but yeah I to have been fiddling around the edges until today. Went and got a brand new radiator for it, so will put it in tomorrow morning and see how it goes. also did a quick CO2 test which didn't show up anything.

 

Thanks everyone for there comments I'm sure this will help someone else as much as me aswell, I'll keep you all posted on how things go with the new radiator

 

cheers,

 

Jacob

Edited December 1, 2009 by crispyke35

[Hiro Protagonist]

Put a thermostat back in it too, they are there not only to allow the coolant to flow through the system, but also to restrict it when needs be so that the coolant spends enough time in the radiator to be cooled down.

 

Actually thermostats work the other way - they keep water circulating in the block and bypassing the radiator until it gets up to operating temperature, then opens to allow flow through the radiator - if you run without a thermostat you constantly have fluid running through the radiator and it will cool the engine too much (engines work best at operating temperature)

[KENut]

My previous 4K still ran fine after 3 months of cracked head, albeit a little slower. Lol.

 

The engine I now have gets hot (double normal temp reading) on days where ambient is around 30ish or more. New thermostat, recond radiator.

Usually does it at 100 - 110 kms (3300 - 3600 rpm ish).

Interestingly though it does not get hot when I'm near home, which is a small altitude drop from the highway. hmmm.

I thought it could be some sort of build up flaking off from this engine and blocking the radiator, but flushing did not improve the issue, even with coolant.

 

Any ideas?

[silverra23]

Water pump impeller corroded?

 

Fan shroud?

 

Dodgy fan?

 

Not much left.. other than a cylinder head full of gunk and it just doesn't cool downn properly. Me KE10 was a bit like that

[KENut]

Yep fan shroud and good stock fan.

 

I think you might be right about the water pump impeller being corroded, thats what I've been pondering.

Doesn't do it at slow speeds (engine and road), and doesnt seem to do it at above 4000 rpm (on highway constant speed).

So I thought it might be inefficiency in the pump curve at a specific rpm caused by corroision, if that sounds plausible.

Probably crack it open when new engine goes in I guess.

[crispyke35]

My previous 4K still ran fine after 3 months of cracked head, albeit a little slower. Lol.

 

The engine I now have gets hot (double normal temp reading) on days where ambient is around 30ish or more. New thermostat, recond radiator.

Usually does it at 100 - 110 kms (3300 - 3600 rpm ish).

Interestingly though it does not get hot when I'm near home, which is a small altitude drop from the highway. hmmm.

I thought it could be some sort of build up flaking off from this engine and blocking the radiator, but flushing did not improve the issue, even with coolant.

 

Any ideas?

 

 

Yep fan shroud and good stock fan.

 

I think you might be right about the water pump impeller being corroded, thats what I've been pondering.

Doesn't do it at slow speeds (engine and road), and doesnt seem to do it at above 4000 rpm (on highway constant speed).

So I thought it might be inefficiency in the pump curve at a specific rpm caused by corroision, if that sounds plausible.

Probably crack it open when new engine goes in I guess.

 

 

Yeah just put a brand new radiator & thermostat in today and still sits on halfway (double what it normally did) but doesn't seem to get any hotter. your problem sounds almost exactly the same as mine. I'm leaning towards a shot water pump now so that will be getting replaced asap this leaves me with not many other options other then the head gasket. tell me how you go with your issues.