Help!!! 22re crisis

[archichris]

Hey there,

Im at the end of my wits here, Im the guy who put the rebuilt 22re into a 1992 pickup and then had TPS problems.....which you guys were great about helping me diagnose.

Well now the new engine is doing the same damn thing the old engine did.....

It has started over heating. Now when the previous motor did this i replaced the water pump, radiator thermostat, new electric fan etc......finally my mechanic decided the head was warped so i bought the rebuilt motor and they put it in. Its got about 5k miles on it since install and it just started overheating.

The only thing similar about the two instances is that I was running the AC both times when the problem first appeared. Im going to drive it around in the morning for a while with the AC off and see if there is a problem, but my mechanic is telling me to make sure my warranty on the motor is up to date....because it may be shot.

any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Cr_Racer]

ok this comment might not help you but i no when my a/c did work on the truck my truck still wouldnt over heat. the only time it did when the a/c was on was when it was 95 degrees outside or hotter but then even on the freeway it would have to be like 100 degrees. and my motor has 237,000 miles on it and 32,000 on after the FULL rebuild. and im geussing at this time of year its not to hot. i dont no where you live but i live in cali and it has only got to 94 here. for two days. keep us posted

[bodo]

Toyota designed that truck to idle with everthing turned on in the hottest climates in the world and not overheat. With that being said I would start with the coolant, radiator, hoses, tstat and fanclutch.

There are plenty of ragheads driving these things that don't overheat so it has to be something pretty dumb.

And please don't take that as I said you were dumb (that's not what I meant) because we all overlook simple stuff.

[subliminaltrips]

there was a recall on toyotas cooling system, its known to overshoot. put in a cooler thermostat, i reccomend a failsafe, since your using an electric fan did you ever think it may not be cooling enough? you said you replaced the rad? are you sure its actually overheating ? it may be th esending unit to the temp gauge. it can throw out the wrong voltage and throw off your gauge reading.

[bodo]

Now that my dumbass reread the post I would look at that fan first. Is it an aftermarket fan or did it come off another vehicle? Have any idea what the cfm is?

[stump runner]

why electric fan? the factory mechanical fan does the job nicely. was it to free up horsepower? i don't see that you had the radiator cleaned (rodded) out or replaced. check for plugged cooling fins too.

[zig80toy]

i don't see that you had the radiator cleaned (rodded) out or replaced. check for plugged cooling fins too.

I think this is actually a pretty big problem thats gets overlooked a lot. A lot of these trucks have 200k+ miles on them and have never had their radiators cleaned. Corrosion and crap can build up inside the cooling fins/tubes and restrict flow. You guys have seen what happens to engine temp when your radiator gets stuffed full of mud (no air flow). same kinda thing. low flow hot temps...

[archichris]

Just to cover the bases, when the original engine was over heating we replaced every part of the cooling system before the mechanic decided it had to be the cyl head. He even put in a separate temp gauge because the factory one seemed wonky. The electric fan was an early attempt to cool it because it idled very low, we have since removed it and are using the factory fan again.

I drove it around today without the air conditioner running and it stayed in the 180-190 range on the aftermarket gauge. It was definently running cooler while moving, and would gain about 10-20 degrees while sitting in a drive thru etc...

Two days ago with the ac running the gauge hit 230.

IM hoping that there is going to be some reason why the AC would wonk up the cooling system, and that it is not an engine block issue. Its warrantied but only up to the purchase price, which doesnt include the shipping, or installation. Plus they may want me to remove it and ship it back....which would amount to as much as the purchase price im guessing.

So i guess im hoping that someone knows of a switch or valve or other electrical part that occasionally goes bad and causes this.....

Of course if it turns out to be something like that then there is a good chance that the original engine was all right....... :(

anyway, thanks for your time.


I should probably mention that the engine gets crappy gas mileage also, like 13 mpg for an automatic....the old engine got 20-22.

[subliminaltrips]

sounds like your electric fan aint cutting it, when your sitting still its not moving enough air, make sure its hooked up to pull air in towards the engine, a shroud may also be needed to concentrate th eairflow to the rad..

[stump runner]

now you have the factoy fan again. w/ shroud?
you have a new radiator, radiator cap that is the right pressure, thermostat, water pump and fan clutch.
you have 5k mi on rebuilt motor that wasn't overheating but now it is.
you are running coolant not just water.

the symptoms are similar to when my thermostat was going out (mazda truck) but i didn't figure it out untill after blowing the uper plastic pleneum off the radiator. i hate to give bad advice but you might have a faulty thermostat. at least it is a cheep part that isn't hard to change.

[bodo]

now you have the factoy fan again. w/ shroud?
you have a new radiator, radiator cap that is the right pressure, thermostat, water pump and fan clutch.
you have 5k mi on rebuilt motor that wasn't overheating but now it is.
you are running coolant not just water.

the symptoms are similar to when my thermostat was going out (mazda truck) but i didn't figure it out untill after blowing the uper plastic pleneum off the radiator. i hate to give bad advice but you might have a faulty thermostat. at least it is a cheep part that isn't hard to change.

Good point on the shroud.

You didn't hack that up when you put the electric fan on did you?

On a side note I wouldn't pay a mechanic to work on my truck and then start threads on a forum because he couldn't figure it out. Maybe I've had a few beers while working on my stuff but I think you need a new mechanic. How much is this guy into you for if you don't mind me asking.

[stump runner]

hey i don't mean to say your mechanic isn't good cause if he works for a shop he must have more experience and training than me. however i've never heard of a warped head causing overheating without blowing a head gasket (water in cyl. / water in oil). then for him to blame an identical problem on a 5k mile motor being blown just doesn't seem right. stranger things have happened i guess. consider that he doesn't get paid to sit and think, only when he is wrenching on your car

just for testing purposes what about removing the thermostat altogether? if it still overheats then i'd have to think some more.

perhaps the a/c condenser fins are plugged up with dried bug guts etc. and need to be cleaned out with compressed air from the engine side with the radiator removed.

[archichris]

Well i sure as heck aint going to be the one to tell the mechanic he's wrong.....at least not until i frigure out what the problem is. Been driving it without the AC on for a couple weeks now with no problem. The old engine had worse over heating, it would overheat with ordinary driving, after replaceing all the water and cooling parts i could......so if it wasnt water and cyl heat mixing i dont know what was going on.

In any case if nothing has happened in a month im going to quietly take it to a different shop and have it checked out. I dont want to burn any bridges if i dont have to, the mechanic is right around the corner and i love being able to get oil changes and other work done without worrying about taking a spare driver to bring me home.......

[85yotto]

Dude water and anitfreeze right not just water. No pun here just you only wrote water. Also go to the autoparts store and get a new thermostat like a 160 or as low as you can get. You can put this in your self no problem man in fact I would rate changing the oil to be harder and 3 times more money. also check the codes just for the fun of it. And if you don't notice a change or find the issue after doing what I just said then don't wait a month go to a diff' shop. The guy your working with may be great for an oil change (waste of time and money on your part if you ask me. It only takes like 3 min's to change the oil man.) Anyways look your mechanic sounds like he's running you around. If on the off chance that I go to my mechanic and he/they can't find the issue (never) or say they do and I decide not to have the work done for some reason ($$$) my mechanic doesn't charge me a dime. not one dime for the time involed in finding the issue. So you have to ask your self, how many times have you paid this mechanic for his time and felt like you didn't get what you wanted.

[bodo]

Just to clarify, I wasn't bashing you or your mechanic.

I don't think you should get a case of the red ass and go in there bitching at him, I'm just saying if he's charging you everytime you go in there but not fixing the problem you might need a second opinion. You wouldn't believe how many certified mechanics don't know how to check codes or any other basic things on these trucks because they have to deal with so many other makes and models.

With your running hot problem I think you ruled out the motor being the problem since it doesn't do it with the AC off.

[22REkid]

Electric fans are known to be problematic. As a matter of fact, I have never had a good experence with them. Forgive me because I didn't read the whole trhead but did you remove the fan clutch all together? If you did, put it back on. The 90's 3.0 V6 4Runners came with a secondary electric fan and I will express the "secondary" part. Fan clutches are good enough for a 22RE. No fan clutch with an electric fan is definantly not desireable. A cooler thermostat or a non existant thermostat for that matter is probably not even necessary. The temp needs to be around 190 for the air/fuel ratio to be correct. Ditch the electric fan and put the stock fan clutch back on.