Cant drive the taco!! Keeps overheating!

I bougth my taco (96 v6 4x4 ecab) with 208,000 miles. the plan was to use it at the deer lease. problem is that i like to drive it better than my other truck because the one i ended up buying was in great condition.

when i bought it, the original owner said he had the following work done within the last 6 months:

head gasket
water pump
timing belt

i picked it up and it ran great. now after having it for about 2 months, it started overheating bad.

i dont want to think its a HG but thats the direction im leaning. heres the symptons

its been loosing coolant since i got it. it looked like it was coming from behind the water pump lending me to believe a bad gasket. I would refill the reservior every so often.yesterday i was driving it around and it kept getting hot so i limped it home and let it cool for a bit. the upper hose was was pulling a vaccuum and collapsing. i unscrewed the rad cap and left it alone wondering if the was the t-stat which i changed later with no difference.

once it was changed i was letting it warm up and feeling the top rad hose and the bottom to make sure that it was operating correctly. the top hose was getting hot but the bottom hose took about 7 mins to warm up after the top one was hot. also when looking in the rad top, it doesnt look like much water is circulating. i was concerned about that and pulled off the upper hose to ensure water was moving and it was but was moving like lugs of water and not a smooth stream.

now after typing all this, im starting to think it might be my radiator and clogged somehow and isnt letting the water circulate and the the water in the block is just getting heated up before it can be ran thru the system.

what do youll think. i hope with it getting hot i didnt warp by heads

brett

 

Free bump.
IDK what's causing this but someone probably will. The vacuum might be caused by a broken thermostat.

I'd start by flushing the system, fixing the leaks, and changing the thermostat. You might even want to change the collapsing hose. It certainly won't hurt anything and it will cost you less than $40 if you do it all yourself. Hopefully, that will fix it. Good luck!

 

I think you assumtion about the clogged raidiator might be correct, because you said you already replaced the thermostat, and apperently the waterpump was replaced. Although sometimes you can get falty thermostats. Is there coolent anywhere around the engine bay, essentailly, where is it leaking from? The cap?

 

its only leaking from behind the water pump. it is wet but only drops a little bit to form a small spot over 24 hrs. t-stat was changed yesterday with no improvment. im thinking about pulling the radiator on my next day off. what is a good way to test the rad for flow?

thanks

brett

 

If you have leaks in your cooling system that could surely be a problem. The cooling system works off of pressure, if it cant build proper pressure then it wont perform correctly. Ive had something as small as a bad radiator cap cause my old 22re to overheat. Also check your radiator for cold spots, top hot, bottom cold.... That would point to a blockage problem.

 

You can check the radiator flow by removing the cap ( do this when the engine is cold ) start the truck and let it idle until it warms up. Once warmed up, watch the flow. Once the stat opens up, you will see the coolant move

 

First, are you 100% postive your t-stat is in the right way (just checkin). Secondly when you look in the radiator does it look corroded or are the little fins in the radiator corroded as well. Also when you look in the radiator with the engine running, does your coolent (or water) bubbling or boiling out. Do you have exesive white smoke coming out the tailpipe?

 

t-stat is installed correctly.

rad does look a little corroded but i did a flush a few months ago becuase of that.

the coolant doesnt circulate very well when looking into the filler neck. makes me wonder if its because the rads bad, the HG is blown and the pressure is affecting the circulation. coolant doesnt bubble out, i can tell when its burping air out, no smell of exhaust. when i advance the throttle, the level rises making me think its getting backed up due to lack of flow

no smoke out the tail pipe. only white steam. dont know if its a humidity thing or what?

i might try to go home to pull the rad today and see how it looks

brett

 

oil is dark honey. no change

steam goes away once its warmed up. motor or ambient air temp

thanks for all the reply's so far

brett

 

X2

If your engine is warm, white steam is a sure sign of coolant leaking into a cylinder(s).

 

alright update

i talked to a guy at radiator.com and was asking them some questions. he suggested i checked the temps across the radiator. i used an theremal imaging camera since i was at work and noted the right side of the rad didnt appear to be getting hot as opposed to the left side (passenger side). i eventually unhooked the lower rad hose and compared the lower hose to the upper hose. my non precise estimate was it flows less than half the coolant then the upper hose. thi test was only for a few seconds

i guess ill order a rad today and install it tomorrow

brett

 

If the radiator doesn't pan out, sounds like it would be time for a compression test, if the head gasket is blown, that cylinder will not be up to parr with the rest. Also the spark plug might be visually cleaner than the rest from the steam.

 

does anyone know what kind of money im looking at for a HG repair? are there many write ups

brett

 

If you are doing the work yourself then the cost will all depend on weather your heads are warped or not, I would def. recomend that once you remove the heads you take them to a machine shop to be checked out. If the truck has been over heating, you are at risk of having one cracked.

Do the compression test before you do anything else. I would not even spend the $ on a radiator untill that was done & the head gasket was ruled out. I have a decent compression gage if you need to borrow it, or you might be able to rent one from the auto parts store.

 

ill take it with me to my side job tomorrow and do a compression check. i dont need the truck so it can be down without putting me in a bind. what a pain it is to have to mess with this stuff. thats why i paid 1800 more for this truck because all the maintenance was already done

brett