209 TACOS - B/S and shenanigans

From what you are describing... you do NOT have a head gasket issue. You could have air in your coolant system. You could have a slight leak in the throttle body hoses. You could have a slight leak at your water pump, slight leak at your radiator cap. Slight leak in your radiator... but chaces are 99.99999% it's NOT your head gaskets.

 

Run it!

As long as it doesn’t over heat...

 

Yeah it has never ever ever overheated with me. Even watching the scangauge the highest I’ve seen it was 200 but easily went back down and hovered at 190 ish when I’m moving again.

 

There is no way in hell you have a problem with your head gasket.

 

think a hairline crack in the cylinder head?

 

Lol... It's funny when people automatically jump to the cylider head conclusion.

Do you think, possibly, there is a higher likelihood of a small crack in the 20 year old rubber hoses, rubber gasket on the radiator cap, fins in the radiator, or plastic radiator tanks, plastic overflow tank?

Nope... gotta be a crack in the cast aluminum cylider heads.

You would most likely be over heating. And at the very least you would DEFINATELY be seeing symptoms other than just loss of coolant. Oil in coolant, coolant in oil, misfire, rough running engine, smoke in the exhaust.

 

@roguegs what they all said, if you have clean oil, and clean anti freeze
run it, if there is a problem it will show itself, and as long as the oil and antifreeze are clean it shouldn't give you and major issues

 

Dipstick is clear and oil was clean when I swapped. Checked the oil cap and saw a tiny spot of milky discoloration but I attribute that to the short 2 mile round trip drive and the engine didn’t fully warm up.

I’m more inclined to think the P0300 code is from injectors.

 

P0300 is random misfire on multiple cyliders.

#1 Check spark plugs - probably most common issue.
#2 Replace plug wires (I suggest the blue NGK) the age of your truck, this isn't a bad idea anyway.
#3 Make sure all your vacuum hoses are good and tight.

THEN start going after the fuel system, and injectors.

 

New plugs
New wires
New ignition coils
New MAF

 

And you're still getting a P0300 code?

Did you replace all that chasing the P0300? Or was it preventative maint and the code showed up after that stuff was replaced?

Are they double platinum plugs?
Where did you get the coil packs?
Are you sure none of the vacuum hoses got damaged or loosened when you replaced the plugs/wires/coils?

 

The P0300 was more sporadic but yes, now that it is colder the P0300 is more common than it was in the summer months.

Need to double check plugs
Ignition coils are new NGK (rockauto)

I can probably get a vacuum hose kit as the previous owner definitely did a Frankenstein job.

The misfire is EVER so slight for about 1-3 seconds and only upon first start up of the day.

 

I would definately look in to this ^ next. Very well could be your problem.

 

yeah you can tell some hoses are new and some are older. Some have worn clamps and the other the ones you have to use pliers for...

 

And finished! Rear springs went really good...did the easy 5100 install I’ve seen here on TW. Fought it for a while last night, and when I quit realized I had the spring seat on upside down . By that point I had the front end all apart and ended up taking the springs to a local shop to get assembled, and finished the install today. My helper taking the front end apart last night.
Today’s not so helpful helpers!
Finished product

Alignment scheduled for Saturday...pretty happy so far!

 

Social distancing as much as I can from the golden state...

Rented an RV. 2500 miles so far!

 

Looks like a great trip!

 

I'm thinking about going to "church" tomorrow. Basically heading up 108 for a bit and then getting lost on some forest service roads for a couple of hours. No plan really. I just need to be off pavement for a bit.

 

Just so everyone is aware... Voting for this year's TW Calendar opened today

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-1st-generation-tacomas.694518/#post-24572998

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-1st-generation-tacomas.694518/#post-24573008

 

We had some fun on Saturday. Drove around 1N03 for a few hours.
We checked out the building @Oneoldforester posted last weekend.
Pretty much Swiss cheese. I was happy that they picked up their casings, we only found two shotgun shells. The road was pretty rutted and they had to do a ton of tree clearing this year.
All in all it was a good day. Got my truck dirty and added a few Sierra pinstripes.