What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Man, a guy local up here posted it on instagram. Just so happens that I was taking my morning ‘meeting’ on the bowl and checkin my phone, and his story popped up. I immediately msgd him and said I’d take it, I was the first of like 600 messages he said lol. I’m jacked. Rebuilt fairly recently with paperwork.

 

You have a coolant pipe that goes off the side of the thermostat housing over to the oil cooler. No one ever changes it and it's exposed to a ton of heat so it's one of the more likely culprits for bursting or at least weeping

 

I sure was! Haha. Went the other way didn’t I. I’d rather have this thing in the driveway not being used than not have it at all.

 

Took it to the beach
20220821_165841 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

 

Good call, could be the oil cooler coolant line. 20 year old rubber and it’s just held on with a constant tension clamp.

 

I checked that and it appeared dry once everything was cleaned and dried. I will check it again first thing to confirm.

Is it possible it's the water pump? I was told things were done on the truck, however every single one of those items has failed and needed to be redone because it was done with cheap parts or improperly lol that's one thing I have not "re done"

 

1 good thing they did was replace all lines with silicone I think that was included

 

See above...

See my quotes above. I had a leak in almost the exact same spot and it ended up being the thermostat housing a few months after a water pump and timing belt replacement. Coolant leaks in the exact same spot. Was easy/quick to fix as I just replaced the gasket.

*edit - I just remembered that I replaced the entire thermostat housing while I was there...

 

That would definitely not be a silicone hose, those are for vacuum lines only. It’s also very hard to get to, thus why it never gets replaced.
Sounds like something on the thermostat housing or water pump is your culprit.

 

Ok, guess a new hose, clamp, therm, o-ring, and housing are in order.
In there, might as well.

Got a parts list lol?


Edit:

Ok. Is the thermostat housing separate from the water pump? Because based on what I'm seeing the hose is fine, and so is the front portion of the thermostat (water inlet) but the backside of the water pump is what appears to be leaking.

If that job was done "poorly" could that gasket have failed? Oh hell... its rtv?!I



The link appears to be emanating from the back side of the water pump at those three studs.

What would account for the coolant on top by the valve covers? I can't imagine the thermostat or oil cooler hose contributing to that.

 

Possibly weeping from the coolant bypass tube. Its a common point of failure. I have a new one to put in while im in there doing valve cover gaskets.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/coolant-gone-no-leak-visible.525167/

 

Just about ready... Still need to change the TCASE input shaft seal and replace the filter on the transmission. Need to resolve the rear drive shaft. Other than that, ready to start working. Lower ball joints will be changed as well.

 

Looking good. Freezer trick for the tcase seals is helpful. I just jacked one of mine up like a noob the other day.

I am pretty close to wrapping my swap up too. Where did you find the center caps?

 

Thanks. I've been lucky with all the seals so far but thx for the tip. The center caps shown are for the T4R wheels. Not sure if they'll fit any other stock wheel (tacoma). Picked them up from McGeorge. Part# is 42603-04020.

 

The 5 spoke 3rd gen wheels, yea?

 

Yep, that's them.

 

I swapped the center caps from my original 15" split-3 rims over to 4Runner 5-stars. They fit fine. Toyota liked to re-use parts in the '90s...

 

https://youtu.be/_mdRwuv-ERQ

Swamp Lake Trail was a blast, here's Part 1.

 

Changed my transmission fluid at 202,272 miles looked fresh to me...last time done was at 128,639 miles. Used some toyota IV this time, I paid someone else to do this before. The easiest job done, took less tha. 20 minutes. Paid the dealer 180 back in 2015. Fluids and washer was only 54 bucks. Woot

Forgot to mention, the bolt did not have washer when I remolt drain plug.

 

Replaced the gear shift bushings. It made such a difference!