Drove truck for a few miles severely overheating, how bad did we mess up?

that kit works great. used it to find a cracked block last week.

 

Do the block check

Other than that there's not much you can do.. time will tell

 

YOLO!

 

If it got hot enough than you could have blown head gaskets or even warp the heads. Leak down test will show you more than a compression test for this situation.

 

I'd just drive it, if it's not loosing antifreeze or oil, not knocking and still has power it's probably alright. Even if you totally toasted your motor you can always get a low miles pullout engine for not alot.

 

This, unless this vehicle is regularly a long ways from home, I think I'd keep an eye on the coolant, change the oil, maybe the transmission fluid too (if it's an auto) if the coolant was that hot and circulating, if it wasn't going through the radiator, the atf should be fine. What exactly went wrong and caused the overheat?
If that engine dies or has issues later I'd look around and throw a low mileage JY engine in and call it a day.

 

those 4-bangers are bullet-proof. Should have turned on the heater full blast and that would have helped relieve some temperature on the engine. Should be just fine. I once towed a boat over an hour with zero water in the engine overheating all the way. After fishing time was over I stopped and filled the radiator, never had a problem. Good luck.

 

We were on the main street, with no parking at all on either side. By the time we reached a safe spot, we were 2 blocks from his house.

 

We bought an autozone water pump like a couple'a tards, and either the gasket immediately blew when we drove it, or we installed in wrong. It was dumping water from the water pump like a friggin fire hose. I was really surprised that it was coming out so much because of the gasket failing. He bought the OEM pump and we installed it on Sat. and so far everything seems perfect, but still worried.

 

Thanks. I mean, I have driven plenty of cars that overheated and they always seemed ok afterwards, but that truck is like his baby, and has never been in the shop, so when we saw that gauge needle pegged, I think he had a heart attack.
LOL about the Subaru. My friend is looking for a Legacy GT right now and every single ad I see either says it needs a head gasket, or that it was just changed.

 

So im a ford tech at a dealer that also does subarus. the guy next to me we all call the head gasket assassin because he just does subaru head gaskets all day long lol. Totally understandable to have a mini panic attack when you see your needle in the red. sounds like you all wasted no time getting it home and fixed up so i really doubt you have anything to worry about. its still a good idea to keep an eye on it to make sure though. one of the nice things about modern cars is that when the engine computer sees too much heat it retards the timing which helps prevent knocking/pinging and further engine damage.

 

I think we're fucked. Over the last few days his truck has gone through about 2 full tanks of the coolant reservoir. I hear it may be due to not burping the system, but I feel like it may be the head gasket, or block cracked.

 

Compression and leak down test.

 

If coolant was getting into the cylinders you'd know it.... Thick clouds of really nasty smelling exhaust (went thru that on my mom's Vega as a teen).

 

Not to state the obvious, but you guys shouldn't have driven it before letting it heat up at idle in the driveway and burping the air out. That way if you did something wrong you'll see it start to overheat or leak coolant and can just shut it off right there.

Are you guys sure you installed the second water pump correctly? What gasket maker did you use? Maybe I'm being optimistic, but if you did something wrong the first time then maybe you got a shitty seal on the second one too and it's leaking coolant from the pump again? Did you do the thermostat at the same time?

 

I really couldn't even say why we drove it down the street rather than just letting it idle, just stupid I guess. The second pump and gasket were oem Toyota and have checked multiple times and don't see any leaks at all. No thermostat as he said it was recently changed, which I can't confirm.

 

Since it sounds like you have limited knowledge I’d take it to a reputable shop not a dealership. Tell them it is loosing coolant and they will perform a compression and leak down test. What’s done is done.

 

Why did you change the water pump to begin with, preventative maintenance or was it leaking or making noise? 70k is pretty early to need a water pump or thermostat. I mean the truck is almost 11 years old, but it does have low mileage.