1996 fjz 80 pink milkshake (1 Viewer)

[Eric Greno]

I picked this up a few months back to restore for daily driver. I have owned fj40s for 30+ years.

Finally got wife projects to a point to start doing long term maintenance. I have pink milkshake in the cooling system. Found while pulling original radiator for future replacement. Going to do water pump and gaskets and seal on from of engine while the radiator is out of the way.

Questions
Flushing transmission instructions and should I replace transmission cooler while I'm at it, I tend to think I should.


ThanksEric

 

[leonard_nemoy]

Check the head gasket

 

[SaturnAscends]

Is this the Strawberry Milkshake of Death? I thought that was from trans fluid mixing with coolant from the radiator. I didn't think it was a common issue in the 80 series, but in the early auto 2nd gen Xterras the preventative measure was bypassing the trans cooler lines from the radiator IIRC.

 

[JunkCrzr89]

Is this the Strawberry Milkshake of Death? I thought that was from trans fluid mixing with coolant from the radiator. I didn't think it was a common issue in the 80 series, but in the early auto 2nd gen Xterras the preventative measure was bypassing the trans cooler lines from the radiator IIRC.

It’s common on basically all Toyota 4x4s if the plastic radiator with AT cooler in the bottom isn’t changed every 100k miles or so…

 

[SaturnAscends]

It’s common on basically all Toyota 4x4s if the plastic radiator with AT cooler in the bottom isn’t changed every 100k miles or so…

Hm so the plastic reservoirs fail, causing the trans fluid and coolant to mix and destroy the transmission?

This is why I usually stick to manuals..

 

[Eric Greno]

A little more info, vehicle runs and drives great, no shift problems, not cooling issues. I havent driven 100 miles since I picked it up because is was the original radiator and one of the two water pump belts was gone and the other one was coming apart! Everything I have noticed with it, until this small amount of transmission fluid mixed with coolant, is straight off the list of common issues for these vehicles. it seems to be leaking oil from every seal/gasket on the front of the motor.

I am going to check everything good just to make sure I didnt accidentally spill transmission fluid from the lines when I took off the radiator, anything is possible. One of the bolts to get out the radiator was a booger. These are no where near as friendly as an FJ40 to pull apart.

thanks for the responses

 

[bigredmachine]

should I replace transmission cooler while I'm at it, I tend to think I should.

if your talking about the cooler in the rad then yes, if your asking about the aux trans cooler then no. the aux cooler is an air to liquid cooler so theres no fluid mixing

 

[jsloden]

Check the condition of the trans fluid with the dipstick. If it's still clear the milkshake you are seeing could quite possible be a blown head gasket. Check the condition of the oil as well. Head gaskets are fairly common as well unfortunately.

 

[Spdstr280Z]

Interesting, have not heard about strawberry milkshake in 80's... Pretty common for 3rd gen 4Runners. Best preventive maintenance is a manual transmission, but can't do that with a stock USDM 80 ...

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

Interesting, have not heard about strawberry milkshake in 80's... Pretty common for 3rd gen 4Runners. Best preventive maintenance is a manual transmission, but can't do that with a stock USDM 80 ...

I have a habit of changing the radiator on most old vehicles I buy. The Toyota's are easy to tell when they are too old to me, the plastic will have changed to a brown color. I just got a Denso shipped to me with new radiator hoses for about $235. The fluid in the radiator on my 80 still looks good so I intend to recycle it back into the system. I just don't want the stress of waiting for the radiator to give out and take out the clutch packs in the tranny. It's a crappy job, usually a weekend job for me because I'm slow. The hardest parts are fan clutch, fan shroud removal without breaking, and bleeding all the air out of the system.

 

[Spdstr280Z]

I have a habit of changing the radiator on most old vehicles I buy. The Toyota's are easy to tell when they are too old to me, the plastic will have changed to a brown color. I just got a Denso shipped to me with new radiator hoses for about $235. The fluid in the radiator on my 80 still looks good so I intend to recycle it back into the system. I just don't want the stress of waiting for the radiator to give out and take out the clutch packs in the tranny. It's a crappy job, usually a weekend job for me because I'm slow. The hardest parts are fan clutch, fan shroud removal without breaking, and bleeding all the air out of the system.

Literally yesterday....

Jason

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

Literally yesterday....

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Jason

That's a beautiful restoration you got there! Nothing like seeing all new fasteners. That's my porn.

 

[CJF]

How do you know it's tranny fluid?

 

[hdcloniany]

I thought that was from trans fluid mixing with coolant from the radiator.

in which point(place) could the confusion occur?

It’s common on basically all Toyota 4x4s if the plastic radiator with AT cooler in the bottom isn’t changed every 100k miles or so…

imo theres no way, cause plastic part on bottom of radiator is only cover and directly here is flowing coolant. Got similary problem, with latte milky under radiator cap, did new thread few days ago...one member told me, that coolant could mix with atf due to impact to my radiator ...it was good lead so decided to check it out. I thought that both parts( 1 with coolant, and 2nd with at oil) work similiary but no. Upper part where coolant moving is s*** made with aluminum prone, to damage from little impact, corrosion, oxidation and weak accids, but AT cooler is really heavy duty made. Check pics bellow, it is dissasembled old radiator (~250k miles). Its look like high quality steel with nickel coat? Theres no corrosion(just sediment). Horizontal pipes are 5mm thick. Will try soon to put this oil cooler in metal bucket with water to -15*C, i think it will not be damaged by freez. Only directly,heavy impact can damage this cooler.

 

[SHIfTHEAD]

in which point(place) could the confusion occur?

imo theres no way, cause plastic part on bottom of radiator is only cover and directly here is flowing coolant. Got similary problem, with latte milky under radiator cap, did new thread few days ago...one member told me, that coolant could mix with atf due to impact to my radiator ...it was good lead so decided to check it out. I thought that both parts( 1 with coolant, and 2nd with at oil) work similiary but no. Upper part where coolant moving is s*** made with aluminum prone, to damage from little impact, corrosion, oxidation and weak accids, but AT cooler is really heavy duty made. Check pics bellow, it is dissasembled old radiator (~250k miles). Its look like high quality steel with nickel coat? Theres no corrosion(just sediment). Horizontal pipes are 5mm thick. Will try soon to put this oil cooler in metal bucket with water to -15*C, i think it will not be damaged by freez. Only directly,heavy impact can damage this cooler.

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That's pretty cool, and not what I was expecting. I've just assumed the lower rows in the radiator were isolated to the ATF, but that clearly isn't the case. At least in this radiator. I had a 2005 Honda Pilot and that generation of Pilot/Odyssey were notorious for this failure. It was a fault in manufacturing where the OEM use some steel washers when they pressed in an aluminum ATF hose port into the aluminum radiator body. The dissimilar metals corroded and eventually you would have leaking between the two systems, and lots of owners suffered from it. If you were in a salty climate/cold climate the corrosion was accellerated causing the earliest failures.

 

[JunkCrzr89]

imo theres no way

Yes way