3FE major coolant loss

[alkaline747trio]

Over the past 3 days the entire contents of my expansion bottle has been depeleted plus about an inch worth inside the radiator.

I have a hairline crack at the top on the plastic tank, but I've looked at it with the engine hot and cold, and at idle and 3k rpms but it hardly even drips, definatly not enough to suck that much coolant with the very little amount of traveling that I have done.

I haven't seen any wet spots under the truck, but I'm thinking that it might be the brass (or copper?) piece that goes to the rear heater. The rear heater was on during those three days, but that was for less than 40 miles and I've not seen any wet spots on my drive way.

All I know about the brass piece is that it is for the rear heater, I have no clue where it is located, so if anyone can help me out there then maybe I can rule that out.

Any other ideas where the coolant could be going?

 

[PHAEDRUS]

check the bypass hoses at the very front of the block on the right hand side, there are two steel tubes and then tw2o short elbows there that age poorly, if memory serves 5/8" tubing will work in its place since toyota only sells the entire assembly (fromteh firewall to the front) and it was around $200 for the part, This will leak right on to the side of the block and steam out long before it reaches the ground.
Other place to look would be the lower radiator hose and the hose between the water pump and the thermostat housing. FWIW the rear heater hoses come in right next to the transfer case so start looking there and move your way forward.
Dave

 

[CJF]

I have a hairline crack at the top on the plastic tank, but I've looked at it with the engine hot and cold, and at idle and 3k rpms but it hardly even drips, definatly not enough to suck that much coolant with the very little amount of traveling that I have done.

I don't believe you: If your radiator is full, cap's on, and you let the engine warm up and therefore pressurize the cooling system; that crack's going to spew coolant. It would be ridiculous and pointless to look elsewhere until you get that fixed.

Curtis

 

[alkaline747trio]

You can NOT believe me as much as you wish, but I went and did about 10 minutes of driving going WOT as often as possible, brought it back in and looked it over. Temp guage was in the middle, and there was definate pressure in the radiator. There was minimal coolant, and all of it was evidence of a slow drip. I then had the pops hold 3k, and saw no spew or anything, just drips.

 

[PHAEDRUS]

Just had a thought,
when was the last time you checked the pressure on your rad cap?? long long ago I was having issues with mine heating up and the cap was opening too soon and letting coolant into the overflow too early. If memory serves the cap was about 8 bucks.

As far as the bottle crack goes the system will not work properly if there is an air passage issue on the bottle, it needs to hold pressure to allow the radiator to bring coolant back into the radiator, at the very least jb weld that thing up and see where you go from there.

Dave

 

[CJF]

You can NOT believe me as much as you wish, but I went and did about 10 minutes of driving going WOT as often as possible, brought it back in and looked it over. Temp guage was in the middle, and there was definate pressure in the radiator. There was minimal coolant, and all of it was evidence of a slow drip. I then had the pops hold 3k, and saw no spew or anything, just drips.

All right, all right; I had just woken up and was feeling cranky. Sorry.

 

[sdbrassfield]

check the bypass hoses at the very front of the block on the right hand side, there are two steel tubes and then tw2o short elbows there that age poorly, Dave

Good place to look, I had a deteriorated bypass hose that leaked real slow and evaporated on the block before it hit the ground. It was real hard to see. Got lucky one day and saw the steam from a drip onto the block....

 

[PHAEDRUS]

thats how I found mine,
thought I had the most severely blown head gasekt known to man at first.....
Dave

 

[alkaline747trio]

Ok, looked over and over the Cruiser from the t-case to the radiator and saw a few wet places on the undercarraige, and one of the steel tubes doesn't look to solid that are candidates for my problem.

My JB weld trick on the radiator top was about 75% sucessful. It slowed the leak down a lot, but it still does in fact leak. Can the top plastic tank for these be replaced? How much am I looking at for that? If it can't, how much for a quality radiator that will last another 14+ years?

 

[sdbrassfield]

Get rid of the plastic top rad and get a brass rad (aftermarket or Toyota). It should run you between $225 and $600 depending on which way you go...Call Dan for the toyo rad...

 

[alkaline747trio]

I thought all Yota rads were plasti-top. How do most aftermarket radiators fair? I hear horror stories of aftermarket, but I don't have anywhere near enough money to spend on a new Toyo radiator.

 

[alkaline747trio]

.....but CAN the top be replaced?

 

[alkaline747trio]

Nobody?