Hi all, first Toyota, first time posting, have been reading MUD, mostly 80 series tech threads instead of books since I bought Chrundle in Oct. '18. I'll do my very best to stick to the pertinent facts (EDIT: In review I failed that last sentence so skip to end to avoid verbose back story):
Loaded up to hit the road the other day, I come out of the grocery and notice some green dripping from the trans pan.... Again. Last time it was PHH; Drained, replaced hose (did bypass w/ Gates Green Strip), flushed, hit the road the following day, stop at O'Reilly's to pick up the thermostat they forgot to include in my order the day of the flush (argh), dripping again. Young employee and myself quickly determined it's the straight coupling that replaced the T on the pass. side firewall line (rear heater bypass was done by one of the PO's). Let it cool down, replaced in the parking lot and off I went. Next stop, OH where my (grandpa's old) shop and most of my tools and materials actually live. Drained and flushed again for the purpose of swapping the T-stat. Tested both new and old T-stats, new opened right at 180° whereas old seemed to take it's time starting around 200°. I then proceeded to drive all over the place to the tune of 3k miles or so. No serious issues other than a small amount of detectable coolant loss via overflow level. Never dipped below the "low" (started from 2nd flush at about halfway between L and F) and rad stayed full (of Prestone premix and a somewhat alarming amount of the typical grey "gunk" FWIW).
Back to the present: standing in the rain in the grocery parking lot staring at this substantial drip-drop of Prestone from my trans pan I pop the hood, poke around and all I am able to notice is some green bleeding from that same pass. Side firewall line coupling (rear heater bypass) so I yank it out and just pop a single length of gates in place of the two short lines joined by coupling. Turn the key and the dripping resumes. Argh.
Ok, not going to the party in TN. I head back to "home" (western NC atm- we move a lot) and toss a pan under it to catch the drip. After it settles I have *maybe* 10-12 ounces of coolant in my pan but the rad is down much more, maybe a quart or two- presumably from the 8 minute drive home. I proceed to read everything I can possibly find on MUD that resembles my symptoms. Survey says Rear Heater lines rusted OR external HG blowout on #6. I resolve to spend the following day (yesterday) doing my first ever compression test. Buy the tool, warm up engine for a while and the dripping resumes -for 5-8 minutes- and then stops. I'm thinking it's gotta be the HG and it just closes up once warm. I've been paranoid about the HG for most of the time I've had the truck thanks to this forum of course, but have in the past year, done multiple block tests as well as two samples to Blackstone, all with good results. No yellow tester fluid, two good reports from Blackstone (I'm running Mobil 1 10-40), no milkshake (except for once during a really rainy week but it went away when the sun came back), spark plugs all look the same.
Anyhow, truck is warm, the drips stop. I do the compression test, six cranks per cylinder with multiple redo's. Fuel relay disconnected, distributor disconnected, throttle wide open. All cylinders clock in around 180psi on 6th crank INCLUDING #6 except for #2 which read at about 160. Side plot, I then attempt to wet test #2 but dropped two generous glugs of oil into the cylinder (instead of the prescribed 2 Tbsp or "cap full") only to get a PSI of around 240. Spent hours attempting to Google, siphoning and mopping the oil out, scared to death that I had hydrolocked the cylinder on the wet test. Did one more test after oil removal and still at about 200psi, then, for better or worse, decided to call it a day. Buttoned back up, turn key, all seems well. Little bit of that good burnt oil smell, engine sounds normal. I then drop it off at the shop I was recommended to here in WNC for a previously scheduled appointment to attempt to diagnose another issue which is a drivetrain whine and vibrations (only under load) it's had since I bought it. Will start separate thread for that if needed. So there it sits at the shop. I mentioned the drip to them and they said they would poke around but here's the deal...
Truck is at the shop because in two and a half years I haven't been able to pin down the sound/vibe (transmission shop in OH investigated it two years ago and said it's "probably fine for now") but other than that I am committed to doing everything I possibly can myself for both financial and educational purposes and whether or not they are able to locate source of coolant leak I'd rather not pay for repair if at all possible. Would rather do it myself.
Here are those aforementioned facts:
-Coolant is dripping pretty good on start up
-source seems to be above trans- it ends up on the pan shield then onto the ground
-drips also observed on rear heater lines (which have been bypassed by one or another PO) above cat
-seems to completely stop after 5-10 minutes of idle
-coolant loss in rad is significant on short outing
-can't find source of leak. PHH is holding, pass. side firewall line is holding.
-There is some wetness around the water pump.
-truck is generally messy. Started leaking from seemingly everywhere when I put in the Mobil 1 whereas before the only real leak was steering pump resevoir. I just keep oil topped off and call it "self changing oil" as was recommended to me by another overlander once. Not my preference but not ready to tackle all of these leaks at this time.
-have attempted to diagnose HG issue for months to no avail; four block tests (wouldn't catch external blowout), two Blackstone tests (about 2k miles apart, sodium was slightly high, they attributed it to possible additives from previous oil, potassium was normal, wear metals looked great for 230k engine, no significant increase in any numbers on second test, they seem to think it's in fine shape) and just yesterday a compression test where numbers were great except for #2 which was 20psi and 14% lower than the rest on round 1 (180, 160, 180, 180, 180, 180 or thereabouts). This also doesn't seem to me to point to #6 external blowout. Test was performed at about 2,500ft, 80ish degrees and maybe 60% humidity with a brand new $35 tool.
-FWIW I put on a magnaflow downpipe to an inline dual C.A.R.B. cat for a '95 setup. Custom job from first cat back done in OH. Later, another muffler guy in VA pointed out that it was 2" and seemed small. Is 2.5 stock? Too much back pressure? My truck is virtually silent.
Question: what am I missing? Why does my truck bleed green? (Other than it has green stuff in it instead of Toyota Red...)
Could a #6 blowout seal up under operating temp?
Since I put 315's on I've felt it to be sluggish but when I took all my camping gear and tools out to drive to the shop last night it actually felt pretty spritely so not sure what to think.
Hoping to sort this all out at warp speed as I have work travel coming at me in A FEW DAYS and my 80 is somewhat unfortunately serving as my DD at this time.
Help!
Pics of spark plugs and chicken scratch compression test results from yesterday included.
Loaded up to hit the road the other day, I come out of the grocery and notice some green dripping from the trans pan.... Again. Last time it was PHH; Drained, replaced hose (did bypass w/ Gates Green Strip), flushed, hit the road the following day, stop at O'Reilly's to pick up the thermostat they forgot to include in my order the day of the flush (argh), dripping again. Young employee and myself quickly determined it's the straight coupling that replaced the T on the pass. side firewall line (rear heater bypass was done by one of the PO's). Let it cool down, replaced in the parking lot and off I went. Next stop, OH where my (grandpa's old) shop and most of my tools and materials actually live. Drained and flushed again for the purpose of swapping the T-stat. Tested both new and old T-stats, new opened right at 180° whereas old seemed to take it's time starting around 200°. I then proceeded to drive all over the place to the tune of 3k miles or so. No serious issues other than a small amount of detectable coolant loss via overflow level. Never dipped below the "low" (started from 2nd flush at about halfway between L and F) and rad stayed full (of Prestone premix and a somewhat alarming amount of the typical grey "gunk" FWIW).
Back to the present: standing in the rain in the grocery parking lot staring at this substantial drip-drop of Prestone from my trans pan I pop the hood, poke around and all I am able to notice is some green bleeding from that same pass. Side firewall line coupling (rear heater bypass) so I yank it out and just pop a single length of gates in place of the two short lines joined by coupling. Turn the key and the dripping resumes. Argh.
Ok, not going to the party in TN. I head back to "home" (western NC atm- we move a lot) and toss a pan under it to catch the drip. After it settles I have *maybe* 10-12 ounces of coolant in my pan but the rad is down much more, maybe a quart or two- presumably from the 8 minute drive home. I proceed to read everything I can possibly find on MUD that resembles my symptoms. Survey says Rear Heater lines rusted OR external HG blowout on #6. I resolve to spend the following day (yesterday) doing my first ever compression test. Buy the tool, warm up engine for a while and the dripping resumes -for 5-8 minutes- and then stops. I'm thinking it's gotta be the HG and it just closes up once warm. I've been paranoid about the HG for most of the time I've had the truck thanks to this forum of course, but have in the past year, done multiple block tests as well as two samples to Blackstone, all with good results. No yellow tester fluid, two good reports from Blackstone (I'm running Mobil 1 10-40), no milkshake (except for once during a really rainy week but it went away when the sun came back), spark plugs all look the same.
Anyhow, truck is warm, the drips stop. I do the compression test, six cranks per cylinder with multiple redo's. Fuel relay disconnected, distributor disconnected, throttle wide open. All cylinders clock in around 180psi on 6th crank INCLUDING #6 except for #2 which read at about 160. Side plot, I then attempt to wet test #2 but dropped two generous glugs of oil into the cylinder (instead of the prescribed 2 Tbsp or "cap full") only to get a PSI of around 240. Spent hours attempting to Google, siphoning and mopping the oil out, scared to death that I had hydrolocked the cylinder on the wet test. Did one more test after oil removal and still at about 200psi, then, for better or worse, decided to call it a day. Buttoned back up, turn key, all seems well. Little bit of that good burnt oil smell, engine sounds normal. I then drop it off at the shop I was recommended to here in WNC for a previously scheduled appointment to attempt to diagnose another issue which is a drivetrain whine and vibrations (only under load) it's had since I bought it. Will start separate thread for that if needed. So there it sits at the shop. I mentioned the drip to them and they said they would poke around but here's the deal...
Truck is at the shop because in two and a half years I haven't been able to pin down the sound/vibe (transmission shop in OH investigated it two years ago and said it's "probably fine for now") but other than that I am committed to doing everything I possibly can myself for both financial and educational purposes and whether or not they are able to locate source of coolant leak I'd rather not pay for repair if at all possible. Would rather do it myself.
Here are those aforementioned facts:
-Coolant is dripping pretty good on start up
-source seems to be above trans- it ends up on the pan shield then onto the ground
-drips also observed on rear heater lines (which have been bypassed by one or another PO) above cat
-seems to completely stop after 5-10 minutes of idle
-coolant loss in rad is significant on short outing
-can't find source of leak. PHH is holding, pass. side firewall line is holding.
-There is some wetness around the water pump.
-truck is generally messy. Started leaking from seemingly everywhere when I put in the Mobil 1 whereas before the only real leak was steering pump resevoir. I just keep oil topped off and call it "self changing oil" as was recommended to me by another overlander once. Not my preference but not ready to tackle all of these leaks at this time.
-have attempted to diagnose HG issue for months to no avail; four block tests (wouldn't catch external blowout), two Blackstone tests (about 2k miles apart, sodium was slightly high, they attributed it to possible additives from previous oil, potassium was normal, wear metals looked great for 230k engine, no significant increase in any numbers on second test, they seem to think it's in fine shape) and just yesterday a compression test where numbers were great except for #2 which was 20psi and 14% lower than the rest on round 1 (180, 160, 180, 180, 180, 180 or thereabouts). This also doesn't seem to me to point to #6 external blowout. Test was performed at about 2,500ft, 80ish degrees and maybe 60% humidity with a brand new $35 tool.
-FWIW I put on a magnaflow downpipe to an inline dual C.A.R.B. cat for a '95 setup. Custom job from first cat back done in OH. Later, another muffler guy in VA pointed out that it was 2" and seemed small. Is 2.5 stock? Too much back pressure? My truck is virtually silent.
Question: what am I missing? Why does my truck bleed green? (Other than it has green stuff in it instead of Toyota Red...)
Could a #6 blowout seal up under operating temp?
Since I put 315's on I've felt it to be sluggish but when I took all my camping gear and tools out to drive to the shop last night it actually felt pretty spritely so not sure what to think.
Hoping to sort this all out at warp speed as I have work travel coming at me in A FEW DAYS and my 80 is somewhat unfortunately serving as my DD at this time.
Help!
Pics of spark plugs and chicken scratch compression test results from yesterday included.