checking radiator and installing heater valve (1 Viewer)

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slowly cobbling together a strategy for baselining this vehicle. just scored some covered parking i can work on it under.

can anyone help me determine if i need a radiator and how to check? i’m a little embarrassed to admit i don’t even know the proper way to check coolant level.

also, i need to put on a heater control valve and put in hoses since it was all capped off. can anyone help me put together a mental picture of what i do other than putting on the hoses and the valve? i mean, i uncap the plugged hoses, screw on the valve and hook everything up? then what?

and if i do need a radiator should i just do the valve and hoses when i do the radiator?

all new radiator hoses were done by PO.

THANKS for any help

jon

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By the looks of your heater valve I’d say you need a new one of those, all new coolant hoses, new radiator, thermostat.

Yeah just uncap them and get the correct hoses and hook everything back up to your new parts.
 
hi gents
thanks a lot.
PO did all new heater hoses within last 20K. well the PO before the woman i bought it off of but it’s a long story.
so i have the heater valve and i have the hoses from toyota and wits end.
i was planning on buying a radiator.
can i put in the heater valve and the heater valve hoses /first/?
(a bit of a follow on question but) what else do i need to do when i do a radiator? i’m putting together my notes so i /can/ post these tonight.

> FAN clutch (motor?) R&R (service it with new fluid and/or replace with a blue one?)?

> possibly NEW FAN BLADES because the old one is plastic and very old?

> do i do a new FUEL PUMP?

i do plan to keep the vehicle stock so i would keep the rear heater hoses if i understand the question from DD.
and THANK YOU for the video.
- jonathan
 
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The question is ... WHY did the PO cap off the heater lines? Is the heater core leaking inside the truck? Are the rear heater lines rusted out and leaking underneath?

How does your coolant look? Does the radiator leak? If you search you will find MANY different suggestions on what the best radiator setup is.

Can you move the fan by hand with the engine off? Does it spin a bit, but not freely? Can you hear it engage when the AC is turned on?

What is wrong with the fuel pump? Are you getting a CEL?

Open the radiator when cool at the cap. Take a pic of the fluid and post. You should see fluid over the top of the core if filled properly. Then open the overflow and take a pic. There is an indicator on the side of the overflow that shows hot and cold full levels.
 
The question is ... WHY did the PO cap off the heater lines? Is the heater core leaking inside the truck? Are the rear heater lines rusted out and leaking underneath?

How does your coolant look? Does the radiator leak? If you search you will find MANY different suggestions on what the best radiator setup is.

Can you move the fan by hand with the engine off? Does it spin a bit, but not freely? Can you hear it engage when the AC is turned on?

What is wrong with the fuel pump? Are you getting a CEL?

Open the radiator when cool at the cap. Take a pic of the fluid and post. You should see fluid over the top of the core if filled properly. Then open the overflow and take a pic. There is an indicator on the side of the overflow that shows hot and cold full levels.

thanks man.
i’ll admit to wanting to learn to wrench on this vehicle and wanting to keep it for 20 years. not fun feeling like an idiot though.
pics attached. fan spins fine. not too much resistance. overflow is a little over halfway between empty and full. i cannot see coolant in the radiator. can i ask you here how the overflow functions in relation to the radiator? coolant in the oveflow looks crappy to me. guess i need to fill up the radiator to full and not drive it until i get it fixed?
i was told by the PO that something was leaking and they capped it off because the hoses were hard to find. she seemed to indicate it leaked under the truck. it was a weird deal frankly. [she had it for 8 months and i’d seen the prior ad from the prior PO and found his address in the glove box. spoke to him. local land cruiser specialists know the guy. long story but i bought it.]

i’ve got an oil sample report coming in the coming days. so i’ll try to eat and sleep in the meantime.

also, i will get under the vehicle and clean today. i will check:

1. does the fan engage when AC is turned on (which i guess is OK to do without the heater control valve in place?)
2. find rear heater lines and see if they are leaking.
3. i saw the heater core in the fiche. but i don’t actually know where it is or what it does (waiting on an FSM).

fuel pump was mentioned in one of the threads i was researching on the forum as a “do while you are in there” item. but i am not actually sure if that was in a head gasket thread now that i think about it. basically i am trying to put 2 + 2 together in terms of buying parts and finding someone to put them in or help me out them in. but i’m trying to educate myself as i go along as well (or really ask for help getting educated).
THANKS
jon

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Fuel pump unless it is dead leave it, I would do a fuel filter . I hope you are not missing the U brass tube for the heater valve to rear heater and be care full on you heater valve to not over tighten, fan looks fine again not broken don't fix , if you have checked your radiator by feeling it when the vehicle is warm by with the engine off place your hand on the top of the radiator and then the bottom, the should be very close to temp if it's cold/colder on the bottom the radiator is dead/plugged
 
Fuel pump unless it is dead leave it, I would do a fuel filter . I hope you are not missing the U brass tube for the heater valve to rear heater and be care full on you heater valve to not over tighten, fan looks fine again not broken don't fix , if you have checked your radiator by feeling it when the vehicle is warm by with the engine off place your hand on the top of the radiator and then the bottom, the should be very close to temp if it's cold/colder on the bottom the radiator is dead/plugged

THANKS man. it is going to be slow going here for awhile. so any help is welcome. anything i learn is obviously a big bonus. off to get some green coolant.
so - can i ask you where to look for the U brass tube? is it in this diagram?
also i guess i said fuel pump and i meant fuel filter. do i do a fuel filter if i am doing the radiator?
do i did anything related to the water pump? or was there some sugggestion to do the “Fan Clutch” or something with a drain and fill of the silicone fluid in there? was there some threads that suggested buying a blue one?! i’m dumb enough to not know what a fan clutch is or what it does (but not dumb enough not to ask i guess).

THANK
YOU

jon

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Def way low on coolant. Does it get below freezing where you are in TX? If not. I would get 4 gals of distilled (must be distilled) water from CVS or somewhere and fill up the system and look for a puddle. If it does, you should use 50/50 mix, but the liquid in the overflow looks like water. Let it run and get to operating temp and see if there are visible leaks.

Unless the rear heater lines are rusted through, they could be bad and you wouldn't know it until you filled the system and possibly added some pressure. Based on what the PO was saying about leaking underneath and seeing what they disconnected it would be my guess it was the rear heater lines that are bad.

Possible your rig has no thermostat either since someone was in the cooling system disconnecting things, but that's an easy fix and not a priority.

from teh Google ... The coolant recovery bottle acts as a reservoir for the engine's cooling system. ... As coolant warms and expands, creating pressure, liquid flows into the coolant bottle. When the engine cools, a vacuum is created and the cap allows fluid to flow back into the system
 
16210 in top diagram = fan clutch

If you aren't sure what you are doing to remove and refill the clutch properly I would say less hassle to buy one, but not sure why you think you need one atm?
 
Def way low on coolant. Does it get below freezing where you are in TX? If not. I would get 4 gals of distilled (must be distilled) water from CVS or somewhere and fill up the system and look for a puddle. If it does, you should use 50/50 mix, but the liquid in the overflow looks like water. Let it run and get to operating temp and see if there are visible leaks.

Unless the rear heater lines are rusted through, they could be bad and you wouldn't know it until you filled the system and possibly added some pressure. Based on what the PO was saying about leaking underneath and seeing what they disconnected it would be my guess it was the rear heater lines that are bad.

Possible your rig has no thermostat either since someone was in the cooling system disconnecting things, but that's an easy fix and not a priority.

from teh Google ... The coolant recovery bottle acts as a reservoir for the engine's cooling system. ... As coolant warms and expands, creating pressure, liquid flows into the coolant bottle. When the engine cools, a vacuum is created and the cap allows fluid to flow back into the system

thanks a lot. i’ve got a 98 tacoma and have not done anything to it. about time i figured out how a radiator works. i’m happy to hit google when needed. i sort of did with all this VSV, PCV, etcetera business. kind of hard to know when you are asking a dumb question so i appreciate the info. also i haven’t put all the systems together in my head which makes it tricky.

it does freeze i texas if only rarely. but also i plan to road trip. i do have 1 gallon of distilled water in my “carry on board” list which i guess is to mix with unmixed coolant if i need any while on the road. or for an emergency coolant fill i guess.

i will look for leaks after running (i topped both the radiator and the reservoir up).

i will put my hands near the radiator after runnning to compare heat top to bottom.

do i fill the reservoir to FULL is that right? and it gets higher when it is hot i guess?

i’ll also check the FSM (plus some from the factory online site i guess?) snips i got from beno and look for the coolant thermostat.

are the rear heater hoses in one of these two diagrams?

and the fan clutch is part of the water pump? all of which drives the - er - i guess it drives a fan to cool hot coolant is some kind of refrigeration cycle or something?! but more important it is a part of the radiator assembly so if i am pulling the old radiator i may as well put a new fan clutch in?

can i also please ask if there was a (recommended) upgrade to the OEM fan clutch listed above i the fiche?

THANK YOU

jonathan

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Fill the overflow to the cold mark. Its labeled on the side by the radiator I think.

Rear heater lines are on the bottom of the first diagram in the above post. I believe I read from Beno that replacing them is very difficult unless the head is removed first. If those lines are done you can bypass the rear heater and still connect the main heater. Look for threads and maybe a youtube vid.

The fan clutch is attached to the top of the water pump. Still not sure why you are replacing the radiator before you know what is leaking coolant, but sure, you can replace all that stuff while it's apart.
 
Here is what I would do (keep in mind you are taking advice from someone who is running original hoses and radiator on a 1997 LX450 with almost 200K miles)

Remove old heater control valve and hose

Install new HCV and hoses

Replace PHH with whatever method you have decided – hose only, hose/pipe assembly, bypass. Replacing PHH is well documented.

Add missing hose from HCV to pipe from PHH. If you are doing the bypass it will connect directly to the HCV.

You’ve now restored you cooling system to original, unless you did bypass.

Top off radiator with distilled water, tap water, bottled water, whatever. You will be doing a complete flush before too long and you are just trying to see if you have a leak somewhere. My bet is the HCV is what was leaking originally.

Fill the overflow to the full line on the bottle. About halfway.

Install your new ultragauge and set the first screen with water temperature. Set a temperature alarm for about 220.

Fire it up, let it run and check for leaks. Watch the temperature on the Ultragauge.

Check water level in overflow. You may need to add because your heater core could be empty.

If no obvious leaks, take it for a drive and watch the temperature gauge.

Take it home, check for leaks. If you see coolant leaking then you need to track down the source of the leak and resolve it.

If the leak was from the HCV, you’ve now fixed the problem and can start thinking about replacing the radiator, hoses and flushing the system. Even though you’ve been told the hose were replaced, all of them in the picture are original. Maybe just the radiator hoses were replaced, or maybe not.

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thanks man.

so i looked it up. prepurchase inspection said it was leaking coolant “at top tank seam” but i did want to verify this myself before i get into all of it.

1. i guess i need to RUN it so it gets hot enough to leak out the seam is that it?

2. i have the heater control valve part and the hoses and the clamps here. but if i am following you it makes NO sense to replace this until i get the rear heater hoses fixed - i mean assuming it is in fact rear heater hoses. anyone know if the rear heater hoses are done easier on a lift? and you are saying that if you do a head gasket repair it would be a hell of a lot easier to do the rear heater hoses at that time?

3. i can’t tell which diagram i should be looking for the rear heater hoses. actually - can i /please/ ask you what the three different diagrams here are for exactly? i mean, what do these three systems do?! one is 8718 COOLER PIPING? is that the water pump i see in there? what is the big box on the top right? and that’s the radiator (?) i guess? this is for, er, coolant i guess? 8716 WATER PIPING. what is this system for? what is the big object at the bottom? 1603 RADIATOR AND WATER OUTLET. is this one complementary to the other two somehow?what was the big accordion looking object hanging down at the bottom?

4. also, i guess beno or someone else posted this last image with a list of radiators. any opinions on these two? i guess only the 66040 is available?
2 core aluminum radiator (1995-1997)
16400-66081
3 core brass radiator
16400-66040

THANKS

jon

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Here is what I would do (keep in mind you are taking advice from someone who is running original hoses and radiator on a 1997 LX450 with almost 200K miles)

Remove old heater control valve and hose

Install new HCV and hoses

Replace PHH with whatever method you have decided – hose only, hose/pipe assembly, bypass. Replacing PHH is well documented.

Add missing hose from HCV to pipe from PHH. If you are doing the bypass it will connect directly to the HCV.

You’ve now restored you cooling system to original, unless you did bypass.

Top off radiator with distilled water, tap water, bottled water, whatever. You will be doing a complete flush before too long and you are just trying to see if you have a leak somewhere. My bet is the HCV is what was leaking originally.

Fill the overflow to the full line on the bottle. About halfway.

Install your new ultragauge and set the first screen with water temperature. Set a temperature alarm for about 220.

Fire it up, let it run and check for leaks. Watch the temperature on the Ultragauge.

Check water level in overflow. You may need to add because your heater core could be empty.

If no obvious leaks, take it for a drive and watch the temperature gauge.

Take it home, check for leaks. If you see coolant leaking then you need to track down the source of the leak and resolve it.

If the leak was from the HCV, you’ve now fixed the problem and can start thinking about replacing the radiator, hoses and flushing the system. Even though you’ve been told the hose were replaced, all of them in the picture are original. Maybe just the radiator hoses were replaced, or maybe not.

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thanks a /ton/ tom. let me print out this thread and read it over tomorrow morning. then see if i can get a plan to get out of the ditch over here. obviously anything i can learn i am all ears at this point. i plan to keep it awhile and if i can bootstrap myself into some mechanical knowledge i’d be super grateful for that too.
 
Are you driving the truck at all? You won't be able to find and fix problems by looking at schematics. You learn by doing. Grab a wrench.

My recommendations were based on a beginner doing the work. Everything on the list is easy and needs to be done anyway. The hardest part will be getting the PHH done but again, that is well documented, just pesky. Don't break the knock sensor.

Do the things I listed and check back with your results. People will offer advice but you have to step up and get started. Baby steps and go from there.

1. Yes - it probably won't leak sitting in the driveway.
2. This is a Texas truck - right? I doubt your rear heater lines are rotted. I doubt your heater core is leaking. Likely the HCV was leaking and that is why it is bypassed. Rumor has it you have to pull the transmission to replace the rear heater lines which is why most bypass if they are leaking. They don't bypass the entire heating system.
3. I'd consider the first diagram engine cooling. Second would be cabin heating. Third is AC. You'll learn individual components as you progress.
4. I put a Toyota radiator in my Landcruiser a couple years ago. When I do the LX450 I'll use whatever @Tools R Us is recommending - can't remember right now. It's about half the price and reportedly works well in the Arizona heat. Check around the top seam of your radiator and look for crusty anti-freeze. Sure sign it is leaking.
 
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Jon

Another thing you can do to help yourself understand some of this stuff is use Google Image Search. I use it all the time to search IH8MUD. For some reason it doesn't always exclude other sites when you specify IH8MUD but I've found if you scroll down the images eventually they are all from this site. I haven't found a way to search by specific forum so it isn't 80 series specific.

Copy and paste the following into Google and then select the Image search

radiator seam leak site:forum.ih8mud.com

or try
rear heater lines site:forum.ih8mud.com
water pump site:forum.ih8mud.com
fan clutch site:forum.ih8mud.com

The nice thing is you can click on the picture and it will take you to the thread.

It works with user names too.

hotwheels2017 site:forum.ih8mud.com
 
thanks for this. and thanks to everyone. also thanks to @Desert Dino for the info about the oveflow not being able to accept coolant from the radiator is there is a radiator leak.
anyone mind putting eyeballs on this work? heater slider is on the coolest setting. i am guessing it is electronically controlled?
not sure what that extra rubber protection band is for exactly. also not sure if the lower clamps will clamp against the - fuel rail (?).
anyway, i am seeing the TOP OF THE RADIATOR again. is it just flowing into the heater block (what is the heater block exactly please?)? should i just top it off again and check for leaks?
then if no leaks take it for a ride with the ultragauge set to temp setting as tom suggested?
THANKS
jon

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