I recently purchased my 100 series and finally joined the Landcruiser club. I've slowly been baselining and buttoning up the few minor issues here and there, and I finally got around to starting a coolant flush last night. I figured while I was in there I should probably do the heater T's as well.
The good news is the T's I replaced look and feel like they were in great shape. I'm glad I replaced them just for the peace of mind but happy to know that they were doing just fine. The frustrating part, however, was the first T I removed, closest to the driver's side, had about an inch and a half long piece of rubber stuck right in the bend of the T. It appears to be some sort of gasket but not sure where it came from and I'm hoping someone might have an idea?
Now I'm worried I might have more gasket stuck in the engine block coolant galleys. When I did the flush I did open both plugs on either side of the engine block, and both drained coolant but much slower than I expected. I used some silicone hoses to direct the flow so as to not make a coolant mess everywhere and I expected that since the little plugs are pretty small the hoses would essentially be flowing pretty quick but it was closer to a trickle. I even removed one of the plug valves completely expecting it to squirt everywhere but it still just kinda dribbled out. (I did have the radiator cap off, and I even had the hose off the top bung of the radiator. After about 30 minutes it was all drained out, and I think I have about 3 gallons and change in my catch pan. Anyways, is the slow drain from the block plugs normal...or is this confirming my fear of having gasket material trapped in the block somewhere?
As a note, I have not changed the thermostat just yet. I wasnt sure if I was going to have all kinds of junk in the system so I wanted to run a few cycles of just distilled water to clean everything out before I put the new thermostat in and refill it with Toyota Red rather than the green junk that was in it.
Also, does anyone have any good suggestions on how to work on the back of the engine bay? I was standing on a 2 step step stool to be able to comfortably reach back to the heater hoses but this meant I was putting backward pressure on the stool as I lean over making the stool slowly slide away as I worked...funny in hindsight but very frustrating at the time.
The good news is the T's I replaced look and feel like they were in great shape. I'm glad I replaced them just for the peace of mind but happy to know that they were doing just fine. The frustrating part, however, was the first T I removed, closest to the driver's side, had about an inch and a half long piece of rubber stuck right in the bend of the T. It appears to be some sort of gasket but not sure where it came from and I'm hoping someone might have an idea?
Now I'm worried I might have more gasket stuck in the engine block coolant galleys. When I did the flush I did open both plugs on either side of the engine block, and both drained coolant but much slower than I expected. I used some silicone hoses to direct the flow so as to not make a coolant mess everywhere and I expected that since the little plugs are pretty small the hoses would essentially be flowing pretty quick but it was closer to a trickle. I even removed one of the plug valves completely expecting it to squirt everywhere but it still just kinda dribbled out. (I did have the radiator cap off, and I even had the hose off the top bung of the radiator. After about 30 minutes it was all drained out, and I think I have about 3 gallons and change in my catch pan. Anyways, is the slow drain from the block plugs normal...or is this confirming my fear of having gasket material trapped in the block somewhere?
As a note, I have not changed the thermostat just yet. I wasnt sure if I was going to have all kinds of junk in the system so I wanted to run a few cycles of just distilled water to clean everything out before I put the new thermostat in and refill it with Toyota Red rather than the green junk that was in it.
Also, does anyone have any good suggestions on how to work on the back of the engine bay? I was standing on a 2 step step stool to be able to comfortably reach back to the heater hoses but this meant I was putting backward pressure on the stool as I lean over making the stool slowly slide away as I worked...funny in hindsight but very frustrating at the time.
