Please help with overheating 2007!! (1 Viewer)

[bmath340]

2007 with 250k miles.
I was coming up the desert mountain in California pulling a full uhaul trailer in the middle of the day (maybe 85• out) and gunning it up the hill on the 10west doing 75/80 MPH (Yes I’m an idiot).
radiator blew on top and temp gauge read H and check engine light came on which later turned out to be self protect shut off mode due to temp.
I immediate pulled up and long story short, replaced Radiator, Tstat with gasket, and rad cap, burped system a few times and it’s still overheating!!!
My oil looks fine, no milkshake… not sure where else to look..
it doesn’t overheat when idling. Only when I get going on the road..
Please help y’all!
Edit to note: heater t’s in tact and no leaks of coolant anywhere
Symptoms are excess pressure building up in radiator and throwing up all coolant to overflow

 

[Bisho]

Sure sounds like a head gasket.

 

[OEMGUY0720]

Quick question, where are you basing your coolant temperatures? From the instrument cluster temp gauge or from an OBD sensor?

So temp only rises then eventually overheats when there is load.

 

[ttmon]

Sure sounds like a head gasket.

+1 combustion gas pressurizing coolant. Big head gasket leaks - coolant/oil mix, coolant burned. Small head gasket leaks - high pressure gas escapes cylinder and pressurizes coolant.

 

[bmath340]

Sure sounds like a head gasket.

Thanks, oil is clean, coolant is clean. No milkshakes anywhere to be found!

+1 combustion gas pressurizing coolant. Big head gasket leaks - coolant/oil mix, coolant burned. Small head gasket leaks - high pressure gas escapes cylinder and pressurizes coolant.

Thanks, oil is clean, coolant is clean. No milkshakes anywhere to be found!
It does build up pressure in the radiator though… how would that happen without giving me a milkshake?
Thank you!

Quick question, where are you basing your coolant temperatures? From the instrument cluster temp gauge or from an OBD sensor?

So temp only rises then eventually overheats when there is load.

The temp gauge on the dash is fluctuating and im going based on that. I do have a OBD reader but haven’t plugged it in to see if it reads temps..

 

[ttmon]

Thanks, oil is clean, coolant is clean. No milkshakes anywhere to be found!
It does build up pressure in the radiator though… how would that happen without giving me a milkshake?
Thank you!

you get milky oil when coolant and oil mix. Head gaskets can fail in many different ways and not all of those ways involve oil and coolant mixing. If the gasket fails between the cylinder and a coolant passage and the leak is very slight, it could only leak when cylinder pressure is high. Cylinder pressure goes up under load. At idle you're ok but under load your leaking. Think of the failed head gasket as a one-way valve letting gas into your coolant when the cylinder pressure is high enough. Test your coolant for combustion gas.

 

[bmath340]

you get milky oil when coolant and oil mix. Head gaskets can fail in many different ways and not all of those ways involve oil and coolant mixing. If the gasket fails between the cylinder and a coolant passage and the leak is very slight, it could only leak when cylinder pressure is high. Cylinder pressure goes up under load. At idle you're ok but under load your leaking. Think of the failed head gasket as a one-way valve letting gas into your coolant when the cylinder pressure is high enough. Test your coolant for combustion gas.

Wow! Thanks for the info. I’ve had the cap off for the last few days testing it trying to figure it out and there wasn’t any small bubbles ever..
hmm

 

[nissanh]

Did the top of the radiator got melted or just blew? If it got melted, game over: if blew, then it could be a faulty radiator cap that didn't open at right pressure. Do a pressure test on all 8 cylinders before calling it a head gasket.

Is your AC condenser fins clogged? Do you have a lot of accessories in front of the grill?

 

[bmwjnky]

Sounds like the headgaskt has failed, there really isn't anything else that will build pressure in a cooling system in a short amount of time. A fairly easy test is to remove all 8 spark plugs then using a cooling system pressure tester put the cooling system under pressure overnight. If you have a borescope look down the spark plug holes to see if there is coolant in the cylinders. Sometimes you won't need to do that as the whole cylinder will fill will coolant and start spilling out the spark plug hole. I used this method quite a few times when I was tech to find headgasket leaks when more conventional methods didn't work yet the engine was having over-heating problems.

 

[dealmaker]

Have you flushed your system? I flushed yesterday and was surprised at the sediment blocking at the engine block drains. I poked the end of a zip tie in the tube and broke it up and then those drained well. BTW, the drivers side engine block is easy to reach from beneath. Passenger side was a small pita because I couldn't see it, but I could access it pretty easily with a small ratcheting 10mm wrench. My 2006 is a creampuff with 143k miles, a lease that I bought from a friend in 2009. Never any overheating issues so I was surprised at the sediment in the block drains as it's always had Toyota SLL in it. Afraid to think what may be in the heater cores. Currently running ThermoCure in it, will flush again next weekend then SLL.

 

[bmath340]

Have you flushed your system? I flushed yesterday and was surprised at the sediment blocking at the engine block drains. I poked the end of a zip tie in the tube and broke it up and then those drained well. BTW, the drivers side engine block is easy to reach from beneath. Passenger side was a small pita because I couldn't see it, but I could access it pretty easily with a small ratcheting 10mm wrench. My 2006 is a creampuff with 143k miles, a lease that I bought from a friend in 2009. Never any overheating issues so I was surprised at the sediment in the block drains as it's always had Toyota SLL in it. Afraid to think what may be in the heater cores. Currently running ThermoCure in it, will flush again next weekend then SLL.

How did you get enough pressure to flush and what liquid did you use? Thanks!

 

[BnvS]

Why don't you go to Autozone to rent a Gas engine combustion leak tester. And the tester solution. They'll rent out both of these to you for free.

Check our videos on how to do this testing and stop the guess work. If you have a decent head gasket leak the color of the fluid changes from blue(normal) to yellow (not good I.e. Head gasket leak present) . The exhaust gases will have left their signature in the radiator fluid. And with this tester you'll be able to say for certain in the head gasket leak.

I normally do a sanity check by running this with my exhaust gases from my muffler and see the fluid color change.

 

[bmath340]

Did the top of the radiator got melted or just blew? If it got melted, game over: if blew, then it could be a faulty radiator cap that didn't open at right pressure. Do a pressure test on all 8 cylinders before calling it a head gasket.

Is your AC condenser fins clogged? Do you have a lot of accessories in front of the grill?

Radiator blew on top! Changed radiator and oem cap.
I’ll have to check the AC condenser for clogs. No I don’t have any accessories
Thanks!!

 

[bmath340]

Sounds like the headgaskt has failed, there really isn't anything else that will build pressure in a cooling system in a short amount of time. A fairly easy test is to remove all 8 spark plugs then using a cooling system pressure tester put the cooling system under pressure overnight. If you have a borescope look down the spark plug holes to see if there is coolant in the cylinders. Sometimes you won't need to do that as the whole cylinder will fill will coolant and start spilling out the spark plug hole. I used this method quite a few times when I was tech to find headgasket leaks when more conventional methods didn't work yet the engine was having over-heating problems.

Thank you will look into testing this!

 

[dealmaker]

How did you get enough pressure to flush and what liquid did you use? Thanks!

I should've said "drain/refill" and not flush as I didn't force anything thru the cooling system under any pressure other than what the water pump generates. I was going to backflush my heater cores but the 3 yr old heater tee hoses didn't want to come off easily so I chose to try the ThermoCure instead of a hard flushing of the cores and possibly damaging any heater lines. Read on a few forums where some folks simply did ThermoCure in lieu of backflushing their cores and had good results.

I followed the instructions on the container of ThermoCure, and also bought 24 gallons of distilled water.
1. Drained radiator and engine blocks and coolant overflow bottle. Barely got a trickle from the engine block drains so figured maybe blocked, so poked w/the ziptie and broke loose some sediment that drained out along with a ton of coolant fluid.
2. Closed her back up then filled (including coolant overflow bottle) and ran with distilled water for a good 20 minutes @ 2,000 RPM and occasionally pulsating the accelerator, and with heaters on and burp funnel in place on radiator. Lot's of burping! Then repeated draining process after letting her cool down while I had lunch.
3. Closed her backl up again, added contents of ThermoCure bottle and distilled water and again ran for a good 20 minutes again like I did above. Turned off, left in garage with burp funnel in place. Removed burp funnel this AM, put radiator cap back on and drove around for an hour and a half. Heater already seems much hotter. Temp guage was where it always is...a little more than halfway up.

In a few days or next weekend I'll drain and refill as long as it takes until the distilled water runs clear, when will fill with SLLC, do the burping process again, and holefully that will be it!

 

[bmath340]

I should've said "drain/refill" and not flush as I didn't force anything thru the cooling system under any pressure other than what the water pump generates. I was going to backflush my heater cores but the 3 yr old heater tee hoses didn't want to come off easily so I chose to try the ThermoCure instead of a hard flushing of the cores and possibly damaging any heater lines. Read on a few forums where some folks simply did ThermoCure in lieu of backflushing their cores and had good results.

I followed the instructions on the container of ThermoCure, and also bought 24 gallons of distilled water.
1. Drained radiator and engine blocks and coolant overflow bottle. Barely got a trickle from the engine block drains so figured maybe blocked, so poked w/the ziptie and broke loose some sediment that drained out along with a ton of coolant fluid.
2. Closed her back up then filled (including coolant overflow bottle) and ran with distilled water for a good 20 minutes @ 2,000 RPM and occasionally pulsating the accelerator, and with heaters on and burp funnel in place on radiator. Lot's of burping! Then repeated draining process after letting her cool down while I had lunch.
3. Closed her backl up again, added contents of ThermoCure bottle and distilled water and again ran for a good 20 minutes again like I did above. Turned off, left in garage with burp funnel in place. Removed burp funnel this AM, put radiator cap back on and drove around for an hour and a half. Heater already seems much hotter. Temp guage was where it always is...a little more than halfway up.

In a few days or next weekend I'll drain and refill as long as it takes until the distilled water runs clear, when will fill with SLLC, do the burping process again, and holefully that will be it!

Thanks for the write up!!!