I've only had my FJ40 for about 18 months, but it had a leaky front axle most of the time, so I didn't really drive it much at all. I finally rebuilt the axle and everything worked fine to home depot and back a few times. Then, about a month ago, I took it on the longest trip I have ever taken it....about 30 miles round trip on the freeway. I was following a buddy driving a modern vehicle. He was going 65+ MPH and I was having a hard time keeping up. I wasn't paying attention to my gauges because I also had a bit of drivetrain wobble I was very concerned about. I am not addressing the wobble now, because it's a separate issue. Approximately 5 miles from home on the freeway, I overheated. I started loosing power, looked down at the gauge and I was at about 270 degrees. Within about a minute, it started venting and I pulled off at the next exit. i think I saw it hit abut 280 degrees. Long story short, the fan belt had gotten loose and completely seized up the fan. I put on a new belt and topped off the radiator, it had lost about a gallon of coolant. I limped home to investigate further.
I haven't driven it enough to know the truck very well. I am pretty sure the oil pressure was always around 40-60 psi at cold idle, and went up to around 60-80 psi under power. I could be completely wrong, I just don't remember. Now, it is idling cold at 80 psi and I have a leak from what looks like just the valve cover that is leaking right onto the exhaust manifold and smoking. Of course the first thing I plan to do is replace the valve cover gasket, but I just put new ones on when I rebuilt the axle, and have only put about 50 miles on it since, including the 30 mile round trip when this happened.
My first thought was that I blew the head gasket and coolant leaked into the engine, causing the high oil pressure. I have looked at the oil on the dipstick, it doesn't appear to have been contaminated, nor does the coolant appear to be contaminated with oil in the radiator fill cap. In fact, my oil level was about a quart low when I got it home, so I assumed that I don't have coolant in the oil. I have not drained either of them to fully check, though. So now I am left wondering if my pressure really is higher than it was before, because I really can't remember what it was at before this happened. I have learned a valuable lesson about paying attention to these things now, but I don't know where to start with fixing this.
I can only assume the heat warped the valve cover, which is why it's leaking, but that doesn't explain the possibly high oil pressure. I will certainly drain both the coolant and oil before assuming anything else, but does the cold idle oil pressure sound bad? Aside from replacing the oil filter, should I check anything else before further troubleshooting?
I am a total beginner working on cars, so I would really appreciate any help on this. I am confident I can do the maintenance jobs, but concerned about doing more damage because I am unsure about the oil pressure and anything else I should be checking before driving it again.
I haven't driven it enough to know the truck very well. I am pretty sure the oil pressure was always around 40-60 psi at cold idle, and went up to around 60-80 psi under power. I could be completely wrong, I just don't remember. Now, it is idling cold at 80 psi and I have a leak from what looks like just the valve cover that is leaking right onto the exhaust manifold and smoking. Of course the first thing I plan to do is replace the valve cover gasket, but I just put new ones on when I rebuilt the axle, and have only put about 50 miles on it since, including the 30 mile round trip when this happened.
My first thought was that I blew the head gasket and coolant leaked into the engine, causing the high oil pressure. I have looked at the oil on the dipstick, it doesn't appear to have been contaminated, nor does the coolant appear to be contaminated with oil in the radiator fill cap. In fact, my oil level was about a quart low when I got it home, so I assumed that I don't have coolant in the oil. I have not drained either of them to fully check, though. So now I am left wondering if my pressure really is higher than it was before, because I really can't remember what it was at before this happened. I have learned a valuable lesson about paying attention to these things now, but I don't know where to start with fixing this.
I can only assume the heat warped the valve cover, which is why it's leaking, but that doesn't explain the possibly high oil pressure. I will certainly drain both the coolant and oil before assuming anything else, but does the cold idle oil pressure sound bad? Aside from replacing the oil filter, should I check anything else before further troubleshooting?
I am a total beginner working on cars, so I would really appreciate any help on this. I am confident I can do the maintenance jobs, but concerned about doing more damage because I am unsure about the oil pressure and anything else I should be checking before driving it again.
