Shuddering at full accel, then puked coolant, no check engin light,Help!

[truevil]

Ok so I took the 91 LC on a 165 mile round trip today, and just at the last 10 miles, when I would try to accelerate a lot, it would shudder and sputter, even in nuetral. I could accel, slowly and she worked fine, but if I slammed the pedal to the floor, she would sputter. She got my boy and I home fine, and an hour or so later, i went out to the garage and found she had puked her coolant out. I poured almst a gallon back in her. What the heck? I am the second owner, my aunt was the first owner. I have only had the LC for about three months and have done all of the PM that I can find on here to do. Two things to note, I just did a coolant flush 4 days ago, and this is the longest trip i have taken the LC on, as of yet. It is an 3FE with 215,000 miles, all original. Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong? The check engin light is not on. I have searched and read on here but there is a lot of info to get lost in.
Thanks in advance for any help you may offer.

 

[Pogue]

ever had any overheating issues?

 

[bhmmapping]

oem radiator cap?

 

[JerseyCruiser]

Ok so I took the 91 LC on a 165 mile round trip today, and just at the last 10 miles, when I would try to accelerate a lot, it would shudder and sputter, even in nuetral. I could accel, slowly and she worked fine, but if I slammed the pedal to the floor, she would sputter. She got my boy and I home fine, and an hour or so later, i went out to the garage and found she had puked her coolant out. I poured almst a gallon back in her. What the heck? I am the second owner, my aunt was the first owner. I have only had the LC for about three months and have done all of the PM that I can find on here to do. Two things to note, I just did a coolant flush 4 days ago, and this is the longest trip i have taken the LC on, as of yet. It is an 3FE with 215,000 miles, all original. Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong? The check engin light is not on. I have searched and read on here but there is a lot of info to get lost in.
Thanks in advance for any help you may offer.

Sounds like your head gasket. The engine cutting out is from coolant drowning out one of the cylinders causing it not to fire. I had the same symptoms with mine a rough idle and accelerating, coolant overflowed and blew out the exhaust. A blown HG is not common on a 91 but its not impossible so check for steam and a sweet smell from the exhaust while running if so you'll need to contact Cdan. Good luck

 

[truevil]

Never had an overheating problem, and no it is not an OEM red cap.
I will check for the sweet smell from the exhaust today, but I do not recall smelling anything like that last night.

Thanks for the ideas.

 

[jonheld]

I have only had the LC for about three months and have done all of the PM that I can find on here to do.

Please be specific. What have you done? OEM parts?

I would not be so quick to point at the HG at this point without further diagnosis.

What was the temperature gauge doing during all this drama?

 

[truevil]

The guage was reading normal, about in the middle. No overheating, and ran fine all day, it was just the last 10 miles on the freeway it started sputtering when i would put the pedal to the floor.
Since I have had the LC, I have changed the plugs, wires, cap, rotor, oil, flushed and filled the rad. greased the knuckles and all points underneath, drained and filled the tcase and both diffs, changed the air filter, and more i am sure i just cant think of it.
I did not change the fuel filter yet(i am having trouble getting the old one off) i am thinking that this is a good place to start.
That is about all i can think of for now.

 

[sdbrassfield]

How much was the truck driven after the flush and how well was the cooling system burped to ensure no air before taking off on this drive ?

 

[jonheld]

Thanks for the clarification.

Change the inline fuel filter (passenger side inside frame rail below the distributor) AND the fuel pump pre-filter (some call it a "fuel sock", but I have no idea why) that everyone forgets about. This lives on the fuel pump assembly and is a nylon mesh. It has a lifespan of around 100K miles. Also change your fuel pressure regulator (left side front of the intake manifold). That should take care of fuel system and pressure related issues.

Put an OEM radiator cap on the truck ASAP. Loss of coolant through the overflow bottle is classic radiator cap failure.

Replace the fan clutch as well. This is also a 100K mile item.

All your vacuum lines are pretty well done by this point and your EGR valve and EGR modulator (2 flying saucers on the intake) have most likely dried up and pooped the contents into the hard vacuum lines, plugging them up completely. Address this as well.

I can't stress this enough...if you don't use OEM parts the first time, you will be replacing them all again in short order. This has been proven hundreds of times over especially on crucial engine system components. They are well worth the price of admission.

 

[truevil]

It was only driven about 20 miles after the flush and fill, and i have no idea what you mean about burping it.

 

[sdbrassfield]

Where did it puke the coolant from ? Were you running your heat ? Sounds like maybe failed coolant hose to me if you lost that much coolant. It may have sprayed water on something that does not like to get wet, or a serious boil over which could be connected to a headgasket failure. However, headgasket failures are not very common on the 3fe. Check your hoses, bypass hose at the water pump, and heater hoses front and rear...

 

[sdbrassfield]

It was only driven about 20 miles after the flush and fill, and i have no idea what you mean about burping it.

They have a tendency to trap air in the system causing problems like this...Every flush and fill I have done on my rigs have required checking and topping off the coolant levels the day after a number of (3 or 4) 20 mile drives with the heat on to ensure the coolant is redistributed properly...I am anal about it though...

 

[truevil]

just to add insult to injury, i replaced my rad cap, and now coolant started pouring out the bottom of the LC. So i removed the plate that is in the way and discoved that the lower rad hose has a hole in it. Would this be why it puked coolant out of the overflow tank last night, or is this just a new problem?

 

[bpassmore]

you might have 2 problems that could be unrelated:

1. Stuttering at throttle.
2. Coolant leak.

Fix the leak, and then test the stuttering...

Good luck. If you need someone to assit, let me know. I in Kingwood, but I could possibly head down to help you out.

 

[Proven]

There is also the possibility that that hose allowed an air bubble to form in the system and created a hot spot. I have experienced that. It usually gets to the pump and causes cavitation. That makes it hard to pump coolant around very well.

I am not sure this is the problem, but it took me draining the system to fix the leak then refilling to clear it up.

So it is possible you have two separate issues, but there is a chance they could be related. What is your temp gauge doing all this time? I might have missed that if it was posted earlier in the thread. These things are notorious for being in the normal range up until geysers start coming out of the overflow.

 

[Beowulf]

I can't stress this enough...if you don't use OEM parts the first time, you will be replacing them all again in short order.

Reread Jon's response because it has a lot of good information. The only thing that I will add is to replace the thermostat and gasket with a new Toyota part. Be sure you orient the jiggle-valve per instructions. (12 o-clock)

-B-

 

[truevil]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I have a new upper and lower hose on the way, but now i just discovered that there is a third hose, burried up behind a bunch of stuff(i think it is the tensioner pully and ps bracket) that looks like a pain to change. I hope to God it was just this lower hose, so i can get it back on the road in order to get it to my best friend's shop, and then tackle the third hose. As far as the studdering went today, when i cranked it up this morning to pull it out of the garage, it reved just fine. I will get the fuel filter changed on it tomorrow, when i have more time, and I hope that fixes that problem. I will keep you all informed.
Does the water pump have anything to do with oil? I started noticing a few drops of oil yesterday, that looked like they were comming from the water pump.
The temp has always stayed in the normal range, but i have been noticing that the oil pressure has been real slow to rise to normal, when i first start it up. Is all of this some how related, or is it a bunch of seperate issues?
Thanks for the offer to come and help, if i were alone today i would take you up on it, but I have to take my son back to Conroe today at 5 or so.

 

[CJF]

Be sure you orient the jiggle-valve per instructions. (12 o-clock)

Not applicable on a 91-92.

What is pertinent on this years is to make sure the o-ring that sits above the t-stat is installed carefully and correctly.

Curtis

 

[CJF]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I have a new upper and lower hose on the way, but now i just discovered that there is a third hose, burried up behind a bunch of stuff(i think it is the tensioner pully and ps bracket) that looks like a pain to change. I hope to God it was just this lower hose, so i can get it back on the road in order to get it to my best friend's shop, and then tackle the third hose. As far as the studdering went today, when i cranked it up this morning to pull it out of the garage, it reved just fine. I will get the fuel filter changed on it tomorrow, when i have more time, and I hope that fixes that problem. I will keep you all informed.
Does the water pump have anything to do with oil? I started noticing a few drops of oil yesterday, that looked like they were comming from the water pump.
The temp has always stayed in the normal range, but i have been noticing that the oil pressure has been real slow to rise to normal, when i first start it up. Is all of this some how related, or is it a bunch of seperate issues?
Thanks for the offer to come and help, if i were alone today i would take you up on it, but I have to take my son back to Conroe today at 5 or so.

Slow down...

Don't worry about that third hose for now; that's one for if/when you replace the water pump.

Replace the lower hose that you say you know has a hole in it (and the top one while you're at it).

Then see where you're at as far as how the truck's running and whether there are any other leaks.

Curtis

 

[truevil]

Well, here is the update for this evening. I replaced both rad hoses and took the advice not to replace the little third one just yet. So far all of the leaks have stopped, and she seems to be running just fine. I drove her around for a few miles, then let her idle in the driveway for a few more mins. All seems ok at this point, there are no leaks and she performed when i put the pedal to the floor. I will change the fuel filter this week, and drive her as much as I can, and see if the studdering problem or the coolant problem return. Thanks so much for your guidance, i will be ordering some OEM parts tomorrow.