The downside of obsessive maintenance. (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter IdahoDoug
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I would not. pressure should not exceed 15 PSI
- Thread starter
- #23
Michael,
I completely agree. Poor action on my part, and kinda surprising to me as well. The lesson is take nothing for granted. I'd noted the coolant lowering, but in taking a close look the overflow hose doesn't reach the bottom of the tank, so when it gets to the low line (mine had been), the hose starts sucking air. Yet it will still have a half inch of coolant, which I assumed (there's that word) meant the engine and radiator was still completely full. Wrong again.
Checked the hose and it's actually the upper heater hose atop the metal line that leads to the PHH. It began leaking like a sieve for reasons unknown, and was running down the mteal line and onto the PHH. So, the silicone hose with constant tension clamps is working fine I think. More later as I confirm this.
DougM
I completely agree. Poor action on my part, and kinda surprising to me as well. The lesson is take nothing for granted. I'd noted the coolant lowering, but in taking a close look the overflow hose doesn't reach the bottom of the tank, so when it gets to the low line (mine had been), the hose starts sucking air. Yet it will still have a half inch of coolant, which I assumed (there's that word) meant the engine and radiator was still completely full. Wrong again.
Checked the hose and it's actually the upper heater hose atop the metal line that leads to the PHH. It began leaking like a sieve for reasons unknown, and was running down the mteal line and onto the PHH. So, the silicone hose with constant tension clamps is working fine I think. More later as I confirm this.
DougM
- Thread starter
- #24
Well, to add a final, bizarre twist to this whole thing, the 80 tossed me yet another curve ball. My wife took it on a couple errands, then the whole family went to a birthday party in the park. At dark, we hop it for the ride home. You guessed it - NO HEAT!!!!!
I immediately pull off, flashers on and pop the hood. Full coolant. Warm hoses. Pulleys going round and round, fan spinning as normal. Nothing.
Hop back in and I'm stewing all the way home. Thought I had this taken care of this morning and now THIS??? What the heck?
After about 15 minutes, I've carefully gone over everything I've done. I decide I'm going to run the front tires up about a 3 foot ledge so the truck's at a 45 degree angle and sit there a minute gently revving the engine. It's all I can come up with - there's so much air in the heater cores that somehow there's an air lock or some phenomenon preventing it from refilling. That should do it without question.
Pull into the garage, help the family unload our folding chairs and party debris with the engine idling. I'm keeping an eye on the temp guage half expecting it to start rising. On a whim, I grab a flashlight and pop the hood before driving off to do my little uphill purging. Everything still looks normal, no excessive feel of heat anywhere, and the......huh?....what's this?. The little cable that moves the heater valve has popped off the lever that moves the valve!!!! While I was cleaning up the pink crusties this morning, I must have knocked it off. It slips back on just with a bit of finger pressure.
Put the heater on, and am instantly rewarded with hot air. Unbelievable. I was just about to head off on yet another wild goose chase. What an amazing coincidence that after all the 80s I've owned I happen to discover you can knock that cable off with a flick of a pinkie on the same day I've solved a problem with my heater. Somebody stop me.....I need a beer. Lots of beer.
What a freak show of a day with this issue!
DougM
I immediately pull off, flashers on and pop the hood. Full coolant. Warm hoses. Pulleys going round and round, fan spinning as normal. Nothing.
Hop back in and I'm stewing all the way home. Thought I had this taken care of this morning and now THIS??? What the heck?
After about 15 minutes, I've carefully gone over everything I've done. I decide I'm going to run the front tires up about a 3 foot ledge so the truck's at a 45 degree angle and sit there a minute gently revving the engine. It's all I can come up with - there's so much air in the heater cores that somehow there's an air lock or some phenomenon preventing it from refilling. That should do it without question.
Pull into the garage, help the family unload our folding chairs and party debris with the engine idling. I'm keeping an eye on the temp guage half expecting it to start rising. On a whim, I grab a flashlight and pop the hood before driving off to do my little uphill purging. Everything still looks normal, no excessive feel of heat anywhere, and the......huh?....what's this?. The little cable that moves the heater valve has popped off the lever that moves the valve!!!! While I was cleaning up the pink crusties this morning, I must have knocked it off. It slips back on just with a bit of finger pressure.
Put the heater on, and am instantly rewarded with hot air. Unbelievable. I was just about to head off on yet another wild goose chase. What an amazing coincidence that after all the 80s I've owned I happen to discover you can knock that cable off with a flick of a pinkie on the same day I've solved a problem with my heater. Somebody stop me.....I need a beer. Lots of beer.
What a freak show of a day with this issue!
DougM
Man-o-man. You do need a beer!
semlin
curmudgeon
Doug, good story. the last part sounds like me every time I touch the truck... I try to check the rad cold before any road trip regardless of what's in the overflow because I don't trust the overflow. I have noticed the overflow tank contents cycle during operation and sometimes it is nearly empty when you shut down at others it fills back up again. I have never been able to correlated it to heater use / driving conditions. I worried about it for a while until I confirmed that no matter what level the overflow is at on mine the rad is always full. Now I check the rad because I figure I could still have stuff in the overflow even if the rad is empty depending on where things are in the cycle.
also, FYI, if the gauge went to 3/4 on a 1997 then your operating temp was in the vicinity of 245 according to r'tai's data (have not seen his video yet). I'd keep an eye on that overflow tank for bubbles for a little while.
also, FYI, if the gauge went to 3/4 on a 1997 then your operating temp was in the vicinity of 245 according to r'tai's data (have not seen his video yet). I'd keep an eye on that overflow tank for bubbles for a little while.
RavenTai said:
Definatly.
I've changed dozens upon dozens of FJ60/80 hoses and I always lube the hoses before install.
I also pressure + vacuum test the system before it sees coolant. Have never had a problem.
- Thread starter
- #28
Yeah, I don't know why I'm having so much trouble with hose seepage - on both trucks. When I put all new hoses (15 or something) on the 93 I had a couple seep and weep. Finally double clamped one and that stopped it. There was no roughness, no debris or anything on the pipes where they joined, either. Mystery.
Now, a couple untouched heater hoses that were NOT seeping when I got it (full of nice looking green) began seeping after I flushed, and put the 3 big rad hoses on, along with a new radiator and Toyota Red.
The nice thing about Red is you get a bright pink foamy spot whenever the slightest leak occurs. So, easy to find, I guess.
Anyhow, hose mysteries. I've been changing hoses for 30 years and have never had a problem with one seeping until the 80. Dunno, but all's well now.
Good advice on checking the radiator, though mine both seem to correlate the overflow to the coolant amount in the radiator very well. In fact, I've printed off the overflow coolant level alarm Photoman posted and may do that mod to both.
DougM
Now, a couple untouched heater hoses that were NOT seeping when I got it (full of nice looking green) began seeping after I flushed, and put the 3 big rad hoses on, along with a new radiator and Toyota Red.
The nice thing about Red is you get a bright pink foamy spot whenever the slightest leak occurs. So, easy to find, I guess.
Anyhow, hose mysteries. I've been changing hoses for 30 years and have never had a problem with one seeping until the 80. Dunno, but all's well now.
Good advice on checking the radiator, though mine both seem to correlate the overflow to the coolant amount in the radiator very well. In fact, I've printed off the overflow coolant level alarm Photoman posted and may do that mod to both.
DougM
I've read of many cases of silcone air intake hoses blowing off on stock turbocharged diesel engines. Navistar / Ford powerstroke medium duty truck diesels. Different application, but pressures are in the same ballpark as Land Cruiser cooling system. That is what leads me to raise the concern. I'm not using any silcone hoses, but if I were, I would avoid adding grease to the mix.
Whew! I feel fortunate the heater valve on my '86 is manual (what a concept!). I had a couple of low coolant issues in the past, too. One was after moving to Arizona and after a month of 105-110F temps w/ 5% humidity, my coolant bottle went dry! No sign of leaks anywhere. I was having some difficult starting, popped the hood at work before going home, and was shocked to see the bottle was dry. Radiator took about 1/2 gal to fill, plus the bottle. Luckily I have a 3-row core radiator. Second and more recent was a mysterious coolant disappearing issue. The bottle would steadily lose about 2/3 volume every week to 10 days. I'd check for leaks after my 20 mi drive to work, but no visible leak, although there was coolant residue splattered all over the steering U-joint cover. Then, while on a road trip in NE AZ while gassing up early in the morning, I saw red coolant leaking like a sieve (2 drops/min, right into the alternator). Damn! Of course, it was a small town in the middle of nowhere on a sunday morning, so no parts shops open. The problem was a radiator hose that would leak (I tried tightening the hose clamp w/ no success) before the engine warmed up due to pressure build up (radiator cap valve closed). Once the engine warmed up, the radiator cap valve would open, allowing coolant to flow into the bottle and relieving the pressure (so the leak would stop). It had been like that for several months, but knowing what it was, I wasn't able to relax during the 6 hr drive home driving on country roads w/ no cell phone. Anyways, the old dog got my home and never hinted at failure. Good 'ol Toyota reliability.
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- #32
In that situation, would it be appropriate to pull a leaking hose and use silicone caulk or similar to lightly "glue" the hose on?? I ask because somewhere in the back of my mind there's a compatibility issue with rubber and silicone caulk. Maybe not...
DougM
DougM
IdahoDoug said:
I didn't want to pull the hose, as I didn't have enough Toyota red with me, and the nearest source of Toyota red was in Flagstaff, 100 miles away uphill. Since it didn't leak once the engine was hot, I just lived with it, stopping once half-way to check for leaks (none). I think the solution is to carry spare hoses and coolant. I haven't had any problems w/ the other hoses, just that hose. The original hose lasted 14 yrs, but that was mostly benign driving in cool CA and WA coastal areas. Three summers in AZ w/ daily summer temps near 110F and more like 120F in my garage and it was shot.
As an aside, the OEM Japanese-made battery in my '01 honda prelude died a week ago, a victim of the heat. I replaced it w/ an Optima red top (couldn't get a blue or yellow top anywhere locally). The Optima blue top in the Toyota has survived 3 Arizona summers so far. So far, so good. The news was saying the average battery life span here is 1.5 yrs, so even the OEM honda battery doubled that.
Changing the oil today and I noticed a red drip and traced it back to the PHH with silicone replacement. 
Tightened down the clamp and after a brief run that seems to have taken care of the drip.
Tightened down the clamp and after a brief run that seems to have taken care of the drip.
re_guderian
SILVER Star
Jim_Chow said:
Was just in CarQuest in Chandler today at lunch, and they have red, yellow and blue top Optimas. Didn't check price. HTH.
