I dont recall if I used 1/8 or 3/16. I had gotten a stick of each and used the thickness that matched the frame better. I was planning on at somepoint welding another larger patch over the whole thing for even more strength, but am thinking that may actually promote rust if it holds moisture in.

Understandable. :-) Keep an close eye on it. Looks like a decent patch. If the rest of the frame in that area is good you are good shape. If the bottom and outside frame rail is really rusted, you run a chance of that bracket coming off.

I jammed a screwdriver all around pretty hard and couldn't make a new hole. So I hope I'm good

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So the truck is overheating as I drive it. I have to use full heat to keep the temp gauge happy. I had a Motorad thermostat from Rockauto at first, but this afternoon I put an OEM unit on. After burping the system and letting it get up to temp I closed up the system and drove a few miles over to a buddies place. About 1/2 a mile from my house I noticed the temp gauge climbing again.

So there is a new waterpump, a new OEM thermostat, and a couple of coolant flushes, but the previous owner had put stop leak in at some point I think.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm now leaning towards getting a Denso radiator off of amazon for 100 bucks.

Go with a Denso Rad change. The OEM thermostat go in a certain way to keep the engine a few degrees cooler, but I doubt you could see that on a temp gauge. ( believe the jiggler goes in at 6 oclock but don't quote me on it)

Rock Auto has the Denso rad as well. Stop leak is hell on Engines. Possibly Plugged your rad up.. Can you see in cap area are the cooling tubes plugging. Bad water mixed with antifreeze to deposit the rads up too.

I’d recommend the same. I had a 2.7l in a first gen Tacoma that had very similar symptoms and definitely had stop leak in it at some point.

I went with:
Water pump
Hoses
Thermostat
New radiator
Heater core

Ran like great after that.

So I now have a completely new cooling system and still having the over heat issue.
And to top it off I think I may have blown a headgasket while trying to diagnose the issue...

I have boiled the Tstat and know it is opening at the right temp. I also check in engine to make sure it was opening (Put a rad hose clamp plier on the lower rad hose and squeezed it, there was no resistance so I know the tstat was opened).
I have run without the tstat and the engine stayed cool. I even undid the top radiator hose and saw the engine start to push water out around 130F. Plus the Cabin heater works, really well, indicating that there is water flowing through the heater core.
So it seems like every part individually works, just not as a system.

So guess I am tearing the top of the engine apart again to check for a blocked passage somewhere.

So your radiator was changed and still having overheat issues??

Why do you think you blew the head gasket?? Do you have antifreeze in your oil?? Is Antifreeze leaking out the the head gasket area?

There was a lot of white smoke in the exhaust the last time i turned it on.

Oh boy... is there any antifreeze in your oil?? pull the dipstick and verify.. If so. get that oil out of the block.. Antifreeze is very hard on engine bearings.

I would agree that you may have a blown gasket. Didn't you have that head redone not that long ago?

I didnt notice any, but I may go ahead and drain in anyway, for its first oil change after the rebuild.

I fired a 3rd gen up after it sat for a quite a while.. I saw the good old white smoke. Pulled the stick saw the milk. Shut it down, pulled the oil out. Drained the coolant system. Then put the oil back in so I could load the rig onto a trailer to tow it home. That particular Rig of mine has a bad torque and the engine and tranny both were overheated by a previous owner. So thats a project for a few years down the road..

I already have 2 of mine, in my garage at the moment.. As you can see I have quite a fleet.

So what are you thinking that might be plugged?? Maybe it was overheating because the head gasket blew and your burning antifreeze. That would drop your coolant pressure to near zero if it went. :-(

Man that's a little project pulling a head off.. Maybe you can pressure test the coolant system and see if you can see which cylinders its leaking into.. An inspection camera should let you see into each cylinder to find the culprit.

Just some thoughts..:-)

Ill probably start by compression testing the cylinders, and see if I can find one that has lower pressure then the rest.

At this point, the only thing I can think is that there is a blockage in one of the cooling passages in the block. Like maybe I left a rag in an opening during the rebuild, or one of the drain plugs got put in to far.

That is something I would have done.. I am glad I am not the only one that has things go not quite as well as we expect it to go.

Might be leaking across 2 cylinders. Bummer

Keep us posted. :-)