Is it time for a....

[Mellemel]

How often should the radiators and T-stats be replaced on the 3rd gen ?

No idea as the age of mine currently. I have driven 50,000Km's since I bought my 4rnr and have an annoying drip at the bottom of the rad where the hose connects. I put a new hose on 2 weeks ago with 2 clamps and still it drips !!!
I think that is has to be the cause of the coolant loss I am still seeing. The radiator either has a hairline crack or the pipe that the hose connects onto is worn.

Am I due a new radiator ?

 

[Frdmskr]

Yes and pretty quick before you damage your tranny


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[reelamin]

How often should the radiators and T-stats be replaced on the 3rd gen ?

Am I due a new radiator ?

If you radiator is leaking like you said...I would just replace it...they are cheap literally cheaply made and cheap to replace. For such a good rig overall....they have two serious flaws....cheap ass radiators and shitty head/block mating.

 

[sambishop]

cheap ass radiators and shitty head/block mating.

Really? I haven't heard of many head gasket issues (for the v6).

 

[StreetCreeper]

How often should the radiators and T-stats be replaced on the 3rd gen ?

No idea as the age of mine currently. I have driven 50,000Km's since I bought my 4rnr and have an annoying drip at the bottom of the rad where the hose connects. I put a new hose on 2 weeks ago with 2 clamps and still it drips !!!
I think that is has to be the cause of the coolant loss I am still seeing. The radiator either has a hairline crack or the pipe that the hose connects onto is worn.

Am I due a new radiator ?

I would.

I replaced my radiator that worked perfectly fine, because I didn't know the history of it. And since radiators are cheap as hell and can be swapped out quickly — there is no good reason not to do this as preventive maintenance in my completely unprofessional oppinion.

If the old radiator totally fails, at best you are stranded with an over-heating truck and at worse, you destroy your transmission and/or engine. So when you think about those options — you realize that $125 worth of radiator & coolant is really cheap insurance.

Like my LBJs that I'm replacing again next week, I plan to replace my radiator every 150k miles whether they need it or not. So my next radiator is due at 500,000 miles and LBJs at 570,000 miles.

$350.00 to cover the two biggest "problem areas" on 3rd gen trucks is money well spent.

 

[Mellemel]

New radiator and T-stat. Have lower coolant temps now and zero drips. The old rad was shot now it's off I can see it's toast. the T-stat was a Toyota part, now, surely not the original from 1997 !

I sea foamed the hell out out of the motor too after some rough running. Used almost 2 cans of spray type in the intake body and in the brake vacuum hose, that worked the best! Another in the crankcase, shudda seen the sludge that came out of there ! One more in the gas tank. No more banging and rattling on cold starts, she's running great and stopped smoking or steaming all the time I was running too. 10 outta 10 for Sea foam.

 

[4BUMR]

How many types of seafoam are there? I've used throttle body cleaner but it sounds like you covered a bunch of items with the stuff.


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[StreetCreeper]

New radiator and T-stat. Have lower coolant temps now and zero drips. The old rad was shot now it's off I can see it's toast. the T-stat was a Toyota part, now, surely not the original from 1997 !
...

If you still have the thermostat, look on the front of it. It should have date stamp from the factory if it's OEM. If I recall correctly, there should be two digits for year and two digits for month, e.g., "96 08" for August 1996.

My thermostat was original from 1996 and worked great. It was 20 years old and had exactly 400,000 miles on it when I replaced it with another OEM one.

 

[reelamin]

FAAAAAAACK me in the butt dry!! I just replaced my radiator...new I should have...tight ass.... (used to be)....and put the olt T-Stat in....now the ***** wont heat up. GDMFR....putting in a new one tomorrow....drinking beer now. Tip hose is 160 and bottom is 84....did this crap two years ago. Just pulled the skids tonight....letting all the much drip and dry. The antifreeze is brand freaking new...so going to catch and re-use it.


Edit: I put in a new T-Stat and the heater worked great yesterday sitting in the driveway and for about the first 20 miles today. Went right back to doing the same thing of no heat, barely any heat, then cooling off. Rear heater is putting out warm air constantly now. Before the new T-stat it was also cooling off. Put the thermometer on the hoses and the new T-Stat is working fine....top 176 and bottom 156. Inlet to top heater core 156....outlet 123....with minimal heat output. Flushing the top heater core is next.

 

[JayRolla]

FAAAAAAACK me in the butt dry!! I just replaced my radiator...new I should have...tight ass.... (used to be)....and put the olt T-Stat in....now the ***** wont heat up. GDMFR....putting in a new one tomorrow....drinking beer now. Tip hose is 160 and bottom is 84....did this crap two years ago. Just pulled the skids tonight....letting all the much drip and dry. The antifreeze is brand freaking new...so going to catch and re-use it.

Just had same issue on father in laws dodge ram hemi. Swapped thermostat and fixed. Told him when doing radiator to do it but he didn't believe me. Still made me install a cheap parts store. I'll be doing again soon. Bet money on it.

 

[Mellemel]

If you still have the thermostat, look on the front of it. It should have date stamp from the factory if it's OEM. If I recall correctly, there should be two digits for year and two digits for month, e.g., "96 08" for August 1996.

My thermostat was original from 1996 and worked great. It was 20 years old and had exactly 400,000 miles on it when I replaced it with another OEM one.

Well it's from Aug 2012!! replaced the year before I bought the vehicle. So I replaced it with a Motorad from NAPA, is this Toyota one in the closed position ? if it is then for sure it was the radiator only that was bad.

There is only 1 seafoam that I know of, both are in bottles just one of them is a spray can with a long pipe to hook it into the intake.

 

[BrianSD_42]

That Toyota tstat from 2012 is probably perfectly fine and possibly still (even used) a better part than the Napa tstat.

 

[StreetCreeper]

Well it's from Aug 2012!! replaced the year before I bought the vehicle. So I replaced it with a Motorad from NAPA, is this Toyota one in the closed position ? if it is then for sure it was the radiator only that was bad.

Yes that is a factory Toyota thermostat. You can tell for sure by the circular stamp at the top that looks like it says "TEQ". It doesn't say that but actually says "Toyota" in Japanese or katakana if I recall.

Like Brian mentioned above, the Toyota thermostat is probably still good despite looking like it was pulled out of a public toilet. I'm guessing that the radiator you replaced was nasty inside.

You could clean up that Toyota t-stat and then check it in a pot of water on the stove. Use an acurate thermometer and watch to see if and when it opens.

I personally would pull the Napa thermostat and replace it with either a new Toyota thermostat, or, if you determined that the old one is working properly — use it instead. (I'd just get a new one though to be honest. Small price to pay for a t-stat that has been proven to last 20 years and 400,000 miles)

 

[Mellemel]

From what I have been reading re- Napa and motorad T-stats, I think the Toyota one is the safer bet. I'll test if first though.