KidV's 1985 4Runner

[KidVermicious]

Smoking less. I'm going to flush the radiator in the morning and see what happens.

 

[mikebontoft]

sounds like an excellent plan. if you have any shop rags they are made for skimming oil. you could dip it in the coolant and should take the oil off the top.

 

[KidVermicious]

So, the FSM says nothing about a gasket for where the heater return line goes into the lower intake plenum, and indeed, neither NAPA or the dealership had one in the books. So I didn't worry about it. I should have worried about it, because if it ends up leaking because you slightly bent the flange when you forgot to disconnect it and tried to force the lower plenum off (who would do that? not me), it is a complete PAIN IN THE ASS to fix once you've reattached the lower plenum (which is also a PITA to attach and remove).

You might think at first that you could just replace the o-ring. Nope. Then you might feel like you could just slap some RTV on it. You'd be wrong if you thought that, because it won't drop far enough and you can't reach the backside with the tube. Then you might think you just needed to reach behind the head and disconnect the bracket back there and then the hose would drop far enough to reach it with the RTV. If you thought that, then you might spend a good couple hours trying to wrestle that bolt on the back of the head off with absolutely NO ROOM between the head and the firewall and no way to see what you're doing. If you did that, though, you'd be a dork, because even with that bolt out and the bracket free, you still can't drop that pipe flange far enough, because there's a protrusion on the block that's in the way. Then you'd have to go find your wife with small hands to help you get that bolt threaded back in the hole, and you'd be right back where you started but minus several frustrating and painful hours.

So, just a purely hypothetical situation here, but IF you're a stupidhead who tries to muscle the intake plenum off and bends that flange and causes a coolant leak, the way to fix it is to go get a chunk of cut-your-own-gasket, slather that with the Permatex Right Stuff or Toyota black RTV or whatever you've got, slide THAT onto the flange and button it back up, BEFORE you bolt the lower plenum back into place. You know, if.

Flushing the radiator now, I'll let you know if it worked.

 

[mikebontoft]

this is better than redoing a head job.

at least you didn't do what I did and reinstall the old rear main seal because you didn't have time to get a new one...

 

[SV_Dude]

Hypothetically if someone did that, I bet they learned a good lesson and wouldn't do it again

I think that if someone would have done that they probably should just replace that coolant tube to avoid any further issues. I think someone could get another coolant tube from a junk yard for a few bucks.

 

[SV_Dude]

this is better than redoing a head job.

at least you didn't do what I did and reinstall the old rear main seal because you didn't have time to get a new one...

Sweet! So you got to pull the engine and then shortly after you got to pull the tranny too

It's okay, I get to pretty much rebuild my engine twice within 15k miles and less than 18 months.

 

[KidVermicious]

Hey Mike, you still got that broken tooth in your ring? Fix your sig, man.

Flush is complete, and there's no new oil in the coolant. Yet, knock on wood. I'll feel better when it stops smoking. Gonna lash the valves in the morning and hopefully take it for a spin around the block.

 

[KidVermicious]

Hypothetically if someone did that, I bet they learned a good lesson and wouldn't do it again

I think that if someone would have done that they probably should just replace that coolant tube to avoid any further issues. I think someone could get another coolant tube from a junk yard for a few bucks.

Someone already has another coolant tube, and if this head has to come off again it's going to get replaced, and if it starts leaking again it's going to get replaced. It's holding for now, and someone is dead sick of taking that plenum off, so someone is gonna let sleeping dogs lie.

 

[mikebontoft]

Sweet! So you got to pull the engine and then shortly after you got to pull the tranny too

It's okay, I get to pretty much rebuild my engine twice within 15k miles and less than 18 months.

well... no. It weeps a tiny bit. I'm not touching it til it gets real bad. lol.

damn it you're right... I must have thought 4.55 for a long time. oh well, the 0" lift was supposed to be the funny part.

best of luck getting it going smoothly.

 

[helo-mech]

You guys scared me so much with the "if someone bends that flange and causes a coolant leak", "I get to pretty much rebuild my engine twice within 15k miles and less than 18 months" and "at least you didn't do what I did and reinstall the old rear main seal" that I sold mine today. Keeping up with Kids thread got me to thinking of all the horrors that might come from my TB change.

 

[mikebontoft]

You guys scared me so much with the "if someone bends that flange and causes a coolant leak", "I get to pretty much rebuild my engine twice within 15k miles and less than 18 months" and "at least you didn't do what I did and reinstall the old rear main seal" that I sold mine today. Keeping up with Kids thread got me to thinking of all the horrors that might come from my TB change.

only TB job I absolutely hated was a 2uz... water port on the pump was machined wrong and pissed coolant under the upper intake manifold...

also now that you've sold yours, what's next? Perhaps we can scare you out of that one next.

 

[helo-mech]

Not sure yet. I'm giving myself 3 months to find and pick up the next one.

 

[KidVermicious]

You guys scared me so much with the "if someone bends that flange and causes a coolant leak", "I get to pretty much rebuild my engine twice within 15k miles and less than 18 months" and "at least you didn't do what I did and reinstall the old rear main seal" that I sold mine today. Keeping up with Kids thread got me to thinking of all the horrors that might come from my TB change.

Wimp.

 

[KidVermicious]

Near future to-do list:

• Lash the valves
• Swap the oil pressure sender (oil pressure is erratic, I'll start with the easy stuff)
• Address the front springs (flat and broken)

Not-so-near future to-do list:

• Figure out why heater isn't blowing warm (edit - probably need to burp the radiator, duh)
• Swap over rear bumper, sliders, KM2s, 140 amp alternator from Stumpy
• Find 4.88 or 4.56 gears
• Fix speaker wiring and install head unit from Stumpy
• Install 4.7 transfer case
• Repair the rusted quarterpanels

When-I-get-around-to-it list:

• Build front and rear bumpers
• Custom soft top
• Rework sliders
• OME suspension
• High clearance fenders and quarters from toyotafiberglass.com
• Paint
• Motor swap

 

[helo-mech]

Wimp.

I hear you man. I just don't have the time that you guys seem to have. I was comparing where I was on a stupid TB to how far you and SVD were on y'alls complete rebuilds and it was making me sick. I'll just have to live vicariously through you guys for a little while.

 

[KidVermicious]

Anybody want an update? Too bad, you're getting one anyway.

I've driven it into work a couple times now, and I haven't caught it smoking again yet and still no oil in the coolant. I've got what's either an exhaust leak on the manifold or a valve tap, and the exhaust still doesn't smell right, smells like it's rich, but no acrid oil smell or sweet coolant smell (so far, knock on wood). Lots of little stuff left to go, but I'm going to change the oil and take it in for emissions testing tomorrow and cross my fingers.

 

[KidVermicious]

Did I say exhaust leak? The machine shop just took over a 1/4inch off the manifold. Holy crap.

 

[mikebontoft]

took off what part? there's your noise source and rich exhaust (all that air was fooling your o2 that it was lean so it dumped fuel)

 

[KidVermicious]

took off what part? there's your noise source and rich exhaust (all that air was fooling your o2 that it was lean so it dumped fuel)

Off the mating face between the manifold and the head. I thought the leak was further down, where the manifold meets the pipe, but the brand new gasket had exhaust tracks all over it and when I put my straight edge on the manifold it wobbled like a teeter totter .

That makes a lot of sense about the O2 sensor. I'm going to replace it anyway, and then fire my beast up again tomorrow and hopefully go pass I&M testing. I already did the valves again and gave it fresh oil before I pulled the exhaust manifold, so maybe I'm squared away here? I hope so. I'm ready to not wrench for a little bit, and then when I get back to it I want it to be because I'm upgrading, not scrambling to get it fixed. I'm ready for this to be a build thread.

 

[mikebontoft]

lol wow.

I think you're fine now.