Normal coolant temps
- Thread starter cj80cruiser
- Start date
mtbtim
Elite Member
I think a bad fan clutch is more apparent when you're sitting there idling and your temps start to rise because you're then relying solely on that fan clutch to pull air through the cooling fins of your radiator. Your fan clutch could be a bit tired but I believe what you're experiencing is normal for driving in hot weather when a load is placed on the engine.
What a lot of us forget is we wouldn't even be worried with just the needle temp gauge on our dash cluster because that gauge doesn't start moving until the temps are rising pretty high. We drive along oblivious and happy. Now that we know what our exact coolant temps are, we freak out a bit when we see it rise above the normal 188-194 that most of us see with our scan gauges or phone apps. I think it's great that a lot of us monitor our coolant temps closely because we can spot a potential problem sooner or maybe it lets us know when it's time to pull off and let our engines cool down a bit. But, at the same time, it lets us get a little OCD about it too.
On one Death Valley trip in 100 degree heat and driving up a relentlessly steep and long paved road climb, I did decide to pull off and let my engine and trans cool down before continuing up the climb. This is why I think monitoring engine and auto trans temps is important because it will let you know when it's maybe prudent to pull over and give your rig a rest. Or, maybe it lets you know you sprung a leak somewhere and it's time to pull over and investigate.
LittleCaesar
New member
I will say that here in the South with crazy high humidity and temps, fan clutches have a life span of about fifteen years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first.
Probably the biggest procedure I have done to help keep my coolant temps in check (186~191) is to eliminate as many coolant bubbles in the system as possible using a Lisle 24680 coolant funnel or the like. Use the appropriate adapter, attach the funnel, and start the engine on a slight incline with the system full, or close to the top. Get it up to operating temp, turn on the heat to HOT for at least three minutes with the fan full blast. Then turn everything off and let the coolant cool to where there is no more coolant in the funnel. This for me really works better in cooler ambient temps. I have seen bubbles in the coolant burped ten minutes after the engine has been shut off. In fact I’ll say that the 5vz has been for me the hardest engine to date to burp the coolant bubbles out of.
Probably the biggest procedure I have done to help keep my coolant temps in check (186~191) is to eliminate as many coolant bubbles in the system as possible using a Lisle 24680 coolant funnel or the like. Use the appropriate adapter, attach the funnel, and start the engine on a slight incline with the system full, or close to the top. Get it up to operating temp, turn on the heat to HOT for at least three minutes with the fan full blast. Then turn everything off and let the coolant cool to where there is no more coolant in the funnel. This for me really works better in cooler ambient temps. I have seen bubbles in the coolant burped ten minutes after the engine has been shut off. In fact I’ll say that the 5vz has been for me the hardest engine to date to burp the coolant bubbles out of.
fatherohenry
Member
Did the TB, WP, TS and other stuff a few weeks ago. After using the Torque app and seeing temps of 210 I'm going to pull the thermostat, probably rotate the valve position.
My (dumb) question is - would it be acceptable to reuse the thermostat gasket as it's only 3 weeks old or would it be best to just replace it. I ask because I'd like to do this in the morning but if I have to order a new gasket that's not going to happen.
My (dumb) question is - would it be acceptable to reuse the thermostat gasket as it's only 3 weeks old or would it be best to just replace it. I ask because I'd like to do this in the morning but if I have to order a new gasket that's not going to happen.
I've reused the gaskets when they look good.
phattyduck
Elite Member
Reusing a 3-week old gasket should be fine. Also make sure your radiator cap is in good shape.
-Charlie
fatherohenry
Member
Turns out the thermostat wasn't OEM and someone had used some sort of sealant on it, so I replaced it and the gasket. The cap was replaced 3 weeks ago.
I also had to replace one of the studs that came out with the nut when I was removing the water inlet
Obviously I changed more than the jiggle valve position but I believe moving it to the six o'clock position was responsible for lowering my temps from 210+ to 194 (in traffic with the a/c on).
MTRunner00
New member
Question for Northern guys
I have a 2000, 3.4 A/T, 284k, Stock tranny cooler, 4.30 gears
-State of engine-
The water pump is not leaking.
No codes, MPG is 12.5, rig acts sluggish. Possibly staying in open loop due to thermostat.
Engine leakdown is minimal, Cyl Compressions are within spec too. I am not suspecting a cracked head or head gasket issues. I also marked my overflow bottle and have not seen any consumption of antifreeze.
My previous 3rd gen saw 0-105 degrees and never had issues warming up, heater would cook you out pretty quick too. That rig was a manual so I did not have the help of hot A/T fluid assisting in warm up.
We just recently saw -28 (with wind chill) in Eastern MT. I am having some issues with engine/heater temps.
My runner is new to me (last month) and I'm in the process of fixing it up. It has a new radiator and cap. It has pink coolant (tested to -35/265) . It takes forever to warm up. I haven't had this runner in the winter time so I do not know how it reacts to cold. In the morning I let it warm up enough to get the coolant needle to hit the lower mark. I drive about 14 miles into work. The gauge hits the middle spot, heater still never gets very warm.
At idle my upper hose can easily be pinched like there is not any pressure, it is also about 125 degrees. My lower hose is 190 degrees. I'm pretty sure I have a stuck or missing thermostat and had one on order anyways to replace.
But I'm curious if this is normal for rigs running in that kind of cold. Do you guys prefer covering the radiator?
Also side note, not sure if it helps much but my air temp blowing through my vents reaches 175-199 degrees at 50 mph, but down at idle I only get about 85 degrees. Which is why the interior never gets warm during start up. I would think if the heater core was plugged it would stay cold all the time.
I'm planning on replacing the heater cores anyways bad or not as well as coolant sender/s.
Thanks in advance.
I have a 2000, 3.4 A/T, 284k, Stock tranny cooler, 4.30 gears
-State of engine-
The water pump is not leaking.
No codes, MPG is 12.5, rig acts sluggish. Possibly staying in open loop due to thermostat.
Engine leakdown is minimal, Cyl Compressions are within spec too. I am not suspecting a cracked head or head gasket issues. I also marked my overflow bottle and have not seen any consumption of antifreeze.
My previous 3rd gen saw 0-105 degrees and never had issues warming up, heater would cook you out pretty quick too. That rig was a manual so I did not have the help of hot A/T fluid assisting in warm up.
We just recently saw -28 (with wind chill) in Eastern MT. I am having some issues with engine/heater temps.
My runner is new to me (last month) and I'm in the process of fixing it up. It has a new radiator and cap. It has pink coolant (tested to -35/265) . It takes forever to warm up. I haven't had this runner in the winter time so I do not know how it reacts to cold. In the morning I let it warm up enough to get the coolant needle to hit the lower mark. I drive about 14 miles into work. The gauge hits the middle spot, heater still never gets very warm.
At idle my upper hose can easily be pinched like there is not any pressure, it is also about 125 degrees. My lower hose is 190 degrees. I'm pretty sure I have a stuck or missing thermostat and had one on order anyways to replace.
But I'm curious if this is normal for rigs running in that kind of cold. Do you guys prefer covering the radiator?
Also side note, not sure if it helps much but my air temp blowing through my vents reaches 175-199 degrees at 50 mph, but down at idle I only get about 85 degrees. Which is why the interior never gets warm during start up. I would think if the heater core was plugged it would stay cold all the time.
I'm planning on replacing the heater cores anyways bad or not as well as coolant sender/s.
Thanks in advance.
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The instrument cluster gauge is terribly inaccurate. Compared to the coolant temp on my ultragauge the cluster gauge will show about halfway when the temp is 150-220 degrees Fahrenheit on the ultraguage. I would be hesitant to block of any of the airflow over the radiator until I had an accurate way of measuring the actual coolant temperature like with a scangauge/ultraguage/torque pro app/etc because that cluster gauge isn't going to tell you it's too hot until it's hot enough to warp/crack the heads.
MTRunner00
New member
Yeah I was afraid I would get an answer like that. Trying to avoid spending money on Scan Gauge. Wanted to spend that money elsewhere. Thanks for the info.
4runnerfiend
New member
get a wireless OBD2 reader (or bluetooth) and an app on your phone to monitor it. Best option is Torque pro but it is only for Android. that is how I monitor my trans and coolant when I'm doing anything beyond normal daily driving.
Much cheaper than a scangauge. I think I paid 20 bucks for the reader and maybe 10 bucks for the pro app
shadow247
New member
The 20 dollar code reader will give you live Coolant Temps. Or go with the BLuetooth one. I had bad luck with leaving it plugged into the OBD2 port full time. I kept blowing the fuse, so I pulled it out, and went back to my old school cheapo reader.
You can also get the TechStream cable for 20 bucks on Amazon and download the software for free from various places. Then you can read any and every code that is available.
19963.4lsr5
New member
I would back flush your heater core.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
MTRunner00
New member
I looked into the Ultra Gauge. I think I will order one today. As well as the SRQ Mount for it. Looks pretty cool. It will help for sure as I continue to diag problems with this runner. Thanks for the direction.
I'm happy to help and I love my UltraGauge. It takes a little bit of time to set up the different display pages that you want. Most everything you would want to monitor is already programmed into it except for transmission fluid temperature. If you want to add that here is a post with the information you will have to input under a custom gauge: https://www.toyota-4runner.org/3598840-post4.html Enjoy!
thegipper
New member
The Ultra Gauge is worth every penny. I have an alarm set for coolant temp, battery voltage and a couple other things.
I wish there was some way to see tranny temps using the ultra gauge for us folks with 96-98 years. I installed a glow shift tranny temp gauge which worked great for about 6 months and quit working. I gave up on getting it to work after replacing every component.
The alarms are another great feature I forgot to mention! I have mine set for coolant temp, trans fluid temp, and my oil change interval. It's nice not having an oil change sticker in my window lol My gas gauge is very inaccurate so I use the miles until empty on the gauge as a backup to my gas gauge. I also have several pages with different data I use to diagnose different things, but mostly leave it on one page with miles til empty, coolant temp, transmission temp, sht trip, long trip, sht mpg, long mpg, and voltage. It's such a handy little thing to have!
phattyduck
Elite Member
Just pick an 'even' interval and stick to it. Every 5k? Do an oil change at 205k miles, and then every 5k after that or whatever. (or 7.5k, whatever).
-Charlie
