overheated last night - advice

[autimous]

Hello all........ I recently bought a 1991 4runner 3.0 with 207,000 miles on the clock. I haven't even driven it 1000 miles yet and last night it overheated on the freeway, and coolant came steaming out of the overflow tank hose. I drove it off the freeway and left it overnight.

Anyway, this morning I went back to try and look at it in daylight and found what looked like a melted seal/gasket in the radiator just under the cap.

I topped up the coolant and drove until it overheated again. Then after letting it cool, I decided it might be a good idea to have the heat on full to see if that helped............. it did. I made it all 5 miles home. I noticed at the stop lights the heater blew colder, then when I sped up again it blew warm.

The lower coolant hose was cold, the radiator was clearly boiling the coolent, and as it's back in my garage I'm wondering if anyone would like to give me some advice on where to start.

I'm guessing there's a blockage somewhere, but the rubber in the radiator threw me. I'd say it was possibly a 2 inch round(??!) gasket at somepoint.

Many thanks,

Jon

 

[the_dingman]

The rubber could be off of the radiator cap, the overheating may have melted it. I would check your thermostat, it might have gotten stuck,

 

[autimous]

Thanks, I'll try that.

 

[gotmud?13]

hey man. i so agree with the_dingman, but also, the old schoo, runners are crazy prone to overheating, and warping the heads, casuing oil to leak and coolant to leak into the engine oil. so just check your engine oil, and see if if has the consistency of a milkshake, if it does, then you have coolant in it. but yea, just hceck to make sure your heads arent warped....

 

[the_dingman]

You may also want to make sure the head gasket recall was taken care of.

 

[gotmud?13]

what are all these recalls??? ive heard like millions of them, but never really followed through. every time i call toyota, they are busy or dont answer. is there a website i can check for current recalls?