Seeking advise about upcoming road trip

ericfromspace8

ericfromspace8

New member
I have 2000 4wd V6 with the auto. For Forth of July weekend I'm gonna heading out on my yearly trip to Needles CA for the river. It's a huge trip with my friends and family. I'm gonna be driving my newish to me 4Runner out there for the first time. I bought the truck back in November at 200k. The truck is in fantastic shape despite its age and mileage. Over the past months I've replaced, front and rear shocks with 5100's. New 99 rear springs. New front rotors and pads. Transmission fluid (all 12 qts) with Toyota fluid. Rear diff and transfer case fluid. Just last week the rear main seal went and had that replaced as well. Got it replaced for under 400 bucks thanks to a well respected local mechanic that my family has been going to for years.
My question is regarding the radiator. I can tell it's not the factory radiator not I can see what brand it is. I'm going to load my truck up with 4 adults plus a 6x4 utility trailer carrying a little less than a 800 lbs. I'm driving from the Pasadena area taking the 210>15>40 freeways. Temperatures can easily exceed 95 degrees and they're lots of steady hill climbs. I just purchased an obd2 Bluetooth scanner to monitor my trans temperatures. However I'm concerned about the internal cooler in the radiator. There's nothing wrong with it that I could see. Temperature has always read just below mid way.
Should I replace the radiator with oem or get a external trans cooler in addition to my current cooling system? I'm just worried about getting the dreaded pink milkshake. Or over heating.
 
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If the top tank looks good (still nice and black), and the coolant level isn't dropping, don't freak out about it. Just drive it and do the radiator when you have a chance. You can do an external cooler then if you really want...

The factory temp gauge is more like a 3 position indicator: way too cold, somewhere between luke warm and boiling, and overheated long ago. The needle sits in the middle position from ~140*F to at least 220*F and gives you no actual indication of operating temp.

-Charlie
 
If you don't know how long that rad has been in there I'd replace it. I got 100 miles from my house on my way to Seattle and blew mine. Really sucked especially since it's only $100 for the new rad and maybe $40 for Toyota red. Just peace of mind for me anyway.
 
Have the lower ball joints been done?

Keep it out of overdrive going up hills so it's not constantly switching gears.

As far as the rad is concerned this is personal preference. If it's not OEM it may have been changed recently (previous milkshake?) My preference is to bypass that built in rad cooler and never look back. Just my opinion though.
 
kball said:
Have the lower ball joints been done?

Keep it out of overdrive going up hills so it's not constantly switching gears.

As far as the rad is concerned this is personal preference. If it's not OEM it may have been changed recently (previous milkshake?) My preference is to bypass that built in rad cooler and never look back. Just my opinion though.
Click to expand...

I haven't don't the lbj myself but they are indeed toyota ones. I don't know if they've ever been replaced before. The boots aren't torn and have no play whatsoever. My truck drives strait as an arrow.
I don't think the truck has ever had pink milkshake. It's still the original trans and shifts very smoothy. I've also read in other forums where the radiator was bypassed and trans temp rose due to not enough air passing through it while idling and stop and go traffic. Has this occurred to anyone?
 
From what I've gathered reading about these radiators is that there is no way to tell if the internal lines are leaking or corroded and it is primarily an age/mileage issue. The only way I know of to detect a milkshake is hard shifting out of blue, but if you can get the rig turned off fast enough you can prevent full failure.

The external cooler will bypass and give you more cooling power than the radiator would. If you are towing and have a heavy load, I would think the external would be the best option. You could always replace the radiator and get an external and eliminate all worry.

I haven't heard of an issue with idling or with stop and go.

Hope this helps!
 
ColoRAD said:
....
The external cooler will bypass and give you more cooling power than the radiator would. ...
Click to expand...

Bypassed will NOT run cooler than a factory trans cooler alone. Ask me how I know. There have been countless threads debunking this myth.

IMHO the best thing to do is get a radiator (about $100 bucks geez) and add a trans cooler if you want extra cooling for towing or heaving mountain pass climbs but do not bypass alone, it will heat up to 240 or so, mine did until I added the original cooling back (new radiator). Now it won't see over 170-180 at most. I know location and ambient temps matter but ya' gotta plan for the worst (which is usually Texas). :cowboy:
 
jgue467 said:
Bypassed will NOT run cooler than a factory trans cooler alone. Ask me how I know. There have been countless threads debunking this myth.

IMHO the best thing to do is get a radiator (about $100 bucks geez) and add a trans cooler if you want extra cooling for towing or heaving mountain pass climbs but do not bypass alone, it will heat up to 240 or so, mine did until I added the original cooling back (new radiator). Now it won't see over 170-180 at most. I know location and ambient temps matter but ya' gotta plan for the worst (which is usually Texas). :cowboy:
Click to expand...

Thank you. That's exactly what I wanted to know. I don't have a problem getting a new radiator. The one on now is fine so I'll just install an external cooler. Which cooler did you use?
 
185Runner said:
If you don't know how long that rad has been in there I'd replace it. I got 100 miles from my house on my way to Seattle and blew mine. Really sucked especially since it's only $100 for the new rad and maybe $40 for Toyota red. Just peace of mind for me anyway.
Click to expand...
This is my approach. Mine's a 5 speed, and I replaced the radiator pronto after acquiring the vehicle.
 
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