Seeking coolant system advise

[cj80cruiser]

I'm going to go ahead and apologize for the long winded story in advance but here goes. I helped my dad yesterday with a few problems he's been having with his truck. Gas gauge not working and engine sputtering and skipping randomly.

With all the fixing and mending on my dads truck that he set a budget for at a measly $20, it ended taking yesterday evening and into this afternoon to get his truck fixed. Lots of jerry rigging, glue, and electrical tape. This put my project of installing my new radiator off by a couple hours. Granted it didn't take that long to actually change the radiator out but all the trouble I ran in to getting my dad to take me to NAPA for the upper and radiator hose in his fixed (rigged) truck cost me a lot of time since he somehow managed to lock his gas cap (the one he doesn't have a key for btw)

Anyway, I'm kinda halfass into my radiator coolant flush right now. However, I was able to get the tranny filled back up to the normal hot level and radiator filled with distilled water but still showing signs of green antifreeze. I'm trying to change over to toyota red and want to get all the green out before doing so. I also have to get up early to take my fiance baby item shopping at a place having a big sale tomorrow morning. Then I'm straight to work for the entire evening and most of the night. Since I'm going to have very little time the next few days with work and taking care of my (about to pop) fiance, my plan was to run it and drain it a few times over the next couple days until I'm running pretty much nothing but distilled water. Then drain and fill with the toyota red.

Am I asking for trouble running straight water for just a few days? I live in Alabama so temps are not an issue as far as freezing is concerned this time of year.

 

[quatin]

Sort of. Anti-freeze freeze mix not only lowers the freezing point, but it also increases the boiling point. The engine runs at 180 F. Water boils at 212 F. My coolant gauge says 50/50 coolant/water mix raises it to 265 F. If your engine runs hot for some reason, you might get steam coming out from under the hood.

*Also, I'm pretty sure you can mix toyota red coolant with the green coolant. You don't need to get all of it out.

 

[Ron Helmuth]

you should be fine running distilled water alone for several days. No long trips, no excessive idling.

I disagree with quatin-you want to get all the green out before mixing in the Toyota red coolant. Several flushes of distilled water should do it.

cj80-long stories are fine- just use some spaces between thoughts to make it easier to read.

One of the best first replies I ever got to my postings was just to hit the Enter button once in awhile and break up the text a bit

like

this

And good luck with the small one on the way sir!

 

[cj80cruiser]

you should be fine running distilled water alone for several days. No long trips, no excessive idling.

I disagree with quatin-you want to get all the green out before mixing in the Toyota red coolant. Several flushes of distilled water should do it.

cj80-long stories are fine- just use some spaces between thoughts to make it easier to read.

One of the best first replies I ever got to my postings was just to hit the Enter button once in awhile and break up the text a bit

like

this

And good luck with the small one on the way sir!

Point taken and thanks for the well wishes.

That "small one" should be plural though. We're getting our whole family in one shot with a double dose :biggrin2:

 

[Ron Helmuth]

wow-- double congrats then!

 

[cj80cruiser]

I drained and filled about 5-6 times total but the water still looks a little dingy. I don't see any traces of green antifreeze, rather traces of possible rust leaving the water with a slight brown tint. Can I get this to come out crystal clear or am I attempting the impossible?

Side note*** I visually inspected my rear heater lines and they look to be in pretty good shape so I don't know exactly where the rust is comming from in the first place.

 

[Ron Helmuth]

run the heater, the rear seats heater, the defroster, do many flushes. Many times the brown you see is from previous mis-matched antifreeze.

Take the time to get it as clean as possible. Consider that your radiator itself may be failing.

If you are an automatic then it would be a good idea to replace the radiator anyways to prevent strawberry milkshake.

 

[cj80cruiser]

run the heater, the rear seats heater, the defroster, do many flushes. Many times the brown you see is from previous mis-matched antifreeze.

Take the time to get it as clean as possible. Consider that your radiator itself may be failing.

If you are an automatic then it would be a good idea to replace the radiator anyways to prevent strawberry milkshake.

I just installed a new radiator yesterday. I've had the rear heater on the whole time but forgot to run my defroster. Thanks.

 

[quicksilvr]

You can also have your jugs of distilled water at the ready, unhook the upper radiator hose, and run the engine while dumping the water into the radiator. The water pump will push all the old stuff out alot faster than draining and filling. Have plenty of distilled water at the ready. And put the upper radiator hose into a funnel that goes to a bucket or something, cause it'll be nasty. Well, yours might not, since you've rinsed it so much already.

 

[cj80cruiser]

You can also have your jugs of distilled water at the ready, unhook the upper radiator hose, and run the engine while dumping the water into the radiator. The water pump will push all the old stuff out alot faster than draining and filling. Have plenty of distilled water at the ready. And put the upper radiator hose into a funnel that goes to a bucket or something, cause it'll be nasty. Well, yours might not, since you've rinsed it so much already.

I did something similiar to that the first time by putting the hose pipe in the lower rad hose and tried to run water in that way just to clean out the block but it took the thermostat too long to open and I lost my nerve. My gauge didn't read that the engine was over heating but I've learned not to trust the OEM gauge. I may try it the way you suggested tomorrow though.

 

[BrianSD_42]

why change from green to red? I have been running for 205,000 miles without any coolant system problems to date. I did the flush service a few years ago and bought a new radiator at 195k as a precaution but I have always run with the green.

I am in the land of magical weather, san diego so I am sure that helps a bit.

 

[cj80cruiser]

why change from green to red? I have been running for 205,000 miles without any coolant system problems to date. I did the flush service a few years ago and bought a new radiator at 195k as a precaution but I have always run with the green.

I am in the land of magical weather, san diego so I am sure that helps a bit.

Just wanted to go with red as a personal preference.

 

[quicksilvr]

I did something similiar to that the first time by putting the hose pipe in the lower rad hose and tried to run water in that way just to clean out the block but it took the thermostat too long to open and I lost my nerve. My gauge didn't read that the engine was over heating but I've learned not to trust the OEM gauge. I may try it the way you suggested tomorrow though.

Haha, oh yeah I forgot to mention that usually when I do this....I take the thermostat out first. But I've never done it on my 4runner, just other vehicles.

 

[dawudih]

Just pull the thermostat & the heater core hose. Use a garden hose to flush everything & put the coolant in through the top radiator hose & cap too. This will fill the engine block & radiator as well. don't forget to change your resevour tank fluid as well. You'll need 2 gallons of the toyota coolant.

 

[BrianSD_42]

I think the general rule is that if you take the thermostat off you are supposed to replace it with a new OEM one // (every time?)

 

[TheDurk]

I think the general rule is that if you take the thermostat off you are supposed to replace it with a new OEM one, every time.

I have never heard that. I pull the thermostat on my tractor every two years to flush and change coolant. Pretty sure I have only changed the T-stat once since new in 1966. On the 4Runners, the FSM has a procedure for testing the T-stat and I didn't see anything about not being able to put it back.

I can understand a suggestion to swap the stat every flush with the extended 50k,60k, or even 100k coolant change intervals we see these days.

 

[BrianSD_42]

I am not the expert on this one but I think I heard that from my mechanic after I asked why he swapped out the thermostat during water pump replacement when it had only 2 years of use. This was a few years ago so I can't remember all the details. It is a pretty cheap part.