Should I stay green or go red (coolant). Also, best way to flush block.

[Rock_Rat]

Toyota red since i've owned it with 12 miles on it. (15 years)

Regular maintenace including flushing and replacing.

Original radiator until last year. Only changed it as a precautionary measure to minimize the risk of a pink milkshake.

Toyota calls for their brand, thats what I'll stick with. No reason for me to change. Can't go
wrong.

Regular maintenance is key.

 

[amalik]

If you do go with Toyota Red - make sure you put a label on the overflow tank. Something like "DO NOT FILL WITH ANYTHING BUT TOYOTA LONG LIFE COOLANT / DISTILLED WATER".

I took my rig in for an alignment (lifetime alignment at Firestone) and without asking as a courtesy they topped off my overflow tank. With green. Like a month after I had flushed and refilled with "Red Gold", aka Toyota Long Life. Bleh.

Also, when you flush, remember to run the rear heater.

I have lifetime with firestone and also run red. Man, that would drive me crazy. I would have pulled out the overflow tank, emptied and wash out and replace with red asap and hope the red and green didn't mix too much. Knowing my ocd, I'd probably flush all over again.

You sure gave me something to think about next time I go there for alignment [emoji1]

OP.... I paid the dealer to flush my red and refill with red, and since that time I only do drain and fills on the red (have to mix the red yourself with distilled water, 50/50)

For what it's worth, they supposedly had a tank with hundreds of gallons of red and a hose. They flush the radiator/block/etc with the hose before filling with red. It wasn't that cheap either, but I don't plan on doing that again.

I didn't witness the tank obviously (being in the waiting area), so I can only hope I wasn't lied to

The only other way is to flush yourself at home with distilled water as someone mentioned earlier, and NOT a garden hose with tap water.

Red vs green is one of the many forum debates..The best way to deal with it if you can't make a choice is whatever you choose, regular maintenance is key as rock rat stated above, and more important than the arguments.. .regardless of topic (diff fluids, dino vs synthetic oil, etc).

I hope that helps.

Good luck

 

[Rock_Rat]

still running the original water pump

You didn't change your pump out with the TB?

 

[02SE]

You didn't change your pump out with the TB?

No. It was fine.

When the time comes to replace the TB again, I'll probably replace the water pump at that time.



I should add that if you don't do your own work, then it might not be a bad idea to have your Mechanic replace the water pump whenever the TB is replaced. In my case, I did this stuff for a living. So replacing a part that was fine, didn't make any sense. In the unlikely event it fails before the next TB swap, I'll take an hour and install a new TB, water pump, tensioner, etc. at that time.

 

[gamefreakgc]

Just shy of 115K.

Looks like a mixed bag here. I myself haven't decided yet as to which one I'll go with. Need to figure it out soon as I'm getting ready to slap everything back together.

Thanks.

Asking what kind of coolant is like asking what everyone's favorite oil brand is LOL! You're going to get everything under the sun.

If you had posted this in the 2nd Gen section, you'd have an overwhelming red/pink bias. That's because the green did not play nice with the metals used in older 4Runners causing it to corrode quicker.

But for these 3rd gens, you really can't hurt them. The more important thing is you're replacing the radiator anyway. And for the record, Toyota red is different than Toyota pink. Toyota red has the same life expectancy as green, it's just designed to play nice with Asian cars like Toyotas to help postpone corrosion. The pink however is the long-life fluid that has to be replaced much less often.

The real question is, if your coolant system looks good, is it worth the flush just to change colors? Up to you. Personally, I think the pink and red tones looks nicer with my paint color and engine bay than green tones...

For the record, I run Toyota pink long life coolant. But I've ran all three in different vehicles for different reasons in the past.