Tyrone, my new build

[agloukhoff]

The "pop" was the hose to the heater core exploding. Weird nasty brown goop was inside.
The radiator flows freely. Not sure about the rest of the engine though.

The brown goop is terrifying. It's thick and sticky and has no place inside the engine. It's not oil. There is no oil in the coolant, no coolant in the oil.

I'm going to flush the engine as best as I can as soon as it cools down fully and will start figuring out just how thorough I want to be in ensuring that there are no clogs anywhere...

 

[PitbullRescuer]

That looks exactly like all the **** that came out when I flushed it before. It had been running fine, not getting hot at all so I assumed it was all cleaned out. I'd try flushing out the heater core again and the. Pull the thermostat and flush the rest of it again.

A buddy of mine just told me he actually poured a little Tide into the system, got it hot and then flushed it again. I've never tried that but mint be worth a shot.

 

[agloukhoff]

That looks exactly like all the **** that came out when I flushed it before. It had been running fine, not getting hot at all so I assumed it was all cleaned out. I'd try flushing out the heater core again and the. Pull the thermostat and flush the rest of it again.

A buddy of mine just told me he actually poured a little Tide into the system, got it hot and then flushed it again. I've never tried that but mint be worth a shot.

Yeah that's the thing. It's been running like a champ till today and I've been really hard on it on my commute from KoP to the Navy Yard without any issues till today. The temp gauge never rose over half before so yeah I pretty much figured that it was cured of any cooling issues.

I am going to try to flush the engine as best as I can, if that fixes it great.

If not, I am considering doing the timing belt and water pump just because that may contain more of the brown goop and I don't know when it was done last - but really not looking forward to it. You ever done one? I'm offering a case of beer for help.

Got to admit I was really hoping the radiator would be clogged as that would be a simple fix. It's dirty but flows well.

 

[agloukhoff]

I just realized something that should have clicked yesterday...

The coolant that spilled out over the engine bay out of the heater core hose....it was green.

Think I now know where the goop is coming from and why the original coolant looked like mud when Tyrone was first flushed.

 

[PitbullRescuer]

I just realized something that should have clicked yesterday...

The coolant that spilled out over the engine bay out of the heater core hose....it was green.

Think I now know where the goop is coming from and why the original coolant looked like mud when Tyrone was first flushed.

Where? I would think if that brown stuff was still somewhere in there that it would've mixed with the coolant after that long. I drove it probably 1200-1500 miles after the flush, I would've thought that would be enough time for it to mix.

Also, in regards to the TB/WP, I've actually never done one on one of these but it actually looks really straight forward. I'd be happy to to come over and help you do it if you decide to go that route.

 

[agloukhoff]

Where? I would think if that brown stuff was still somewhere in there that it would've mixed with the coolant after that long. I drove it probably 1200-1500 miles after the flush, I would've thought that would be enough time for it to mix.

Yeah - I put nearly another 1k on the car at this point. But I wasn't exactly running with the heater open.

The coolant in the reservoir is redish, the coolant in the radiator was slightly brownish as was the coolant in the engine.

The coolant dropplets that had spilled out were bright green. I took a picture of the bay when it happend, but in the pic the color is impossible to see as it just shows the bay looking wet. I don't have an explanation for the color beyond something being clogged and preventing mixing, but I distinctly recall the drops being green.

Also, in regards to the TB/WP, I've actually never done one on one of these but it actually looks really straight forward. I'd be happy to to come over and help you do it if you decide to go that route.

Plan right now is to flush the heater, bypass the rear heater entirely, flush the engine and rad as best as I can. Refill and see what happens. IF that fails then I'll do the TB/WP. I really don't want to deal with the TB/WP but with all that brown goop the WP is probably going to be an issue eventually.

I'm leaving for Japan for 2 weeks this Friday, so most of the repairs will have to wait till I'm back.

 

[agloukhoff]

Hey I know where the green came from!

The reservoir isn't red. It's GREEN fluid given a orangish tint due to the yellowish plastic it's in.

Just pulled it out and poured it into a glass jug...bright neon green.

So I've been flushing the rad, heater core and engine with the garden hose for about 30 min now. Need to replace the hose. Then will fill, drain, run, fill drain run, fill drain run, with water till I'm either sick of it or convinced that I got all the crap out.

Any suggestions for flushing fluid to use? Or just stick to water. I've always just used water in the past, but in the past I never had to deal with slugged coolants.

 

[agloukhoff]

Spent almost an hour trying to pry the remnants of the hose to the heater valve off the line out. There was hardly anything left to grab on to and no room to get a good grip on the remnants. Anyway it finally came off...

Ordered replacment heater lines without the Ts to the rear heater.
Took me a while to find the part numbers, but they are 87245A (87245-35620 ) and 87246A (87245-35730) as per the attached diagram.

Toyota Red and Gunk C2124 Super Heavty Duty Radiator Flush are on their way from Amazon, of course they'll only get here by the time I'm flying to Japan.

I've never used anything to flush besides water, but the gunk has me worried; I ran water over the brown gunk in the heater hose remnants and it didn't seem to disolve in pure water. Hopefully the flush will break it up assuming some stuff is still trapped in the engine.

 

[agloukhoff]

Oil came out black as coffee. Zero indicator of coolant contamination. Headgasket is not the cause of this issue.

So on to how to deal with the brown goop...

Dunked the hose into a solution of 30% citric acid, the goop dissolved in less than 30 minutes.

The coolant flush that I ordered is 30% citric acid and has even harsher stuff in it - so it should get the job done.

If anyone has better ideas - would love to hear them.

 

[freshley]

That stuff is truly nasty! I've never seen anything like that except when a friend of mine had a leak in his head gasket and kept buying those gunk things that are supposed to fix the leaks. He would put one in and after a week it would start leaking again so he would put another in. Went on for weeks like this. Finally it just blew up and there was brown sludge everywhere.
I would do the water pump and thermostat just to make sure all that crap is out of there as that can't be good for it!

 

[agloukhoff]

That stuff is truly nasty! I've never seen anything like that except when a friend of mine had a leak in his head gasket and kept buying those gunk things that are supposed to fix the leaks. He would put one in and after a week it would start leaking again so he would put another in. Went on for weeks like this. Finally it just blew up and there was brown sludge everywhere.
I would do the water pump and thermostat just to make sure all that crap is out of there as that can't be good for it!

Thermostat is out and is perfectly clean. Possibly only because PitbullRescuer replaced it. The WP is whatever was in the car when he got it and is possibly a mess due to the sludge. I have no real way of knowing how good of a shape it's in unless I rip it out.

I've never done a WP/TB and frankly want to avoid it if at all possible at least for now.

So if the engine is able to stay cool after several flushes, I'm not going to bother with the WP until the spring.

I'm also feeling less worried about the sludge. Attached is what that same sludged hose looked like after 15 minutes in the citric acid solution. That's 15 minutes, just sitting there in cold water, no stirring - you can actually see the bubbles where it's reacting with the acid and the nasty brown acid mix below. At 30 there was very little left and stirring the hose around got the remained of the sludge dissolved.

In short, as long as I am able to achieve full circulation, the sludge will come out with a citric acid flush.

 

[agloukhoff]

Spent the Sunday working on the truck. Got the cooling system cleaned up perfectly. The hoses that had residue are now all clean. 2 flushes of citric acid, 2 flushes of the Gunk stuff, 2 more flushes of water, filled with Toyota Red.

Got an ultraguage to monitor tempriture and it runs fine, usually around 195 but will go up to 206 in spots.

So far so good - except it's still clearly overpressurized. Coolant will fuzz and foam out of the radiator cap.

I didn't see coolant in the oil, or oil in the coolant - but I guess there could be exhaust gases. There is just no other way for the coolant to be over pressure at just 195F - that I know of anyway.

 

[agloukhoff]

So I haven't posted for a while...mainly because I've been too busy sulking.

I did a test for exhaust gases in the coolant. The test fluid changed colors confirming that exhaust was getting into the cooling system.

It just made absolutely no sense to me to try to fix the heads or headgaskets on Tyrone. So I had Tyrone crushed....The End.

Calm down, I'm kidding. With 4k sunk into getting this damn truck in the first place what's another 2k to throw in a JDM engine right?

So that's what's happening to Tyrone.

Went to JDM Engine Depot (Who by the way are awesome.) and for $1350 left with a 5VZ-FE from a Toyota Granvia - which is a very ugly but stupidly popular minvan in Japan.

The engine is not a direct drop for a 4Runner, I'm going to need to move the oilpan, oil filter, oil cooler and oil pickups from the old engine and none of the accessory mounts match - other than that it's the same thing.

So why JDM?
JDM because the engine is essentially brand new. I'm serious. Look at the picture from under the valve cover. Locally, the best US engine I could find was 80k miles for $1,250 + 300 core deposit and zero warranty whatsoever.

Why not fix the headgaskets?
Cost. $1350 gets me a new engine. If my heads are shot, it'd cost me nearly as much as that to JUST fix the heads on an old engine. No thanks.

Total cost so far has been:
$1350 Engine
$260 Timing Belt Kit
$300 Sachs Clutch Kit with Flywheel

I am expecting the final cost to be around $2500 including all fluids and any seals/hoses/bolts etc I need to replace.

If anyone has a junk engine in the Philly area that I could pull the oil pan and oil pickup from, I'd be grateful..

 

[4-Ripcord]

nice!

 

[87YOTA]

Nice! my buddy did a JDM engine swap in his 85 mr2 completely happy with it!, would love to see how this turns out.

 

[rva]

Glad to see Tyrone is coming back together now! I have been checking on my old 4runner pretty consistently as I am the Previous previous owner of it, the one that got just as shafted as the current owner. I hope to see this go well and hear that tyrone is back on the road soon! Good luck!

 

[agloukhoff]

Glad to see Tyrone is coming back together now! I have been checking on my old 4runner pretty consistently as I am the Previous previous owner of it, the one that got just as shafted as the current owner. I hope to see this go well and hear that tyrone is back on the road soon! Good luck!

Well if not for the rain I'd be done already!

It is actually an issue as there is no way I'd have room to pull and replace the engine inside the garage. Either not enough height or length no matter how I position the car, so it will have to be outside and I'm not doing this crap in the rain.

Oh and the spark plug tube seals are kicking my ass. I simply cannot get the damn things out. I'm going to try a few more times but they may end up going to the shop, I don't want to risk scraping up the new valve covers - they're too new and pretty.

Oh and the date stamp on the water pump was 2004. Kinda felt stupid changing it and the timing belt as they looked new, but I needed a new WP with output to the oil cooler anyway, so keeping it wasn't an option.

 

[agloukhoff]

I'm getting really tired of these weekends where I don't actually get to do anything relaxing...but at least the old engine is now out of the car.

Minor setback, the crossover pipe had a seized bolt - bolt, not stud - which broke in half when I tried to remove it. Guessing at some point the PO lost/broke the original stud and replaced it with a crap ungraded bolt that rusted in and snapped... So now I'm going to have to get the crossover fixed up right.

Also - getting the engine to separate from the trans on a manual is a pain. We had to wiggle the crank back and forth while pulling the engine forward. Just trying to slide the engine forward was fruitless, the input shaft would not slide out without wiggling the crank. I kept thinking I missed a bolt as it just wouldn't separate.

Kinda sad to be replacing the clutch too - it's an Exedy which is in great shape. Flywheel is really rough though, not sure it was resurfaced when the replacement was put in.

Really NOT looking forward to be putting it all back in as I don't really know how to ensure that the input shaft smoothly and completely goes into the clutch as I'm trying to put the engine in.

And yeah - that engine bay is disgusting.

 

[agloukhoff]

FML. The Oil Cooler off Tyrone is clogged as are the hoses to and from it. They're SEALED with the same brown sludge gunk that was in the heater hose.

I bought one from eBay a while back but it came without the bolt, and is a slightly different design. The bolt that I have doesn't quite fit it....

 

[agloukhoff]

I should have crushed this truck when I had the chance.

Was putting the flywheel on to the crank, torquing to 62ft, head twists off one of the bolts. :dammit:

Now I have to extract a broken bolt out of the crankshaft. F M L