[blkturbo!]

I'm having a fit.....my 94tt mkiv has just boiled over like crazy! I was on the Highway for just a few miles at about 65-70mph. About 1/2 mile before exiting I sped to maybe 85ish until i reached the exit ramp. I came to a stop at the bottom of exit ramp and noticed my temp gauge at the red mark (stock gauge). It was definitely hot and boiling over, so I limped to the gas station about several yards away and killed it.

I'm pretty sure (until morning) that the only place I was loosing water was through the overflow. The undercarriage beneath the engine seemed to be completely dry while the bumper/grille area was soaked with water. I popped the cap and it smoked for some time as I was running pump water into the cap to cycle out the hot shit. I did this untul it idled with normal temps and no more smoking.....then limped it to the next station before nearly boiling again......repeated the cool-down steps with more fresh water. Then drove to my G/F's house about another 1/2 mile. I would drive to cruising speed and then kill it...then coast, then restart for another block or so, then kill and coast again. I got the car to her place without getting excessively hot and then cooled it back to normal once again as I cooled it down with more fresh water etc. It's parked for the night with cool temps now.

When I bought the car at 30k miles (52 now / 3.5yrs later) I replaced the thermostat, rad. hoses (upper and lower), rad. cap (i think). The motor is all stock except for 16lbs from manual boost controller, and DP. Never gave me trouble ever before with heat.

***During the drama, it was clear that the thermostat was opening and closing, the pump was pumping and spewing the hot water out as I filled with fresh, the hoses don't seem to be cut, and the cap is creating good pressure......all seems fine at this point - WTF???.....so I'm lost as to what it could be, except for the fact that maybe I cracked something during the pull on the highway, but that little highway pull seems so insignificant to my circumstances/mileage and the fact that it's a freakin supra engine!
I will pull the oil plug when I can and look for a milkshake, but c'mon!!!!!..........52k miles on a nearly stock, easy-driving supra????

Sorry for the long read.....any thoughts before I slit my wrists!!!!!????

Thank you,
Sean

 

[Mark Conte]

very weird...at first i was going to say stat...but you said you could hear it opening and closing...and about putting water in, and it cooling down then overheating again...that sounds like a waterpump problem. i was riding in my friends camaro one day and it did the same thing, it started to knock HORRIBLY and the temp gauge pegged as we were trying to limp to a gas station...sounded like a sputtering harley. what happened was the accessory belt somehow slipped off (???)

but you would have obviously noticed that and you said you know that yours was working...

ill think about it and try to come up with something...good luck

Mark

 

[turbosupra]

headgasket

compression goes through the cooling system and pushes it out of the overflow

 

[blkturbo!]

Well, i didn't hear the stat, but i could clearly see that the water was totally cycling, which rules out the stat and pump, correct??

The water was like a gusher with the top opened as I was refilling with fresh water to keep it full and to cycle fresh water into the block. I never once saw any milky water (yet) or any water bubbles on the dipstick. It does have a stock radiator in it which is now almost 10yrs old, hmmm....
I'll be checking outthe car today and checking in as I put together something. As it is now, I need a way back to my house/tools and so I'm dreading a tow right now.

Thanks for the help so far...I will check in a little later

sean

 

[blkturbo!]

Okay, there's no water in my oil. I drained a decent enough amount to see this. I have yet to get back to my car and check the radiator condition....
Any thoughts?

Thanks,
sean

 

[blkturbo!]

Okay, there's no water in my oil. I drained a decent enough amount to see this. I have yet to get back to my car and check the radiator condition....
Any thoughts?

Thanks,
sean

I also pulled the undercarriage off and with visual inspection only, there doesnt seem to be anything wrong with hoses or radiator. But I can only see certain portions ofthe radiator....but it is holding water otherwise.

sean

 

[Mark Conte]

well i havent come up with any new ideas about what it could be but try this (when you get a chance) turn on the car and just let it idle. you obviously werent driving agressively when you were limping from gas station to gas station...so turn it on, and let it idle. watch the temp gauge rise as it normally does

at a certain point the thermostat should kick in...as it does with any car...it might help to have your hood popped and be waiting at your engine bay to hear this. at the certain temp (i dont remember what it is in the supra, probably somewhere between 180-210) the thermostat SHOULD open and start cycling the water through. what MAY have happened is that your thermostat got stuck closed. if your car just heats up and continues to heat up and you dont hear the stat kick in to react to the temp....then i bet you thats what happened

in which case...get the TRD 160 degree stat now i hope thats what happened because that is an easy fix and would make sense. keep us updated.

Mark

 

[blkturbo!]

I tried a friend's rad cap a little while ago and it didn't change anything. Still gets hot the same way.
The car idled at running temps for about 5 minutes...looked like it was fixed. Then after reving it gently on and off (2k rpms) for a couple more minutes it finally started reading hot again. I think the pump is bad......water doesn't seem to come out of the block until it's so hot that it vomits through the open rad cap....so I think the water is staying in the block from not being pumped in cycle. I originally thought it was being cycled, but now I believe that it was only coming out from it's own heat spewing it through the open cap.
I have a Toyota mechanic friend coming over Mon night to confirm shit before I tow it anywhere. He's a local mechanic that does the supra work in the hood

I'm thinking pump so far....which means my 60K tune up is here early Time to whip out the zero % credit card.

Thanks for the comments and any others that may follow at this point.....I'm all ears (eyes) until this shit's fixed!
sean

 

[Adrocktt]

Check for sediment in your radiator, happened to me and eluded me for a long ass time. I replaced the waterpump, trd thermo, full flush and new fluids+WW many times, new cap, fluidyne versus stock and finally found the problem.

Adam

 

[Mark Conte]

sounds like you caught the problem...good luck on getting back on the road

 

[blkturbo!]

Adrocktt - what sediment did you find? Oh wait.....are you talking about little black pieces...like worn rubber that gets shed from the inner lining of old hoses? I found that stuff back at 30k miles. That's when I changed the stat, cap, hoses, and did a flush. I haven't seen that stuff since though. You say you changed ALL that stuff and still overheated before the sediment issue??


LYT - My mind doesn't get relief until it's 100% official and I have to wait until Mon night for the mechanic to actually see the car I have yet to do a coolant pressure test (I'd like to get one done on Sat).....and probably get my the mechanic to do a compression test also.

Thanks for yall's help so far
sean

 

[Mark Conte]

oh i understand...let us know what you find out. hopefully its an easy (and cheap ) fix.

 

[blkturbo!]

oh i understand...let us know what you find out. hopefully its an easy (and cheap ) fix.

Yeah cheap fix, NO DOUBT!! JUST when I was about to order 2 Mich Pilots for the rear today or next week :rant:

I'm just gonna go stick my credit card up my ass and hang myself
:bootyshak :ky:

 

[Mark Conte]

lol...why dont you go with S03's or GS-D3's...they are cheaper than pilot's and i havent heard that pilots grip all that much better to be honest with you...actually ive heard they have an issue with wheel hop...

 

[blkturbo!]

Well, the pilots are on "special" (sale) right now on tire rack. The size is 275/35/18 ----> the exact size I want to stick with, for $232 each.....what made me decide this is that they are only $10 more than the Nittos I was gonna get and I had Mich MXX3's on my car when I got it. I freakin loved those tires...but dont remember if I had a wheel hop problem or not, hmmmm.
But mainly, I can't resist the sidewall strenght with the Mich and they didn't wear bad at all. So those 2 factors are top priority for now......

what are the GS-D3's anyway?

Well, thanks for all......I'm off to put my mind to rest

sean

 

[Mark Conte]

any reason why you only want 275's? ahh now i understand why they are on special...they are the viper's front tires...in that case go for it...and youre totally right about the side wall...them things can turn

im not impressed too much about nittos (unless youre talking 555R, and bfg is still better there), i would take Kumho MX over them, maybe thats just me.

but the GS-D3's are the new goodyears. every single word i have heard about these things have been a compliment... check out the freakin survey results on the rack

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Eagle+F1+GS-D3

every single category is superior (8.5 or better), well except tread wear, and their treadwear is even or better than pretty much any other performance tire out there (actually i think the nitto 555 is 300??) iirc these are 280. the p/s's are 220 (so are the s03's i think) i havent had any PERSONAL experience with them, but they sound like they are badass in every way.

i have had experience with S03's and those tires are gold also.

Mark

EDIT: gs-d3's in your size are 228, and s03's are 249.

 

[JimVirginia]

Your Heating Problem

I don't see why it couldn't just be an air bubble in your cooling system. Happened to me on an old MkII I drove.

Air bubbles can be stubborn to get rid of. Most likely time to get one is after you've changed out some cooling system hardware or renewed the coolant. Seems logical in your case.

It makes sense to me to start by fixing the simple stuff before assuming some exotic explanation.

Good luck.

 

[Adrocktt]

Adrocktt - what sediment did you find? Oh wait.....are you talking about little black pieces...like worn rubber that gets shed from the inner lining of old hoses? I found that stuff back at 30k miles. That's when I changed the stat, cap, hoses, and did a flush. I haven't seen that stuff since though. You say you changed ALL that stuff and still overheated before the sediment issue??


LYT - My mind doesn't get relief until it's 100% official and I have to wait until Mon night for the mechanic to actually see the car I have yet to do a coolant pressure test (I'd like to get one done on Sat).....and probably get my the mechanic to do a compression test also.

Thanks for yall's help so far
sean

I found a reddish clay like sediment and am back to stock radiator because of it. Fluidyne I still need to try to even get this shit out, the radiator can about be filled with water and leaks out super slow with both top and bottom caps undone! I have NO idea the cause but it happened to 2 radiators, no problems this time around as we even acid flushed now.

If you want awesome tires, grab the BFG KDs or SO3s, no idea on the new Goodyears, but they look good! I have the Pilots, they're ok.

Adam

 

[blkturbo!]

LYT - I have 285/35's now and I just want to drop back a tad on the shoulder region of the tire because 285's fit a little too perfect on my 10in wheel. And by dropping down a notch, I can maintain a nicely short sidewall and also maybe get back a bit more of the car's handling. So after having 265 Mich and then 285 Toyo, I feel 275 is right where I wanna be It would be fun to go much wider, but then I dont want a taller sidewall than I have now with 285/35's.
Yeah, those are the OE Viper tires....above all else, I just cant beat that price for a Mich, when I was about to order Nitto 555 for the same damn price

Jim - I haven't disrupted the coolant level since I put my BOV on some time ago and had to move the upper rad hose. This problem literally came out of the blue on me....I haven't seen any dripping water or anything and I was just under the car last week changing oil. It's all just kinda strange without any hardcore symptoms, or any symptoms at all for that matter. The obvious stuff has mostly been ruled out so far as I can tell without tearing into it yet. I replaced the hoses, cap, fluid and stat back at 30k miles, and I just tried a friend's cap Thurs with no success. I will definitely keep an eye out for bubbles once this is all taken care of

Adrock - Reddish clay-like stuff?? WTF??? Well, with all my flushing and loosing water the other day, I have'nt come across any sediments or oils or anything unusual, so I'm not thinking I have a clog in the rad. But I'm definitely not turning my mind off to anything just yet (other than a hose or something quite so simple that has been replaced).

Thanks for all the help so far....I'll keep yall posted sometime this coming week when I get the ball rolling on this.

sean

 

[Mark Conte]

part of your handling issue was probably less to do with the tall sidewalls and more to do with the tire. toyo (you probably had t1s) is regarded as a very light tire, they are pretty good in the straight line, but where they got their light weight from is by taking strength out of the sidewall. the toyo from what ive heard (high performance relatively heavy cars) is just not up to the task of hard cornering...the sidewall is too soft...they do pretty well in a straight line (probably partially due to the fact that the sidewall gives a little twist) but as you can understand, that seriously hinders lateral accel or changing direction.