[BonestockNA]

After reading your post, maybe some of the old valve stem seals are leaking. I can't imagine doing anything with the head off and not replacing all of the stem seals though. A full upper gasket kits usually come with valve stem seals. I would check on that with the folks who worked on the head.

Bad stem seals can cause the smoke you are seeing when the engine first starts and also the oil consumption. There are ways to replace stem seals with the head still on but those methods are tedious when you have to repeat 24 times. Probably better to just remove the head again. Especially since you are worried about coolant loss and condition. If you choose to open it back up make sure you remove the block plug and flush the system out good.

 

[BonestockNA]

Hopefully its just a leaky hose somewhere. Agree that heater core jobs are no fun.

Back in the day I installed Pennzoil 10W40 all the time in the NA engines. Now I'm running Pennzoil 10W30. Oil specs have greatly improved over time and viscosity breakdown is far less of a thing now.

I still have the OEM copper radiator so I'm also running old school Peak green coolant. My radiator cap orings are on the way out so when I replace the radiator I will be replacing with an Al core. At that point I will use a more advanced long life red coolant like Toyota Red. I used red before with a Cu core radiator and did not get good results.

 

[BonestockNA]

This bad experience with a red coolant was on a 92 Camry 3VZ-FE. About 20 years ago the original Al core radiator gave out at a very bad time and I was forced to replace it quickly with the only radiator I could get my hands on immediately which was Cu core. Red coolant came out of the car and I replaced it with what was more than likely a red OAT coolant I picked up at a local store. The new radiator only lasted about another 5 years, the acidity ate up the Cu. Once that happened I realized that the coolant was the issue and I flushed, went back to Toyota Red which was what the car came with. At that point I was able to find an Al core replacement. That same car was passed to a family member who still drives it.

20 years ago there was a lot of confusion out there about the new long life coolants and how they were all formulated. The GM Dexcool saga was a good example of that confusion. I still find GM cars cracking composite water manifolds because of the wrong coolant.

I decided last year to put in a conventional green coolant that was low silicate because that's what came out of it and I remember new late 80's Supras having green coolant. I will be flushing and filling with Toyota Red when I change the radiator to Al core.

And you are so right about the Fe protection. Most coolants in stores now are for all Al engines. I was involved with a discussion on this last year and I think we wrote a small PhD dissertation on the subject by the time we were done.

 

[BonestockNA]

I found all of those formed hoses on RockAuto.com. Gates makes a lot of them and you might have to mix in a Continental or AC Delco to complete a full set. They are reasonable.

 

[BonestockNA]

Go back to the RockAuto site and look under heating and air conditioning. There is a hose section in that part too:

I mixed and matched all my hoses from there and when they arrived they were all direct fits. No cutting needed. Time to change all those 30+ year old hoses and clamps. I was happy to find all of them pretty easily.