[Gsus]

i was heading out to another board members (darknight) shop on sunday to help him install another board member's (sonicboom) suspension (agx's & s-techs). darknights house is about ~130 miles away from me. so i headed out there at about an hour before noon because mapquest estimated a 2 hour drive! well traffic was low & on my side, i would've gotten there in about an hour & a half if my car had not overheated 5 miles from darknights shop . luckily it was only 5 miles from him & he was able to come rescue me (in his friends loud srt-4!) with some water & oil... since the coolant was coming out the resevoir & my dipstick wasnt reading any oil!
so i finally got around to checking my car today since i was a bit paranoid that i blew my HG. I wanted to check it yesterday but my friend was busy & i dont have a garage. when i checked the oil, the oil was past the full mark! I also decided to change the t-stat since the one that was from autozone (i bought that when i was swapping the engine into my current car that started out as a shell). i was planning on doing a compression test but i ran out of time & i have to got to work in the morning (had to fight to stay up right now to post this). so i'll be doing the compression test tomorrow.

anyhow here are the pics of the t-stats (the autozone one is on the left & the oem toyota one is on the right). would this be the cause of my overheating... or should i look somewhere else? also are there any other things i should check to make sure my car will make those 130miles again on the 18th (we're having a small meet there)?

 

[MR2000GTE]

don't buy parts from autozone lol. Doesn't even look like the correct thermostat.

Try boiling their thermostat; see if it even opens.

 

[MR2 Josh]

Actually, it does look like the correct thermostat except the Toyota one looks of better quality. Are the degree ratings the same on both? A faulty t-stat can cause a car to over heat by the t-stat not being able to open up properly and allowing the coolant to flow through the radiator.

Was there any oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil? You said that the oil was now above full, did you just add too much oil when the car was on the side of the road because you said it wasn't reading on the dipstick the day before.

Overheating can be caused from a few things. Restrictions in the flow of the coolant or faulty cooling equipment whether it's a blown head gasket, air in the coolant lines, lack of coolant, stuck closed thermostat etc. Start by checking the normal oil in the coolant (will also smell like oil) or coolant in the oil, test the t-stat to see if it is functional by applying heat to it and you will be able to see it open. If all of this check out to be okay, then I suggest replacing the t-stat, refilling the coolant, and properly bleeding the whole coolant system to rid it of any air pockets.

Whats up with all of the overheating issues lately?

 

[Gsus]

Actually, it does look like the correct thermostat except the Toyota one looks of better quality. Are the degree ratings the same on both? A faulty t-stat can cause a car to over heat by the t-stat not being able to open up properly and allowing the coolant to flow through the radiator.

i failed to check on that since i had already bougth the OEM toyota t-stat & was in the middle of replacing the autozone one when i took those pics.

Was there any oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil? You said that the oil was now above full, did you just add too much oil when the car was on the side of the road because you said it wasn't reading on the dipstick the day before.

when i did the oil change yesterday, i did not see any coolant in the oil nor did i see anything on the oil cap. the dipstick didn't read any oil when i overheated... so i put in 2 bottles of oil in there to be safe on the way back to the shop. before i left the shop to head home, i checked the oil & it read the oil had put in there at the halfway mark. yesterday when i check the oil, the dipstick read past the full mark... not quite sure how that worked out :dontknow:. when i did replace the t-stat i didnt notice any oil in the coolant... so i'm guessing that should be fine.

Overheating can be caused from a few things. Restrictions in the flow of the coolant or faulty cooling equipment whether it's a blown head gasket, air in the coolant lines, lack of coolant, stuck closed thermostat etc. Start by checking the normal oil in the coolant (will also smell like oil) or coolant in the oil, test the t-stat to see if it is functional by applying heat to it and you will be able to see it open. If all of this check out to be okay, then I suggest replacing the t-stat, refilling the coolant, and properly bleeding the whole coolant system to rid it of any air pockets.

Whats up with all of the overheating issues lately?

well as i stated, i replaced the t-stat with the OEM one :thumbup. do you think i should've tested the OEM t-stat? it was so cold out last night that i didnt even think about doing that. i saved the autozone t-stat cuz i wanted to test it. as before, no oil in the coolant & no coolant in the oil. i think i'll bleed the system today if not this weekend... last time i bled it, it took me forever!!!

 

[MR2 Josh]

well as i stated, i replaced the t-stat with the OEM one :thumbup. do you think i should've tested the OEM t-stat? it was so cold out last night that i didnt even think about doing that. i saved the autozone t-stat cuz i wanted to test it. as before, no oil in the coolant & no coolant in the oil. i think i'll bleed the system today if not this weekend... last time i bled it, it took me forever!!!

You shouldn't blindly fill the engine with oil. Overfilling can lead to blown seals. The very tip of the dipstick is one quart low so you should have started with one quart checked it and then proceeded until it was at the proper mark.

I know that you replaced the t-stat with the OEM one I was just stating the proper steps that should be pursued. I meant test the oil t-stat and I suppose testing the new one wouldn't hurt but since you already have it installed don't bother.

Just keep an eye on everything, check your oil regularly as well as coolant and just watch the gauge to make sure it doesn't go above it's normal position.

 

[Gsus]

cool, thanks for the help . i'll definately be keeping an eye on everthing.

 

[Gsus]

okay i just did my compression test a couple of hours ago . it read out 180-185-187-190? does that seem right? the bgb says 142-178psi is fine... my results are past the recommended specs!

 

[MR2 Josh]

I wouldn't worry about it. Toyota is known for tuning their engines to run fairly rich which will lead to excessive carbon build-up. Odds are thats what the case is here. The only thing on a compression test you should be worried about is if you have one or more cylinders who have a definate difference. the biggest difference you have 10PSI between your highest and lowest so it's nothing to be concerned with.