'99 Camry I4 overheating

[nightstyle]

I bought a 99 toyota camry I4 with 220,000 miles this year. The car was running with no problems for several months. A few months ago I went up a long mountain range and experienced overheating. I put water in the system and about a month after I heard bubbling sounds coming from the overflow tank. Meanwhile the temperature did not go above half way on the gage. Also, I noticed that if I run the heater on high teperature the problem goes away. After driving with the heater on for a few months in a tropical country, I got tired of it and took the tstat out. A week later, driving through a mountain range again, my radiator blew (it was an old one with aging signs). My thought on it was that it could be a blown head gasket. So I installed a new head gasket, a new radiator, and a new thermostat and a new timing belt. However, I did not machine the head. After all the work was done, the car still has the same problem. After a few minutes, the temperature goes half way, top radiator hose is hot, bottom radiator hose is cold, fans do not go on however they do work. If I shut the car off, it has the same gurgling sound. If I switch the heater on full blast for a few minutes and rev it up for a minute or two and shut the engine off it won't gurgle. If I keep the car running, it starts spitting antifreeze out (obvious overheat sign).
I live in Costa Rica and driving with a heater just doesn't work. Also, it's hard to get parts here. I would really appreciate any suggestions or any common problem info as I really need to fix the problem.
Thank you!
P.S. - a new radiator cap is coming next week, so I'll try to see if that works.

[Mike Gerber]

"If I keep the car running, it starts spitting antifreeze out (obvious overheat sign)."

Excuse the obvious question, but from where do you see the antifreeze spitting out?

Mike

PS: I would have suggested a new radiator cap before anything else. The cap holding pressure is what rasies the boiling point of the coolant. It's both the easiest and the cheapest thing to try. We'll hope the new cap solves your problem.

[nightstyle]

The antifreeze is coming out from the overflow tank. After it throws out enough antifreeze, you can see stem coming out for anther 30 sec to a minute.
I also hope that the cap will do the trick. Have to wait for it another few days.
By how many degrees .9 atmosphere will lower boiling temp?

[whip_cracker]

You only have one cap to replace ay? Not like the V6s that have a filling cap and the radiator right?

It sounds like the pressure release valve on the cap is completely ROOTED. If there's no pressure in the coolant, then it seems to surge straight out through the overflow tank. I ended up getting a higher pressure cap... 1.8. I believe the rad cap's only rated for 1.1 or 1.0.

Can't you just go and buy one from a normal auto shop?? Why does it take like, a week for it to get to you?

[nightstyle]

Radiator cap is not holing any pressure for sure, the houses are not under pressure. I will try to find cap here, the one with 1.8 is out of the question here. The original one says .9

[nightstyle]

And that's right, I4 have only one pressure cap on the radiator. The one on the overflow tank is the regular one.
Thanks for your reply.
Hope that the cap can solve the problem!

[Mike Gerber]

Do you know of any friends with a 4 cylinder Camry so you can borrow their cap just for a test? You can try that while waiting for your cap. It might put your mind at ease while waiting for your cap to arrive.

Mike

[nightstyle]

No, it's not a popular car here. I tried to put cap from Subaru and Nissan, but they don't fit. One more thing that makes me believe that the cap might work is that my house at 1,300 feet above sea level.

[whip_cracker]

I use 1.8s in my car... there's nothing wrong with caps that can hold MORE pressure. My radiator's set to 1.1 and the filler cap is rated at 1.0... so 1.8 just means they're better. Should cost the same amount.

Man, where do you live? Remote?? Don't you have an "Autozone" like the rest of the Americans? I can just do to any Repco, Carbitz, Autobarn or Supercheap Auto here and buy one over the counter for like 10 bucks.

[nightstyle]

Thank you to everybody who responded. Finally found a .9 radiator cap, working as a normal car should. SO HAPPY!!!

Whip_cracker, were did you find a 1.8 cap. As I said, I live in Costa Rica and it's hard to find parts without knowing Spanish. Old radiator was on the verge of blowing anyway, so I could not install new cap before. Now I can enjoy some A/C!!!

Thanks again to all.

Boris

[whip_cracker]

G,day mate... didn't know you needed to speak SPANISH to fix the car! lol... my bad, don't know how Costa Rica works.

We have a number of automotive shops around here... retail outlets. I can normally just walk into any of these shops and ask for a radiator cap over the counter. If not, I take the cap in there and ask for a replacement of the same one. They had a whole range of them... 0.9, 1.0, 1.1 etc etc all the way up to 1.8 and 2.0. I got the 1.8... was the same price as the 1.0 and 1.1. I asked if there was any difference... I get the reply "yeah, one can handle more pressure than the other".

Good to see it's working again mate. If you've lost lots of coolant and you only been topping up with water, you might wanna drain the coolant and replace with some Toyota Long Life Coolant with Distilled water at 50/50 dilution.

Good luck mate

[derick]

Thank for that story, I will try same thing. I got the same problem.