What to do now?? - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Greg2347 · 03-07-2010, 06:42 PM

Bought a 1993 Camry LE with 3VZ-FE [3.0] V6 on the cheap. The exhaust was blowing lots of white coolant smoke, it was basically out of coolant and not running. Bad head gasket, right? That's what I found, in fact both heads had one blown cylinder, as did one port on the intake manifold.

Sent heads off-they passed pressure check and were not warped. Reinstalled heads with new gaskets, timing belt, water pump, thermostat, plugs, pretty the whole shebang.

Start 'er up, stupid timing light won't work so set it by ear for tonight. Still getting massive smoke from tailpipe but that was just burn off, or so I thought until the pressure relief valve started spewing hot water out. The gauge on the dash was normal, plenty of heat from the heater, no indication of overheating until the 'cap' spewed out.

So the question is, what now? Different engine? FWIW the body has a few blemishes but almost no damage, the interior is missing the radio and heater knobs, the brake light is illuminated, and the dome light is inoperative. Outside of those minor items everything else is good, almost too good for a work car. The AC even blows cold! Oh, almost forgot, the 'D' light is out also.

I have $650 in it right now, looking for a good work car, this one would work fine if it ran right. What would you do?

Chris Crash · 03-07-2010, 06:49 PM

I would make it work.

Greg2347 · 03-07-2010, 06:55 PM

Explain how? New engine or what?

hill8570 · 03-07-2010, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg2347

Start 'er up, stupid timing light won't work so set it by ear for tonight. Still getting massive smoke from tailpipe but that was just burn off, or so I thought until the pressure relief valve started spewing hot water out. The gauge on the dash was normal, plenty of heat from the heater, no indication of overheating until the 'cap' spewed out.

Let's narrow down "spewed". Coolant is supposed to escape from the cap into the coolant reservoir once things are a bit warmed up -- the reservoir is there for the cooling system to breathe. Now, if the coolant is boiling out of the cap to the point the reservoir is boiling over, then that's a problem. Might just be a bad radiator cap, 'tho.

Did you burp the system good? From what I understand, the 3VZ is a bit hard to get all the air out of the system.

Chris Crash · 03-07-2010, 07:36 PM

It doesn't sound like a huge problem with the engine to me.

I wouldn't really assume coolant overflow to mean an engine replacement.

Could you be a little more specific about what exactly happened?

Greg2347 · 03-07-2010, 08:46 PM

Sure thing.

The timing was set close 'by ear' as my light was not working. Idle speed about right and was set pretty much where it used to be. Warmed up engine, dash showed temp, heater blowing hot air, all good so far, still getting white smoke from exhaust but that is probably just burn off from blown gaskets. After probably 3 minutes I raised the rpm to ~3000 for a few minutes, no specific reason, 'just cause'. Observed the radiator fan was turning slowly, never really 'turned on', sort of just idling. Soon the coolant started spewing from the pressure relief cap on the radiator and into the overflow bottle. Not 100% sure it was fully burped, but in 40+ years of working with american iron I have never seen coolant spew like this due to air in the system.

Let cool for a short time, then started and turned the A/C on to see if the fan would come on, which it did not. Also discovered an electrical plug not connected near the fan 'motor'/alternator. Have not located where it plugs in...it might be the fan control. This might be just due to the fan not working. Due to the time and being tired I am done for the night, but will hit it again tomorrow morning.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Chris Crash · 03-07-2010, 09:32 PM

Yeah, I've had some troubles with the fans on these cars too. Had to hardwire them to a switch in the dash.

Try finding the other end of that connector, if it's for the fan it should just be on the side of the radiator or right next to it. That would solve one problem.

The second time you started it up, did it do the burping thing again?

I think that the coolant overflowing was just air bubbles...try it again tomorrow and see how it goes. Maybe you can try burping it manually first before you turn the car on?

Greg2347 · 03-08-2010, 12:13 PM

Took a fresh look at the car this morning. The plug that is not hooked up is located near the oil filter and is zip tied leaving about 3" to hook up. It has two wires going to it, one tan the other [as best I can tell] is black with a white stripe. I cannot find anywhere it will plug in, not in the A/C compressor, bottom of the alt [too far] the side of the radiator [nothing found].

Refilled with water, burped as much as I could, started up and A/C on. The radiator fan still at 'idle' speed, ie slowly turning with little or no force-you can easily stop it by hand-ie 'idling'.

So..I'm thinking the fan control is defective and not a cooling system defect. Severe overheating could have caused the gaskets to have blown if the previous owner [a bonehead] had repeatably run it hot due to the fan not working.

In looking farther, I discovered the 'Fan #1' relay missing from fuse and relay box near the battery. Installed relay from spare parts bin. No joy. The relay is assumed [yes, I know] to be a good spare. The power steering fluid was almost a quart low, so, it was filled and the wheels turned from lock to lock until no more air was expelled. It was filled just after we started the engine the first time, it had fluid in it before the engine got up to operating temp.

The two questions that now come to mind, are 1. does the fan motor need bled of air?....and two, where is the sensor located that causes the fan to start blowing? The dash indicator never got much above 1/4 up from dead cold even when the radiator was puking water. So where is the sensor we can jump to get the fan to turn on if we decide to use a manual switch? Found the temp sensor in the valley near the rad cap, removed and grounded the wire but the dash indicator failed to move. Could this be the problem?

If I am looking down an empty rabbit hole feel free to say so and get me back on track.

Greg2347 · 03-08-2010, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg2347

Took a fresh look at the car this morning. The plug that is not hooked up is located near the oil filter and is zip tied leaving about 3" to hook up. It has two wires going to it, one tan the other [as best I can tell] is black with a white stripe. I cannot find anywhere it will plug in, not in the A/C compressor, bottom of the alt [too far] the side of the radiator [nothing found].

Refilled with water, burped as much as I could, started up and A/C on. The radiator fan still at 'idle' speed, ie slowly turning with little or no force-you can easily stop it by hand-ie 'idling'.

So..I'm thinking the fan control is defective and not a cooling system defect. Severe overheating could have caused the gaskets to have blown if the previous owner [a bonehead] had repeatably run it hot due to the fan not working.

In looking farther, I discovered the 'Fan #1' relay missing from fuse and relay box near the battery. Installed relay from spare parts bin. No joy. The relay is assumed [yes, I know] to be a good spare. The power steering fluid was almost a quart low, so, it was filled and the wheels turned from lock to lock until no more air was expelled. It was filled just after we started the engine the first time, it had fluid in it before the engine got up to operating temp.

The two questions that now come to mind, are 1. does the fan motor need bled of air?....and two, where is the sensor located that causes the fan to start blowing? The dash indicator never got much above 1/4 up from dead cold even when the radiator was puking water. So where is the sensor we can jump to get the fan to turn on if we decide to use a manual switch? Found the temp sensor in the valley near the rad cap, removed and grounded the wire but the dash indicator failed to move. Could this be the problem?

If I am looking down an empty rabbit hole feel free to say so and get me back on track.

Have to go to work now, so will not be back until midnight to check messages.

Greg2347 · 03-09-2010, 12:05 PM

Thanks everyone for your help. Have decided I have a fan problem with the infamous hydraulic fan. The search function is most helpful. I might change it over to an electric fan if worse comes to worse. I found the following link most helpful in understanding and troubleshooting the fan system,

http://www.justanswer.com/questions/...ystem-like-the

It appears the water temp sensor is bad. New one is on order...........

rusty9 · 07-19-2010, 09:01 AM

so did you ever get to the bottom of this? which sensor was bad? the one on the thermostat housing or the one on the outlet pipe on the other side? what were your readings for the bad sensor? i've put together a post with as much relevant info as i could. but im still having the same problems.

Greg2347 · 07-19-2010, 11:56 AM

The bottom? Still looking for it.

Replaced a sensor near the water pump and the hyd fan started working, replaced the only other sensor I could find [on top of the block adjacent to the windshield washer bottle-hidden way down there but still on top of the block] that went to the instrument gauge. Discovered the instrument panel gauge is inoperative, wired in an aftermarket one for now.

Smoke.....still out of the tailpipe and last I looked down in the radiator bottle. The only conclusion I can think of it that the block is defective. Trying to find some sodium silicate to add to the water in the cooling system in an attempt to seal the leak. Drug stores used to carry it, but with the advent of 'modern' drug stores that are more a 7-11 type store they have quit carrying some of the 'old time' items.

Should I give up or it not work I will part out the car, but I hate to as I now have about $750 in it and I suspect it will be hard to get that much back out of it.

Thanks for asking.

***zythr*** · 07-19-2010, 12:41 PM

If the body is rust free, might as well keep it and see if you can get it running right

ShawnD93Toy · 07-19-2010, 12:56 PM

only solution is to put an ls1 in it

THEARCHITEK · 07-19-2010, 01:09 PM

yeah the fan works with the powersteering in most of the 3vz make sure the powersteering is working fine

my moms 3vz powersteering was not working n was loosing preasure due to it broke and the fans was not working right either check the sensors on the powersteering

note the sensors on the powersteering is hard to find it took me 6 month to find it and i had to buy an use powersteering and the built it with the new one

that could b answer