93 camry 2.2 overheating have tried ecverything plz help

[pittman_justin1988]

i have a 1993 camry 2.2 auto me and my wife bought from local small town crook cause we were hevaing another baby and my truck wasnt big enough car has 216k the heat barely works ac does but its been running hot since i put a new thermostat in it and strted leaking by the water pump had it replaced ran good for while but ran hot again so i took thermostat out still ran hot put another radiator in it ran good for while ran hot again hooked fans up to run all the time still runs hot but never gets all the way up unless im in traffic there is no water in oil and its not losing water unless when its boiled over has no thermostat right now what else can i try the heat never worked good with the thermostat in winter in only runs hot on hot days in winter it did fine ai need help on this on sory for the long post thanks

[Mister_Perkins]

since you have a new radiator, new T-Stat, and new water pump and the head gasket is fine, I would say that you have some blockage somewhere. Possibly inside of the block, not allowing the coolant to properly circulate. I would suggest flushing the block out completely and see if that helps

[hill8570]

^+1

Sounds like a rig that's been fed a steady diet of hard tap water over the years.

1) Heater barely works: probable clogged heater core
2) Intermittent overheat, even with thermostat out: clogging of flow through radiator...maybe even clogging of main coolant channels.

Backflush the radiator (easiest done off the car). Outlet is at the bottom, so you flip the radiator over, send pressurize from bottom (which is now the top), and let it run out the rest of the radiator.

Power flush the engine. Generally I don't like flushing chemicals, but this case sounds like it might be an exception -- it sounds like there's an awful lot of crap in that engine.

Might want to try backflushing the heater core (before power flushing the engine). Worth a try before going through the hassle of changing out the core.
, and you're getting.

One question, 'tho -- if you run it easy (not let it overheat), does the water level in the coolant reservoir drop over time?

[pittman_justin1988]

i have done that to the radiator can i just bypass the heater core to see if it does good then and i only have water in it now would that cause it to run hot reason i only have water is because it leaked so much it was a waste of money buying antifreeze

[hill8570]

Originally Posted by pittman_justin1988

i have done that to the radiator can i just bypass the heater core to see if it does good then and i only have water in it now would that cause it to run hot reason i only have water is because it leaked so much it was a waste of money buying antifreeze

Bypass the heater core? If you have the heat turned off, there's no water flow to the heater core (there's a valve on the engine side firewall that turns on/off the flow to the core), so I guess that's pretty bypassed.

Um, yeah -- pure water starts to boil quite a bit earlier than a good 50/50 mix of water and antifreeze, so you'll run hot earlier (the system is made to pump liquid, not steam). Over time, corrodes the crap out the engine, too.

Are you using distilled water or tap when you're topping off? If you're topping off with tap, you're just adding to any potential mineral buildup / clogging.

[pittman_justin1988]

ok im gonnna flush it and use a pre mixed antifreeze cause i been using tap

[Mister_Perkins]

Straight water coolant has no lubricating properties. Antifreeze has lubricants that prevent the waterpump bearing from running dry.

Antifreeze transfers heat about 2% less well than plain water, but it's other properties still make it worthwhile.

heres a little good reading if ur interested about water in the cooling system:

excerpt from http://norosion.com/technical.htm

The best types of water to use as coolant are RO (reverse osmosis) water, or softened water – especially if you run straight water coolant, without antifreeze. During the water softening process, the same impurities and minerals are removed from water as the distillation process – but with one very important distinction. Rather than STRIPPING the impurities from water, softening EXCHANGES the impurities with a sodium ion. The resulting solution is electrochemically stable and ionically balanced, making softened water very stable, pure, and non-threatening to cooling system metals. It should be added, there seems to be a perceptual issue with regard to usage of softened water. Many mistakenly believe that because SALT is added to water softeners, softened water must contain salt, a substance known to be very corrosive. Nothing could be further from the truth. The salt that’s added to a water softener is NaCl, or sodium chloride. During the softening process, only the sodium ion is exchanged into the water, whereas chloride ions are removed when the softener is regenerated. Therefore, softened water does NOT contain corrosive salt.

[96ToyoCam164K]

I'm at a lost too and about to do a complete coolant flush. I thought fixing the leak in the resevoir would solve it but it STILL keeps overheating on long distance drives. Imagine going on a 7 hour drive in full sun 80-90 degrees with no A/C and having to turn the heater on full blast to keep the car from overheating

[Mister_Perkins]

you've already confirmed that your thermostat is opening up and you have good circulation to the radiator right?

[hill8570]

Originally Posted by Mister_Perkins

you've already confirmed that your thermostat is opening up and you have good circulation to the radiator right?

If I read the original post correctly, he's running without a thermo and with fans permanently on high. Unless that was just an experiment.

[hill8570]

Another real long shot -- check the A/C condenser (in front of the radiator). Make sure it's fins aren't full of gunk blocking the airflow.

[hill8570]

Originally Posted by 96ToyoCam164K

Imagine going on a 7 hour drive in full sun 80-90 degrees with no A/C and having to turn the heater on full blast to keep the car from overheating

Been there. I remember a long summer drive through Oklahoma back in my youth where the heater was the only thing between me and redlining the temp gauge. And, a couple of years later (in a different rig) doing the same trip in single-digit temps (gotta love record lows) with a completely clogged heater core. Changing out a heater core in the middle of winter in an unheated garage ain't my idea of fun, but you can bet that core got changed before I did the return trip.