Camry cooling system question

[rayprog]

I'm driving Camry V6 92 and never had a cooling system problem till this summer we get to Colorado and Utah. First sign of trouble is actually a white smoke from under the hood when we climbed to some waterfalls Hw 70 West from Denver. Temperature shows normal, but native Toyota antifreeze was boiling. Later in the mountains when I checked coolant level if comes from full to low in about 10 miles at the altitude approximately 5,000 - 6,000 feet. I've bought a bottle of Pennzoil transparent antifreeze to add on instead of Toyota coolant and things backed to a "normal". No more coolant disappearance every 10 miles, but - engine temperature starts go up to critical level when we are climbed up. We had to stop a few time to chill engine down (during climb to North rim of Grand Canyon), then it repeated many times in different places. I didn't drive too fast up (actually slower that anybody else), but car was fully laded - tree people and a lots of camping stuff to travel from Ontario, Canada to California and back in two weeks.
So the actual question is how to prevent this happened in the future? Any advice on type of coolant or maybe some maintenance required? I'm kind of happy with car I do have - replacement is not an option. The next trip around Lake Superior didn’t give me any problems. It looks like coolant system problem stats at the high altitude (i.e. 1.5 km and above). Even in the desert between Las Vegas and Bakersfield engine temperature was just lightly above the normal (outside temperature was about +30C).

[Gary_602Z]

A new pressure cap for the radiator maybe be in order. The higher pressure raises the boiling point of the coolant. Also check that you don't have a coolant leak.

Gary

[Eye8Pussies]

the white smoke means that you have a leak somewhere- check all your hosing and look for coolant crystals in the fins of the radiator

if you see your coolant boiling in the overflow tank, that means that you're low on coolant/water and there isn't enough water to absorb all the heat without reaching boiling point


if you take long trips all the time, then I would recommend you checking your cooling system verrry carefully, and if you do mountainous terrain often, then a tranny cooler could be your best friendto for a very little bit of money

[rayprog]

Sorry, I didn’t get what is “tranny cooler”. I think proper antifreeze might help.
It was no leak. Coolant was boiling and overflowing the tank when I reached high altitude. By my understanding at the high altitude pressure is much lower that in normal terrain, therefore temperature of boiling point is lower as well. It like if you are hiking in mountains there is no way to boil water at 100 C without tight lead on the kettle, because water boiling point just as much as 70C. Normally coolant’s boiling point about 125C (depend on type of coolant and proportion water/coolant in the tank), but there was two thing at the same time - huge load on engine when climbing up and rapid drop of outside pressure (everybody in the car feel that – similar to in an airplane). When I replaced part of the coolant with Pennzoil looks like boiling point rises comparable to Toyota native antifreeze, but such mix was unable to chill engine well what cause engine temperature raise later on.
Proper type of coolant might help, also I’m thinking is anything could be done to fan to make air flow through radiator faster? At the high speed in desert it works fine, but when car climbs up on serpent road the speed is about 10 – 20 km/hr and no more.

[rayprog]

Thanks Gary. I’ll replace the pressure cap. Unfortunately I'll be able to verify how it works only the next summer L. Here is no real mountains in Ontario or near by. There was no leak. In the next trip around Lake Superior coolant level reamains the same.

[fire14]

Rayprog,
Check that the cooling fan is operating properly. It's electric and may not be running consistently. Also check for bugs, etc plugging the passage of air through the radiator. And also, when you're pulling steep grades with a heavily loaded car, downshift so that the engine doesn't have to work so hard and the water pump will run faster, thereby moving the coolant through the engine/radiator loop faster for better cooling. The earlier suggestion that you replace the radiator cap is a good idea also. If it's not holding the system pressure that it's supposed to, the cooling system will boil over. Best of Luck.

[fredk]

check the radiator for cold places with your hand

[Luckynumber5]

LoL, i ran into the same problem there for a while, start with the radiator cap and the filler cap on top of the engine, be very careful if the temp guage ever goes near red because you will eventually blow a headgasket.

[ZZZZZZ]

I think you have to change your Rad. I had a similar problem with my 93 Camry. Earlier it was running fine and then all of a sudden, the temp guage is on th red. I looked and the rad. reservoir and rad. were almost empty. My mechanic said that there appeared to be a leak in the rad. When there is no coolant in the rad, the fan does not turn on because the fan only turns on when the fluid reaches a certain temperature. No fluid, no fan. No fan = overheating.
Kurt