djspock303

Just wanted to refresh everyones brains now that we are back into the winter. We had our first cold spell arrive last night and on my way to drop off the kids at daycare the ol american aristo didnt seem to do anything but blow cold air.

First thing to check - Always Check Radiator Fluid and cap it off, make sure you have a good sealing pressure cap as well, and that the reservoir is to the fill line with Toyota Red Coolant and Distilled water.

Second thing to check - Ensure the radiator hoses, heater hose from back of block, and the one on the passenger side of the motor into the firewall are in good order no leaks.

Third - if you have coolant laying around or smell a lot of coolant under your dash (i am sorry you will need your heater core replaced)

Fourth - Driver side where the heater hose from the top back of the engine block goes to a switch upper firewall bracket driver side. This is the heat pressure switch or something to that effect, there is a cable on it. You can tell it's in working order when you run the A/C on full bore you will see it move to the left, if you have it on full heat it should point back to the right. If this is not working replace it.

Five: - Still having issues, could be an issue with your thermostat (passenger side block near front trace from radiator to block) beyond this hose is the Thermostat and Gasket make sure they are in working order or replace.

Six: Have your cooling system flushed and replace coolant/water mix with Toyota Red & Distilled water.

extras: Ensure all of the areas mentioned are free of debris and blockages. On the passenger side ensure the blower and fans are in working order. Also if nothing is happening you hear no noises check fuses etc. in addition to the other items mentioned.


**********************
After researching on here on previous posts i just made a collective post as all them could be culprit for little to no heat.

I had a small leak on the water-neck housing that i was able to trace to the missing coolant. This must have happened over the summer and fall with a few droplets at a time. I have never seen coolant laying on the garage floor or where i parked, the reserve was fine, but the radiator did end up being about 2 - 3 quarts low which is a lot for those radiators.

Once i replaced the coolant and sealed everything up, including the pinhole leak by the water neck the car got up to operating temperature, i turned the heater on high for about 10 minutes. There was some improvement while idling, i did not go driving it around yet but i would hope it would start to warm up considerably. What i found odd on this car is the blower fan on the passenger side floor board still blows cold air, is considerably loud but right next to it the heater vent (on the tunnel) was blowing the warmer air. Possibly mine is just louder because i removed the cabin air filter but i wouldn't think it would be that huge of a difference.

Let me know if I missed anything, keep warm and defrosted my friends!

TRACKMKIII

Good information!!

djspock303

I was driving today again 15 deg weather, and during my 24 mile commute the heater was "kinda warm" after warming up to temp and the stat open air blowing freely. A little later on though it was blowing HOT HOT as it should but near the end of my commute. I am starting to think that there is a servo/actuator inside that also controls the heat flow from the heater core in addition to the other mentions above. Everything is operational, but taking a hour to warm up to where its beyond luke warm to o m g it's fing hot (which is where you want it to be in 15 deg temps). I also wonder if the pin hole leak down by the water neck was also enough to allow some air in the system, and that was about the time it finally burped it's way out of the car. Curious to see how tomorrows cold *** day goes.


Any other ideas folks?

joewitafro

Definitely sounds like you have some air bubbles in your system, especially if you didn't "burp" the car.

1) Get yourself a Lisle Spill-Free Funnel #24680
-
2) Park your car upwards on a slight incline

3) Take radiator cap off, put Lisle Spill-Free funnel on

4) Fill funnel half way with distilled water

5) Start your car and turn your heater on full blast

6) Let your car start to get warm so the thermostat can open up, circulating fluid throughout your coolant system and heater system.

7) Air bubbles will, by gravity move upwards in the system and bubble out of the funnel

8) You will start to notice coolant mixing with the water in the funnel

9) You can rev your motor a little bit to help get air bubbles to move through the system

10) Do not let the car overheat, before the coolant starts to boil, plug up your funnel and reinstall radiator cap.

djspock303

All good info Joe, but i already used the yellow burpY back in June when i changed the radiator out. This car has 230k on it and all of its parts, its been pretty crazy sometimes its luke warm and other times it hotter than hell. :shrug: Possibly i am getting some air in the system from where the water neck attaches to the block but I am in the middle of rebuilding my boosted IS300 again, and this car was just kinda of a quick 2500 bucks i through down. However now im thinking when the is300 is done it might be a little tough to get rid of the first gen, something majestic about it.

I need a pole barn eventually ill have 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Gen GS300's in there, a Supra or two and a couple of is300's lol. Half of them boosted lol.

onelt1

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like what I want in my garage, except I want a LS460L, RC F sport, and a lot more, but all 4 gen GS's and a MKIV supra would be awesome.

djspock303

There is something else going on, if the weather warms up im going to take a look at the thermostat housing on the block. I see some gel'd coolant and think there are some minor leaks around that area which is also causing air to get into the system, then when filling the car with rad fluid its also very finicky on that's done. For the first time in months my temp gauge was at its normal warmed up half mark and stayed there, but the coolant boiled and bubbled up in the reservoir tank. I might throw away the oriellys special thermostat and replace it with a toyota one.

Little background over the summer i replaced the thermostat, radiator, rad cap, hoses, and filled it back up with Toyota coolant the right way - so there is not much left to replace.

Titten

Good info. Does anybody have a good lead on reasonably priced new heater cores? I mean, besides going to Lexus. Also, what other cars use the same heater core? Thanks in advance.

djspock303

Not sure on the heater core, however after looking at things a little closer today in the garage (HOrray i made room for the gs300!) most cars if the heater core fails, it fails miserably and will leak coolant inside the vehicle. Sometimes there might be blockage, but if that was the case no air would really move and i dont think you would get hot/cold/hot/cold etc.

These cars as most of us well know are super sensitive to air pockets, bubbles, especially with the cooling system.

The source of my issue is at the water neck, where it bolts up to the back of the waterpump. Come to think of it with this ride having 230k, it could be the original water pump. I know on my is300 it's always best to change out the waterpump and gasket when your doing timing, but its a much bigger pain in the *** than the gs300 and the non-vvti motors.

There is some pretty nasty crystalized Toyota Red Coolant and crystals around that area on the water neck, everything else i have double checked and is operational including the clutch fan and moving coolant around the block and through the system.

However that small leak over the last 6 months caused the coolant to lower in the new radiator but not so much in the reservoir tank, which is what threw me off. Few days back I wasnt thinking about it as i should and just added directly to the radiator the two quarts low of coolant/water mix. I did not use the burpy that time or a method of jacking up the car with the rad cap off, and slowing adding the liquid, heater on full blast, and letting it air bubble out at the radiator top which takes a considerable amount of time and sucks to do that way. Tonight i did that just to see if could get the god awful "bubbles in the overflow to stop".

Once i got the air out everything seems pretty good, thermostat is operational, but i will just be back visiting this issue in coming months unless i replace the waterneck (Which is bolted on to the water pump) and i am pretty sure that just comes as one part not two.

With the age of the car, and what i use it for (commuting to work and back), i am going to use Evan's coolant flushing system, and their performance waterless coolant.

Quite a few of the folks i race with run it, they never had any problems, others say they hate it and had nothing but problems.

The way i see it, its always a gamble until you give it a shot, but not really to concerned about this car. Im going to see what i can do with the sealing up the current pump and waterneck then I am going to use Evans and probably never look back on this car.

More to come -

djspock303

Finally had time to really inspect the car this weekend, and found my leak. Right around the water inlet housing where the thermostat is housed the bolt on the bottom side has some nice corrosion of red, green and blue stuff around the bolt. There were some ice crystal of coolant there as well. This long thanksgiving break I am going to drain the coolant and pull the lower housing and inspect the gasket (new in june) and prob add some silicone sealant. Also will inspect the Upper water bypass outlet. I think this is pretty close to where my small oil leak is as well, (lose about 1/4 of a quart a month, and see small drips on the garage floor) after if finish the massive amount of work on the is300 ill focus on my daily driver gs300, for now im just trying to keep it in shape enough i can get to and from without having to worry about oil and coolant, slash heating/cooling problems.

pics to come

djspock303

Mystery Solved -

Quick recap - replaced the green coolant from previous owner with toyota red. This was after i installed
1. New Radiator
2. New Upper Rad hose
3. New Lower Rad hose
4. New thermostat
5. Had to replace thermostat gasket twice, the second time was due to corrosion after the flush of the goop green coolant and red coolant can gel if not taking care of properly.

I still need to replace clutch fan and water pump but they both are working sufficiently, same as the electric fan. So all that being said and done after bleeding the air out of the system with the Lisle funnel the car was at operating temp and not boiling anything in other words behaving as it should.

Except for one important factor in the Winter - my heater was blowing lukewarm

That's right as suspected the heater core was clogged up, most likely due to the previous owner using the wrong coolant, and or using stop leak this or that for the previous radiator. The heater core is a ***** to get to, and i did not flush it over the summer, didnt even think about it.

The hoses are easy to see, pain in the *** to pull off to flush. Lot easier with hose puller tools and some big / little vice grips. Needless to say its all flushed now the heater core that is, i did not make a video but i should have. The 21 years worth of crap that came out of that little heater core looked like putty, then in reverse just chunks of muddy putty. Now i have super heat, super ac, and the car runs at the op temp it should.

I am getting ready to start my 2jz youtube channel now that the is300's motors pulled and the trans is out. (w55 manual blew up) my goal is to get all of the information in 1080p down to how to replace the ARP main studs to how to use methanol injection correctly. I think a lot of people will benefit when they see how setting up a boosted car is not all that crazy just time consuming.

Kudos people, hopefully others can read from this experience and fix it themselves too.

(Could have been worse, heater core go bad or leak inside the cabin )