A thankful nod to Mark P and Robinhood4x4!!

[Obi..]

Went up through Shaver/Huntington after the 4th, and only had some trouble through the Central Valley with transmission/engine overheating, big time, seems that the location of the cooler had similar results as your initial placement, just in the front left center, but in my case more so due to the increased size of the one I selected.

Little thing known as "Heat Soak" kept occuring, basically, the interfered flow of air through the radiator, as well as the accumulation of heated and uncirculated air from the initial placement I chose was causing the engine to get hot. (Well that and driving back through Gilroy in the middle of that fire didn't help much, my rack's deflector even warped from the heat while CHP had us stopped.)

So, anyhow, tonight I decided in light of Robinhood's relocating his further over, and seeing Mark's project, that I needed to fix the issue and do it to see if the fix will work. *In other words, revisiting each of our 3 write-ups and taking the best of them all.

Moved it over and down, just below the upper edge of the O/E bumper, but above the bottom edge of the valence, which I plan on possibly dremeling out around the base a bit to provide even more air flow.

So far it works, tomorrow's a trip to Tahoe, and hopefully time to visit Jim and the guys to say "Hi" wanna see the re-gear results? :D

Thanks again for the write-ups, as well as the input that was in my topic a while ago!!

*I'll post how it worked and a picture of the relocation when we get back.

[Robinhood4x4]

I've never had a chance to measure the water temp so I don't know what the true temperature is, but I did the same as you. Once it started getting close to the red zone I pulled over and let it cool.

Toyota temp gauges are rock solid usually so that means whenever it starts to move toward the red even the slightest bit, then it's overheating.

[slosurfer]

Was your tranny cooler strapped directly to the radiator or did it have an air gap? Hopefully your relocation works for you, but generally it means that you have something else wrong and your cooling system is on edge. The cooler won't block enough air to make a difference (especially if you have a little air gap) unless you already have an underlieing problem. I could see you getting the "heat sink" problems if you had the tranny cooler strapped directly to the radiator, actually on second thought you probably wouldn't have that happen since it would actually be strapped to the A/C condenser. I'm just saying this so that you can start keeping on eye on your other cooling parts, as the tranny cooler shouldn't block enough air to make that much of a difference.

I would take a look at your fan clutch, it may need to be refilled possibly with a thicker silicone. Relocating the tranny cooler may help buy you some time to figure out what is going on.

P.S. Welcome back, haven't heard from you in awhile. :thumbup:

[slosurfer]

2wd rocks at Pismo! There will be plenty of 2wd's out there. :thumbup:

Glad to hear you found out what it was. Lame, that they put cheap parts on there. :(

[slosurfer]

Thanks Slosurfer, but I gotta ask, 2wd 4Runner...

Heavy, sink-prone ass-end. Can you roll it in 2wd, allI ever did was with the pickup with piecutters aired down when younger.


I spend the majority of my time out there in 2wd. Just have to be more careful in 2wd where you park, stop, climb, etc.... Oh and it's no big deal to get strapped here and there. I always had to add a ton of weight in the rear with my 2wd mazda b2300, so the added weight of the 4runner helps there.