foxtrapper wrote:Keith Tanner wrote: Gameboy's right on when it comes to coolant mix. It's not coolant...It transfers engine heat out, it's a coolant. Not the best coolant, but for the price, it works well enough.
Okay, you win the pedantry award. But antifreeze is less effective at being a coolant than water, which was my point.
1998 may not seem old, but it's 18 years. That's a reasonably long time in car years. And in two years, 2000 model vehicles will be 18 years old. Time marches on...
Keith Tanner wrote:foxtrapper wrote:Okay, you win the pedantry award.Keith Tanner wrote: Gameboy's right on when it comes to coolant mix. It's not coolant...It transfers engine heat out, it's a coolant. Not the best coolant, but for the price, it works well enough.
Woho! It's mine, all mine!!!!
Keith Tanner wrote:foxtrapper wrote:Okay, you win the pedantry award. But antifreeze is less effective at being a coolant than water, which was my point. 1998 may not seem old, but it's 18 years. That's a reasonably long time in car years. And in two years, 2000 model vehicles will be 18 years old. Time marches on...Keith Tanner wrote: Gameboy's right on when it comes to coolant mix. It's not coolant...It transfers engine heat out, it's a coolant. Not the best coolant, but for the price, it works well enough.
I don't disagree, but I'd like to point out that it isn't as old as it used to be. In 1998, an 18 year old car probably had a carburetor.
mtn wrote:Keith Tanner wrote:I don't disagree, but I'd like to point out that it isn't as old as it used to be. In 1998, an 18 year old car probably had a carburetor.foxtrapper wrote:Okay, you win the pedantry award. But antifreeze is less effective at being a coolant than water, which was my point. 1998 may not seem old, but it's 18 years. That's a reasonably long time in car years. And in two years, 2000 model vehicles will be 18 years old. Time marches on...Keith Tanner wrote: Gameboy's right on when it comes to coolant mix. It's not coolant...It transfers engine heat out, it's a coolant. Not the best coolant, but for the price, it works well enough.
More to my thinking- for 1998 cars, testing was quite a bit more done than for 1980 cars.
So as long as the parts are ready to break (I do get the idea that if there are plastic parts in the rad- they age badly)- it will cool fine- as it's been to those conditions, and likely beyond.
volvoclearinghouse wrote: At 193,000 miles, your engine tolerances probably aren't as tight as they originally were, so a higher mileage type oil would be a good idea. Whether to go synthetic or not is up to you, but if Toyota recommended a 5W-30 for that truck, I'd absolutely go with a 10W-30 high mileage formulation. My wife's 2000 GMC Jimmy (which we drove cross country last Christmas to give to her brother in Pheonix) called for 5W-30, but it would consume about a quart in between changes. I switched to 10W-30 and it drank maybe a cup or two between changes. It had 170,000 miles on it.
It's much more important to increase the high temp viscosity than the low temp viscosity...changing from 5W-30 to 10W-30 won't make much difference once the engine reaches full operating temp. Your oil consumption reduction probably came from less oil being burned off the cylinder walls while the pistons were loose during warmup.
So if the car was originally meant to take 5W-30 I'd go to 5W-40 or 10W-40.
Stocked up at the auto parts store.
Got some silicone tape in case I lose a hose, got some Water Wetter, a new radiator cap for backup, some radiator stop leak for emergencies, and got my spare tire replaced with one that isn't 18 years old.
I don't wanna do a full oil change at this time, but I may pull out 4 quarts and replace it with Rotella T Synthetic 5w40.
The truck uses so little oil that even going nearly 4000 miles since the last oil change (when I first got it) it didn't use enough oil to replace with Rotella, and the oil change I got before heading up to Moab was a last minute deal so I didn't have a chance to put in my own oil.
I've spent quite a few days in Death Valley off-road in my 99 4Runner (204k and counting!) and haven't ever had to worry about my cooling system failing. I do have an aftermarket trans cooler so that heat isn't going into the coolant but the cooling system is otherwise stock. Guess what I'm trying to say is you probably don't need to worry too much.
I came to this thread expecting it to be about the LeMons Rally!
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