NAC - Toyota 22R

[mike mcclurg]

NAC, but you guys are the best source around for
almost any problem.

The Toyota 22R engine is like an Audi 5cyl in that it
is abnormally stout and long-lived. I had an ’83 truck
that I bought new and finally had to get rid of at
264,000 miles because the frame rusted in half. Had
never been in the engine past the water pump and it
still had the original clutch.

Current truck (and patient) is a ’94, also with a 22R
engine (a deliberate choice on my part) with only
125,000 miles. This truck has throttle body injection
as opposed to the carburetor on the ’83. I started it
one morning and it sounded like something exploded. It
ran rough and after it warmed up, lots of white
“smoke” (actually steam) started coming out the tail
pipe. I thought, oh-oh, blew a head gasket. Checked
the compression and all 4 cylinders are 170 psi,
essentially new spec. On closer inspection, when
running it also dripped coolant from the gasket flange
of the exhaust manifold.

Ah-hah, that’s where the water in the exhaust is
coming from, not a blown head gasket after all. But
then I think, why and how is water getting into the
exhaust manifold. Suddenly that sounded worse than a
blown head gasket. I don’t have a shop manual for the
’94 (yet), but I still have the one for the ’83 and it
is unclear; seeming to say something about coolant
passages in the exhaust manifold gasket?

So does anyone know if this is true? Is there coolant
in the exhaust manifold? If so, I guess this could
explain the problem if there was a crack. Of course,
it could also be a bad EM gasket or a crack in the
head itself (ouch!). I am wondering, too, if say some
water got into the exhaust passage and was sitting on
top of the exhaust valve when I tried to start it and
then flowed into the cylinder and got fired and shot
out of a cannon, so to speak. That might explain the
somewhat violent start that I experienced? I guess
also that the coolant going through the cat could have
screwed it up and could explain the rough running,
too?

Any BTDT or hypotheses?

Thanks,
Mike

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