OK, So I finished my valve guide seal replacement, and after getting a replacement for the missing keeper ( don't ask!) all went back together well. Got her all buttoned up, topped off all the fluids and turned the key, after about one revolution the little Tracker fired right up and purred like a kitten. NO SMOKING! YEAH!!!!! My wife and I decided to celebrate with a little trip out in the woods the next day and all was going just fine until I noticed the temp beginning to climb. We had been trolling thru the forest pretty sloley and attributed the rising temp to not having my electric fan on and going fairly slow. So we shut her down to cool off and when it did we turned on the fan and went on our merry way. A few minutes later temp began to climb again, couldn't figure out why since fan was running, but wife suggested turning on the heater, she said it worked in her old Toyota so I tried it and lo and behold, temp began tp drop! I attribute this to coolant being circulated further into the system giving it longer to heat up, which it did eventually. We managed to keep it from getting too hot by keeping our speeds up on the road home. Thinking I may need to replace the thermostat or some other cooling system component, I waited until it was well cooled off before I began my inspection. Heres what I found: Coolant level fine, water pump fine, fan running fine. I thought probably thermostat. But before I started to tear into it I checked over my reassembly one last time and found a vacume hose dissconnected. It ran from the EGR solinoid vacume valve, to the EGR pressure transducer where it was disconnected, probably when removing or installing the distributor. From There it goes to the EGR valve. Just for hahas I hooked ot up and took her out for a test drive. Stop and go traffic for about 15 min, 20 min of 75 mph freeway and another 30 min of surface roads stopping at the frequent lites. Temp stayed right on the money where it usually does. HMMMM? Could it have been that easy? Now after all that long winded oration, my question is this : could the overheating be caused by the disconnected vacume hose to the EGR pressure transducer? WHY would it cause over heating? AND for a further bonus point, why is there an open port on top of the EGR solinoid vacume valve? Should it be capped? Doesnt say on the hood label. Correct answers to these questions net the winner FREE use of my highly engineered and skillfully crafted valve spring compresson tools for the 16 valve motor. Incorrect and silly answers get to use the tools and video tape themselves while doing so for our entertainment. OK, so who knows?
