2TR-FE: Do I need to buy two full gallons of coolant when replacing plastic bypass pipe?

It's starting to leak slowly so I figure I better upgrade it to metal before camping season. That coolant is expensive so I just want to make sure before I buy two gallons of it.

 

I used less than 2 gallons when I flushed my 2.7l, I used the Toyota OEM stuff but lots of peeps using the Valvoline Asian at Walmart with no issues. 2 gallons will be more than enough. if you only use a gallon you can always take the other back with the receipt

 

May I ask how many miles you have on your Tacoma? That coolant bypass pipe is something on my to do list, being that I have a 2006. I only have a little over 51,000 miles, but for peace of mind I would like to be pro-active and not wait till it fails, with my luck it would be at a really inconvience time/place. I don't understand a company like Toyota pinching pennies on something so important as a coolant pipe, when failure could cause overheating and a blown headgasket.

 

194,000.

Even with 51,000 I would still do it. It's probably more age related than mileage related.

 

I agree, just the peace of mind would make replacing it worth it to me. I already bought the manifold gasket and would like to do it myself.

 

If you haven't changed the antifreeze lately or ever, completely draining the block from the valve on the side and refilling with new antifreeze might be a good idea. Old antifreeze corrodes the freeze plugs when the anti corrosion additive in it degrades over time.
If you completely drain, it hold around 2 gallons.

 

Unfortunately I just did it like a year ago which is why I'm all bent out of shape about spending another $50 on Toyota coolant. Still better than paying a mechanic so whatevs, I just went ahead and ordered it. I'll let you guys know the job goes.

 

Well hopefully you'll have some extra on hand for the next maintenance.

When I did my cooling bypass pipe the dealer gave me an oring gasket for it. The plastic one uses an o ring type gasket. But the metal one takes a metal type gasket similar to some head gaskets. Had to go back to the dealer with the truck taken apart and get the right one.

 

if you can find a clean container, drain it and use it again. the OEM Coolant is pretty pricey to discard

 

Easy job if you have DIY car/engine experience. If you aren't confident enough to DIY it and you have a 2005-2008 2TR-FE you should REALLY go get this done ASAP at your trusted shop. Holy shit I can't believe it lasted this long. It literally disintegrated in place as I took the intake off.

Look as my first pic. You see the vertical nipple coming off the new metal piece that's absent on the old black plastic pipe? That's because it snapped off inside the rubber hose as soon as I wiggled the intake manifold/throttle body after unbolting them. But I needed to re-use the hose part so I needed to get the broken nipple out of it which I did with a wood screw. But it literally came out as MUSH. That little pile of shit is the broken off nipple that I pulled out of the hose. That's how it came out. The other side with the two-bolt flange wasn't any better, it snapped off as soon as I touched it and was about as strong as wet cardboard.

Get this fixed if you haven't!!! And don't go poking around touching it unless you already have the parts because it will break! This absolutely should have been a recall.

 

I forgot to plug the vacuum hose back onto the back of the intake on mine and it ran like shit.

 

That's the hardest part of the whole project. The trick for me was leaving the short little 2 inch hose attached at the intake and removing it from the hard line, tying the spring clip up the line and out of the way, hooking the intake on the top right stud first, then leveraging the intake (pivoting on the one stud) to push the hose onto the hardline (spit on it first) while supporting it with your free hand. It was easy once I figured that out.

 

Yea it took a while to get that line back on. It's in a very tight spot.

 

And to provide an answer to my original question: I didn't end up draining any coolant from the block or radiator because the disintegrating pipe did most of the job for me before I even got to that point. About half drained out and up until this point I've put in slightly under one gallon to bring it back up to full. I'll wait until it's had a few more heat/cool cycles to let the air out before I make this my final answer but so far it looks like if you just pull the pipe and let it pour out you only need to buy 1 gallon.

 

You have never owned a Euro car have you. I agree it's sorta shoddy (especially since the 3RZ got a metal pipe, and metal intake, hmmm) but it's par for the course for auto manufacturers nowadays, plastic cooling pipes are a norm and this is a designed failure mode. Every BMW I've done a cooling system refresh on from the last 15 years has this happen.

 

Not sure if I agree with the overall sentiment of your post, at least in this situation, seeing as they switched back to metal in 2009. I'd say they quickly realized that whatever latest and greatest cost-saving pipe design/material was sold to them turned out to have an unforeseen inability to perform as promised resulting in an "oh shit" moment and a prompt redesign with the hopes that it doesn't result in so many blown head gaskets that they're forced to do a recall. I guarantee they were prepared for that if it turned out these things were failing even sooner/more catastrophically than they actually are.

 

I think the major issue of it it that it attaches to largely unsupported lines. So as the plastic gets more brittle (as plastic is apt to do next to heat) the bouncing of the heater and throttle body lines makes it more likely to crack around the barbs. The pipe you guys use is actually the same old part that fits the 3RZ, so at least they had that ready to go, and it is a good upgrade. But I wouldn't be too surprised to see other plastic/nylon/PA6 parts like this begin to creep back in, it keeps production costs super low and typically they hold up well beyond the warranty years (which is all they're worried about)

 

- Those pictures literary scared the shit out of me. What Toyota's penny-pinching engineers were thinking using that material for a coolant pipe is beyond me.

I have to get this done ASAP for peace of mind!!

 

Couldn't agree more with this statement...sadly.

 

Sorry to hear about the mess!

When you order your parts don't forget to order the little metal gasket, part

$7 16258-75021 TOYOTA Genuine Parts - Gasket (16258-75021)

16258-75021. It didn't come with the pipe.