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Stuck 200 miles from home! HELP!

S

spat70

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Orlando, FL
Hey all.

Ok Im sitting at a Krystals Hamburger Joint (Free Wi-fi) on I-10 about 60 miles east of Talahassee FL,. I am overheating...BAD. I can let it sit for 20-30 min and it will start and sound fine. However it will get very hot in 3-4 min. Its full of coolant (only had to add a few glugs). I just put a Rebuilt head, waterpump, and thermo stat on last week.

Funny thing is, I turned the heater on and its blowing cool air, and the return water house is hot but no pressure? Ya know hard as a rock full of hot coolant, not so..;.mushy as the rad cap and over flow are steaming.

Did my brand new water pump take a dump or could my thermostat have stuck shut.

There is a Autozone about a mile away, so I'm gonna wait here for a few hours and let it really cool down and then limp down to the parts store.

Calling all guru's!!!!!!!!! Thanks in advance
 
Also...I have the crappy cluster, so no gauge. Just an idiot light that does not come on! until I put some more coolant in and it came up boiling! Then the light came on.
 
spat70 said:
Hey all.

Ok Im sitting at a Krystals Hamburger Joint (Free Wi-fi) on I-10 about 60 miles east of Talahassee FL,. I am overheating...BAD. I can let it sit for 20-30 min and it will start and sound fine. However it will get very hot in 3-4 min. Its full of coolant (only had to add a few glugs). I just put a Rebuilt head, waterpump, and thermo stat on last week.

Funny thing is, I turned the heater on and its blowing cool air, and the return water house is hot but no pressure? Ya know hard as a rock full of hot coolant, not so..;.mushy as the rad cap and over flow are steaming.

Did my brand new water pump take a dump or could my thermostat have stuck shut.

There is a Autozone about a mile away, so I'm gonna wait here for a few hours and let it really cool down and then limp down to the parts store.

Calling all guru's!!!!!!!!! Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

The first thing I would expect, based on your symptoms, is a failed THERMOSTAT or no fans.

Do you have an efan? How old is the fan clutch?

What caused the blown headgasket in the first place?
 
open or closed? Did you burp it when you got all done? Can you remove the t-stat to see if that helps..Could be bad..I have seen new ones not open
 
I dont know what caused the Blown HG, I bought it that way. It has an e fan but I have been crusing @ 65-70. So the fan should of not made a big diff. The Electric fan kicked on when I was putting coolant in. As for the other fan, it looks like the one that came on it...130k.
 
It has a flush kit on it so after the HG and water pump, I filled it up while running, then opened the flush cap and connected it to a hose into a bucket of coolant. I then squeezed the hoses and it pushed the air out into the bucket and it drew in coolant. Like bleeding brakes. I did this about 4-5 times. Now I drove around for 4 days with a obd scanner plugged in. it NEVER went over 188 degrees. Until now

It that burping? Was that the proper procdure?
 
spat70 said:
I dont know what caused the Blown HG, I bought it that way. It has an e fan but I have been crusing @ 65-70. So the fan should of not made a big diff. The Electric fan kicked on when I was putting coolant in. As for the other fan, it looks like the one that came on it...130k.
Click to expand...

OK (And now for the rest of the story...)

It is overheating when you are cruising on the freeway @ 65-70. I would expect that the thermostat is stuck closed/broken (and yes, it happens to new thermostats, even the good ones); a collapsed lower radiator hose (the old hoses had a support spring in them, the new ones do not--and I don't buy the excuse that "modern construction" eliminates the need for the spring).

I am A**suming that the head is not cracked, the block's deck is flat, the head gasket is not blown, and that the head bolts were not overstreched and were installed in clean holes to the proper torque.
 
yep..I would check your stat..If you have a parts store down the street, remove the stat an drive it to the parts house...This will till you if it is the stat is bad..I bet it won't over heat driving it this way..
 
I had the head rebuild and decked, I set the head bolts per manual. I ran it around and went thru a few heat cycles and checked the bolts again...(One took 3-4 pounds more) This was done COLD. I also ran a tap down each hole in the block to clean them up. I blew them out real good after. I do not have oil in the water, or water in oil right now also.
 
Ok...I will go pop the thermostat out and get down to the store. I hope its just the t-stat.

Thanks Guys. I will post back with the outcome.
 
I replaced it with a 160(All they had) and it ran great, dont know the temp? I drove the last 100 miles to Talahassee and checked into my Hotel, I have a little stove and I boiled the old tstat. Well It opened at a RAPID boil after about 45 seconds. I turned it down and the water was still boiling and it closed. I think that was it!

What is the proper way to remove all the air out of the system? I will do a search...also.

Thanks for all the help...I get to sleep in a bed tonight! Woo Hoo!
 
I hope this is the 97 from one of your earlier posts (it really helps to specify engine/trans/tc and any mods that might be effecting things each time you start a thread).

The 97 has an "open system" and is essentially self-burping. You can help things along by parking it nose up at an angle with the radiator cap side at the highest point.

Warm the engine up fully with the heater on, then let it cool down, making sure there is the correct amount of coolant in the recovery bottle so it can draw any additional coolant into the radiator via the vacuum. Watch the recovery bottle and add more coolant as necessary.
 
spat70 said:
I replaced it with a 160(All they had) and it ran great, dont know the temp? I drove the last 100 miles to Talahassee and checked into my Hotel, I have a little stove and I boiled the old tstat. Well It opened at a RAPID boil after about 45 seconds. I turned it down and the water was still boiling and it closed. I think that was it!

What is the proper way to remove all the air out of the system? I will do a search...also.

Thanks for all the help...I get to sleep in a bed tonight! Woo Hoo!
Click to expand...

I think removing the tstat ussualy jiggles it loose. I had the same problem and after i boiled mine it opened as well...
 
When I swapped my waterpump and thermostat, I had air in my system and had the same problem. No heat, and it was trying to overheat in my driveway. I put the front tires up on ramps and was able to add another half gallon or more of coolant to the system. The angle on the ramps was sufficient enough to finish filling up the system and get the air out.
 
Mine is an open system, but just to be safe, I drill a couple 1/8 inch holes in the surounding part of the thermostat making sure one hole is at the top and one at the bottom when I install it. This helps burp any air out of the sytem even when the t-stat is closed.
 
As has been stated many times on this board, the OEM Chrysler Jeep stat is the one we should all be using. The one with the hole, installed at 12:00, with the check ball built in. My '96 Country, two year old normal stat, would spike over 210* from a cold start, then drop down, just south of 210. Last week, I put back in a new, proper one. Viola! Long trip this weekend, ran cooler than ever. The little hole helps burp out any trapped air, and the problem with our vehicles is that the radiator cap is not the highest point in the system. Your temp light, and probably the fan as well didn't work because the sensors for them need to be submerged in coolant, so it would seem that there was a LOT of air in your system. Somehow, hot air won't trigger the switches.
 
True- but I believe the hole- with or without the check ball- is the key to the system working more efficiently. It just seems to run cooler, and we have four XJs, and hoping I don't jinx myself, don't have any cooling issues.
 
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