Cooling frustration

[maine96xj]

:helpme: i just recently bought a 96 XJ sport with the HO inline 6. at first the cooling system was fine and the heat blew great.

but a few days ago i noticed a small leak in the radiator that never leaked before. i used Bars stop leak, and bang no more leak.

Today i let it run for a while to make sure there was no leak. and i noticed that the cap is now leaking. which also never leaked untill today. should i get a new cap and risk blowing the stop leak when it builds up a full 16lbs. or is there some other fix it idea someone has. and i really dont want to but a 140 dollar radiator. thanks.

[bottleworks]

Suck it up - Buy a radiator. Cars cost money to keep up and stop using radiator stop leak. It will cause more issues down the road.

[maine96xj]

I dont feel that is true at all. my dad used stop leak on an 89 caravan in 1992 that poured fluid out of the heater core. that ran untill about 2 years ago.

[Blaine B.]

If your system can't hold pressure, it won't work.

Are you sure the stop leak solved the problem 100%?

And buy a new cap.....like I said, if it is leaking, it isn't holding pressure.

[maine96xj]

after i used the stop leak i pressure tested the sytem and it held then,how much would a new cap set me back?

[Blaine B.]

$7.00 for a pressure relief cap, like $4.00 for a normal cap. Make sure you get 16 psi, alot of stores list 13psi for the Jeeps which is incorrect, and made my cooling system overflow into the resivoir 3 times when it shouldn't have......a 16 psi (stock psi rating) fixed that.

[maine96xj]

what does a pressure relief do exactly, besides the obvious

[Blaine B.]

It acts like a normal cap, except it also gives you the ability to depressurize the system when it still has pressure in it so you can safely remove the cap.

With a normal cap, you would have to wait for the pressure to naturally leave the system....or risk getting scorched with hot coolant, and a big mess everywhere. I use a Stant 16 PSI pressure-relief cap with no problems.

[maine96xj]

ohh ok ive seen those before, have like a handle on top of them right?

i would pressure test the system again but its almost midnight so i think i will save taht for tomorrow. if it leaks at 16 psi im lookin at a new radiator arn't I? anyone know were to get a cheap one. possibly used??

[Blaine B.]

Yep yep, its a lever to manually relieve the system of pressure into the overflow bottle.

PS - What do you mean, leaking? No radiator cap is supposed to leak.

You aren't talking about it letting coolant into the overflow bottle, are you?

[maine96xj]

no, after i used the stop leak the leak on the radiator itself sealed. but i decided to test it again to today and let it idle. after it warmed up coolant started squirting from around the cap itself

[maine96xj]

i just took off the hose that goes from the filler neck to the overflow bottle. and it was completly clogged i blew it out and ran water through it to clean it out. seems not to leak anymore. think that may have been it. i hope

[Blaine B.]

Replace the cap, the gasket must be bad on the cap itself......don't forget, 16 psi.