96 XJ slooowly overheats.

My buddy has a 96 XJ with a 98 motor installed. As of late, it has been slowly overheating. The temp will slowly climb up to the white line before the red bar, but it takes about 15 minutes of driving to get there. Then he tells me he drove it and it got to the red and started steaming.... His electric fan is busted, because of a fender bender, so thats inop. And he hasnt had the cooling system serviced in the 3 years hes owned the XJ.

I was thinking swapping in a new electric fan and a new thermostat and go from there. Does the open system need burping like the closed does?

Sorry for the ignorance, I have a closed system, and have no experience with open, not to mention working on an overheated XJ.

better replace the thermostat and put that fan in soon. you also want to flush that system. you have the right idea, just go ahead and have him do it. the clutch fan is offset so it cannot evenly the radiator enough alone on these summer days. there is a reason for that e-fan. its not just for the a/c system.

btw......15 minutes is not slow........

Thanks. Like I said Ive never experienced an overheated xj before. Ill change the thermo and efan and see if that helps.

My 96 was doing this and it turned out to be a plugged radiator, it just couldn't cool enough fluid. I had changed the fan clutch and e-fan relay, both were bad but it still overheated until the rad swap. i put in a 3 row all metal, alls good now.