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Not enough heat with Champion 3 Row Radiator

B

Ben824

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Woodstock, GA
I upgraded to a Champion 3 Row radiator because I was overheating and figured I would upgrade. The 3 Row Champion is GREAT! Fixed my overheating problem perfectly. I also swapped out the mechanical fan for another OEM E-fan run by my own concocted wiring setup with a 2 stage speed and autonomous activation. Anyways the fan doesn't kick on to the first speed until 210. So nothing is drawing air across this radiator most of the time now it is cold out. But now when I am actually moving around and not in stop and go traffic, the temp gauge reads at the hash mark between 210 and 0. I feel like this is too cold for the engine to safely run at and I am COLD!!! I need some heat in my Jeep! I am running a 195 thermostat and the only Idea I could come up with was to maybe bump up to a 200.

Any thoughts?
 
Have you confirmed temp with a IR gauge?
 
Go old school. I lived in REALLY cold country growing up. We just put a piece of card board in front of the radiator in the winter.:flame:
 
old_man said:
Go old school. I lived in REALLY cold country growing up. We just put a piece of card board in front of the radiator in the winter.:flame:
Click to expand...

Same here. My DD which is a 1992 Toyota pickup with a heavy duty fan and fan clutch stay cold with temperature below 60*. Right now, I have about 50% of the radiator covered with cardboard. On the other hand, my XJ which have no mechanical fan will heat the passenger compartment in about 1 mile or within 10 minutes of starting on a cold morning.

Old school? Maybe. Effective? You bet your life it is. In Iowa in the winter of 2007, I blocked part of the XJ radiator even though it did not have a mechanical fan and is equipped with the OEM 195* thermostat. Driving at highway speed, and the temperature in the cabin set high, the temperature gage would actually fall to or just below what I consider 195*.

Ben824 need to do some poking around to find and fix the problem. A good 195* thermostat is perfect for all weather conditions here in the US. If it is actually in good condition then you may need to check that the valve (is there on in the 2000 XJ?) in the engine compartment is getting enough vacuum all the time to remain open and allow the hot water to flow through the unit under/in the dash. A good piece of card board could do the trick in 5 minutes or less.
 
Ben824 did not say what year his XJ is. :eyes:
 
cruiser54 said:
Except that I had 3 SuperStats opening up too early, warranteed them, and finally went with a Mopar and now all 3 of my rigs warm up quickly in the winter..
Click to expand...

That isn't the OPs problem.

His isn't warming up too slow... It's not warming up enough.
 
rockclimber said:
That isn't the OPs problem.

His isn't warming up too slow... It's not warming up enough.
Click to expand...

I understand that.
The thermostat should not begin to OPEN until 195* if it's a 195 stat. And, if it opens up and the engine cools down too fast, it should start closing. Stats are not just open or closed. They're variable.
 
cruiser54 said:
Except that I had 3 SuperStats opening up too early, warranteed them, and finally went with a Mopar and now all 3 of my rigs warm up quickly in the winter..
Click to expand...

Interesting.

I have a Stant Superstat 195* in mine now, along with a CSF 3 row radiator. According to my Scan Gauge II, the T-stat seems to open at 190* instead of 195*. My Jeep still warms up fairly quickly, and puts out decent heat, but it definitely runs cooler than it did with the factory stat. My Jeep pretty much runs around 190* now instead of 205-208*.

I went to look for a Mopar stat, but the dealers around me only carry a much cheaper looking Motorad version.
 
If the thermostat is working correctly the coolant should get up to 210 within a few minutes. The temperature sensor is in the thermostat housing, measuring temperature of coolant exiting the head. It shouldn't allow more than a trickle of flow into the radiator until 195'. So if coolant is exiting the head at 160 or so, based on your estimate, it shouldn't be able to flow to the radiator. Therefore, it should be staying in the engine and warming up further. Sure, some coolant is getting pumped through the heater core - but not enough to keep the engine from warming up to temperature.
Recap - your tstat is either skewed or sticking open.
Somebody please educate me if I'm demonstrably wrong...
 
I *may* have misread his post, I thought he said it was hanging between 200 and 210... which would tell me the thermostat isn't the problem.

now that I read his post he said
the temp gauge reads at the hash mark between 210 and 0.
Click to expand...

since there are several hash marks between 0 and 210, we can ASSume he means the one in the middle which would be around 160*... but since he didn't specify year, it could be a lot of things...

IF it is hanging at *160, then I would say yes, the t-sat is sticking open.
 
yossarian19 said:
If the thermostat is working correctly the coolant should get up to 210 within a few minutes. The temperature sensor is in the thermostat housing, measuring temperature of coolant exiting the head. It shouldn't allow more than a trickle of flow into the radiator until 195'. So if coolant is exiting the head at 160 or so, based on your estimate, it shouldn't be able to flow to the radiator. Therefore, it should be staying in the engine and warming up further. Sure, some coolant is getting pumped through the heater core - but not enough to keep the engine from warming up to temperature.
Recap - your tstat is either skewed or sticking open.
Somebody please educate me if I'm demonstrably wrong...
Click to expand...

You are 100% correct.
 
Pardon my ignorance but at what ambient temp does it become too cold for the thermostat to stay open and allow the jeep to run at 210? Can it be so cold that even though the t-stat is stuck open it still can't eventually reach 210ish? I feel like it should be able to reach 210 still, but I could be wrong. To the op, have you confirmed the low temp besides just going off the dash gauge? Is it possible that the heater core is clogged?
 
With an OEM 195* thermostat, no mechanical fan and both electric fans off, it is difficult for my XJ to get above the 195* thermostat setting at highway speed with the cabin heater turned up high in ambient temperature below 50*. I will however get up to 200+* in slow moving city traffic.

I think to OP may have a bad thermostat in addition to a very efficient cooling system. It could also be a non functioning valve on the fire wall in the engine compartment i.e. not enough vacuum when the engine is under load to keep the valve fully open thus not enough hot water to heat the cabin.
 
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