XJ consuming coolant at a steady rate

Just wondering if I should be really alarmed or not. Bought my truck in november from a nice old man who bought the truck for his daughter. On the test drive it kissed the 250 degree mark and check engine light came on. I shut her off on the spot and waited a few(pretty sure the 2 sec of 250 didn`t warp the head). When I came back I told the owner and he claimed it never happened to him/his daughter, but it has been sitting dormant for about 4 months now.

When we popped the hood, the coolant res tank was bone dry and upon cool down the radiator was only 3/4 full. We topped both off to spec and I bought it. Since than the truck has never gone over 210 but I always smell a faint sweet coolant smell upon shutting her off. Also the coolant tank depletes at a rate of maybe an inch every two weeks.

The oil is black as night and no mixing looks like it is occurring, the heat is piping hot, and I even tried to look for little bubbles in the coolant with the radiator cover off.

Any of you guys heard of these 4.0`s consuming coolant at a regular pace or should I be looking to do the head gasket in the spring? Also I don`t see any physical green spots on the ground or out of the water pump so I really don`t know where its being consumed....... Couple of buddies have just suggested some fix-a-leak and forget it.

Any feedback will be much appreciated!

~Will

Check the water pump and see if it has coolant seeping out around it? That would be my first guess. Part's are cheap and if you find a mechanic who does side work on Saturdays they will usually fix it pretty cheap if you aren't up to the task.

I will throughly look over the water pump thanks! Thats where I thought i`d be leaking from also

willsmysticcobra said:

I will throughly look over the water pump thanks! Thats where I thought i`d be leaking from also

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Yeah I was about to buy a civic to drive when I noticed mine leaking.

Sounds like a very small leak. Check the water pump from underneath, the weep hole can be hard to see.
Don't use stop leak, if it is the WP leaking it won't help any way. And it can plug up the heater core.

JIM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psk0SAErcv8&feature=player_embedded


really freaks me out^^^^ head crack

meh.


there are allot of other places for coolent to go, check all those 1st.


Rev

check the floorboard on the passenger side under the carpet as well...could be a leaky heater core.

Cheeseman-OUT!

using stop leak will only make a bad cooling system worse. the 4.0's have the tendency to run dirty thus leading to plugging the radiatior causing overheating. the inital over heating problem may have been a sticky thermostat from it sitting.

my 99 uses a bit of coolant too, I just keep adding every three months or so.

Going to keep looking but I did not see any coolant leaking in the head thank God.

maybe I am crazy, but that is the valves, I am not sure you would see coolant up there, the head leakage area is the next piece down I believe.

When looking for faults particular to certain years, it's always good to know what year you have.

Judging by the intake mani, that's a 97-99?, so probably not the crack-prone 0331 head anyway. Radiator, water pump, hoses, tstat... these are maintenance items on an XJ. If you don't know that they've been replaced, it's probably about time to start.

XJ&CHZ4ME said:

maybe I am crazy, but that is the valves, I am not sure you would see coolant up there, the head leakage area is the next piece down I believe.

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That vid I posted a few up shows little pools of coolant visible from the oil cap hole.

And you are right about identifying it... i`m sorry its a 1999 sport

Is it just me or does that picture look really good and sharp?

I'll throw out another spot to check: the heater control valve. Mine has cracked in the past, and I think it is a somewhat common source of a slow leak. I don't know if this part is specific to certain years though...

No HCV on the 97+

hubs97xj said:

No HCV on the 97+

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Gotcha. Kinda looked like that in the picture, but I wasn't sure.

that thing have a block heater on it?

mac 'nice clear pic' gyvr

haha yes block heater. Pic was taken with a nikon d80 dslr

willsmysticcobra said:

haha yes block heater. Pic was taken with a nikon d80 dslr

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Dang, I want a DSLR! :tears:

I'm not trying to be a thread nazi, but there is a lot of information available in the tech sections. Don't take this the wrong way, just sayin.