Rod Knee
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Grand Jct., CO
Less than a month ago, I had a remanufactured 4L, I6 engine installed in my XJ. A new thermostat and water pump were installed with the engine. I have a 3 row CSF radiator which I installed new about 6 months ago.
I’m back from vacation consisting of a few days at Black Hills Jeep Camp and a week in Utah rafting the Green as part of a family reunion. Had overheating problems beginning on the way out to the Black Hills consisting of my temp running up to about 230-235 degrees. Mitigated this problem by running the heater and fan. The problem persisted in the Black Hills while wheeling so I found a mechanic in Rapid City who checked out the thermostat and fan clutch on the belt driven fan and thought they were OK. The aux. elec. fan is kicking in at about 215. So I proceded on to Utah with my heat on for much of the way and eventually went to a shop there and had the thermostat and fan clutch replaced resulting in much improved performance on-road including use of the air conditioner without a heating problem. Going up a continuous uphill stretch of dirt road, however, my temp gauge quickly rose to the 240 degree threshold of the red area on my temp gauge, at which time I stopped, turned around, and let the engine cool. The mechanic that had replaced the fan clutch and t-stat concluded that some internal problem in the engine must exist on the basis of these observations. I have no reason to doubt the integrity and ability of this mechanic, and would recommend his services.
I know there are measures I could take to rectify this problem from use of Redline water wetter to placing a manual switch on the relay driven rad. fan., but they would address symptoms rather than cause. What I am wondering as a non-mechanic is:
1.what internal condition(s) in the engine could be quickly resulting in excessive temps while going steeplt uphill at slow speeds in the absence of cooling problems under other driving conditions, and
2. What testing could be performed to identify this/these conditions.
I’m back from vacation consisting of a few days at Black Hills Jeep Camp and a week in Utah rafting the Green as part of a family reunion. Had overheating problems beginning on the way out to the Black Hills consisting of my temp running up to about 230-235 degrees. Mitigated this problem by running the heater and fan. The problem persisted in the Black Hills while wheeling so I found a mechanic in Rapid City who checked out the thermostat and fan clutch on the belt driven fan and thought they were OK. The aux. elec. fan is kicking in at about 215. So I proceded on to Utah with my heat on for much of the way and eventually went to a shop there and had the thermostat and fan clutch replaced resulting in much improved performance on-road including use of the air conditioner without a heating problem. Going up a continuous uphill stretch of dirt road, however, my temp gauge quickly rose to the 240 degree threshold of the red area on my temp gauge, at which time I stopped, turned around, and let the engine cool. The mechanic that had replaced the fan clutch and t-stat concluded that some internal problem in the engine must exist on the basis of these observations. I have no reason to doubt the integrity and ability of this mechanic, and would recommend his services.
I know there are measures I could take to rectify this problem from use of Redline water wetter to placing a manual switch on the relay driven rad. fan., but they would address symptoms rather than cause. What I am wondering as a non-mechanic is:
1.what internal condition(s) in the engine could be quickly resulting in excessive temps while going steeplt uphill at slow speeds in the absence of cooling problems under other driving conditions, and
2. What testing could be performed to identify this/these conditions.