New guy with overheating problems

Okay guys I have done everything I have read and read so now I'm coming to you guys.
So I bought my 1996 cherokee 4.0 4x4 from a lady for $500 and she said its a new motor I'm guess she meant rebuilt but runs and drives great, I'm gonna make it into a trail rig. So the other day I was driving it and noticed it never gets hot so I checked the thermostat and we'll it wasn't there.. So I put one in and it now does not get any flow now.. I tried 3 different thermostats.. New radiator, new water pump, new temp sensor, still just no flow. The hose on top stays cold ans the radiator stays cold so anther guy told me my water pump is spinning the wrong way "counter clockwise"? I don't know if there is a different motor in here or what's going on with this flow. How can I tell what year motor I have too?:hang:

Possible your heater valve is gunked up. You need some flow around the thermostat to move the really hot water up to thermostat feeler. Possible you put the wrong gasket in there and blocked off the heater outlet at the thermostat housing. I have a length of clear plastic high temp tubing I can make a loop between the top outlet on the thermo housing and the pump inlet for the heater hoses and watch the coolant circulate.

Possible your bottom radiator hose is way soft and without the spring stiffener it needs. Rev up your motor by hand and watch the lower hose with a flashlight, remove the airbox.

Possible your radiator is seriously plugged up. I usually catch this because the top hose gets rock hard and you can often see it swell when you rev the motor up.

It is possible to put an early water pump in there that is the mirror image of the newer version. It still pumps in the proper direction but very poorly. The XJ pump is usually referenced as reverse rotation. Some have an arrow on the front.

are you sure you put the thermostat in correctly? if it's backwards it can screw up your flow.
X2 on the lower hose restricting flow.

So I put a 160 degree thermostat in and it's running a hair over 210 but staying there I put my 190 in and it spikes up to the red

How are you checking your temp? Maybe your gauge is off. A working thermostat will have no effect on how hot the vehicle will run. 165,195,180... Doesn't matter...They don't help cool the vehicle down. Only control the operating temperature.

Hey.., do you have fully functioning interior heat?

It is dark-time, & there is a blizzard outside--so I am not going to confirm the engine I.D. location by looking under the hood of my XJ for you, but in my little library next to my computer, my Haynes simple reference manual sez that the I.D. is displayed on the passenger side of the engine, forward of the distributor, (towards radiator), on a little raised embossed 'machined' rectangular area of the engine block casting, just below the head/gasket seam, between 2nd, and 3rd cylinders. Write down the I.D. (Once had the list of I.D.'s, and VIN's in order to ascertain such things as to year, where made, etc., but my other computer crashed, and I do not want to go into dropping such XJ list stuff, and other data from one external back-up drive into this other computer, at this time, in order to shed light on what year your engine is...:speepin.

Forgot where I originally discovered how to verify engine build date, (it's on that list, lol), but by either 'googling' around, or by typing those found I.D. numbers in one of your next posts might be answered by those that have that information handy.

Could be you have a head gasket issue and the motor is pumping exhaust gases into your cooling system. And/or you have air in there. Either the air or the exhaust gases can mess with the coolant flow.

Take your radiator cap off, siphon off a little coolant until the coolant level is just at the bend of the filler neck and let your motor idle for awhile, see what pops up. If it starts spewing bubbles it may be air and will stop or lessen over time, if it exhaust gases it will keep on bubbling. Stuff some shop rags below the filler neck to catch any spew or overflow.

I'm still guessing you have a partially plugged radiator. This can actually overcool to a degree, but when/if the motor gets hot enough it will overheat and spew as the coolant boils. The tipping point from too cold to too hot can be drastic and happen quick when the radiator is partially plugged up.

The most likely scenario is that you have some air in your system from the things you have changed already. Shake the upper rad hose and listen for sloshing water. If you it does then you have air in there.

Next I would pressure test and see if you have any leaks. You have changed a bunch of parts and it's possible the hose ends are a little cracked or worn.

Don't overthink the problem, to solve this you really have to not tinker with it so much and let the diagnostics point you in the right direction.

Also, why are there two threads? I was following the previous one hoping to help out then I saw this one with the same thing.