URGENT ------ Please Help!!

I was driving home from dropping my car off in storage yesterday and the Jeep start overheating. The drive is only about 3 miles away. When I first dropped the Jeep off at storage it was not having overheating problems. It has only been in storage since thursday night so not for very long. I have a toggle switch hooked to my electric fan so I can control when it turns on, the fan is working just fine (so, I know that's not the problem). I went out to the Jeep this morning to try to see what was wrong and I found out that I was out of water (water leaking somewhere). I filled it back up with water and ran it for a few minutes and it was running fine......then the temperature started going above 210 degrees again. Well I looked under the Jeep and there was water/anti-freeze leaking (and I can't tell where from). Then I started the Jeep to see what was going on....now the water is gushing out. So if the Jeep is off then the water just slowly leaks out, but if the Jeep is running then it gushes out. What do you guys think the problem is? Could it be my water pump? Or just a broken hose? Thanks in advance for your help!!

-Kevin

It's pretty unlikely that the water pump would leak that much and still be in one piece. Also if it's leaking from the pump or the thermostat housing, it usually blows all over the place when the engine runs. I'd look for a hose first. A particularly vulnerable spot is the lower radiator hose where it crosses over the steering gear.

I'd pull the front skid and spash shield out from under it so to get a better look-see.

It sounds like a lower hose, but without looking at it it's hard to nail down.

"A particularly vulnerable spot is the lower radiator hose where it crosses over the steering gear."

That is where it is dripping from...I thought that might be where it is leaking, but it just looks way to obvious. I thought was leaking from above and then running off that spot. I Will pull that hose and replace it then. Are hoses for these rigs pretty easy to find and cheap? Thanks for the help!!

Being the suspicious type I'd check to make sure it's still YOUR engine and drive train in there first as well as other parts. Cars in storage are really handy way to get extra parts when the parts stores are closed late at nite, kinda like the old military 'midnite requisition' thing... I remember a parking garage in NYC that parked your car for you and asked 'when will you be back', the other couple that drove that nite with my parents to see a show and dinner the wife got sick half way thru the show and they had to leave. When they got to the parking on 44th st the attendent and the manager both refused to get the car until the appointed time, said it was too far back in the garage. The got the police pretty quick and found the engine either halfway out or halfway back in. It was a chop shop....

I would suspect the lower radiator hose as well...try to pick up the one from the stealership with the all important spring in it, my buddy just picked one up for about $26 the other day. My Jeep did the same thing you are describing and turned out to be that hose. I'd at least start there.

Hey thanks Rich for the story.....but, storage for me is my parents garage!! So I don't think my parents did that, but you never know.

JeepSC, I am procrastinating right now, but I will be outside in a bit here to pull that hose and see if that is the problem. Thanks for the help!!

Okay just got done work on the Jeep....it was a somewhat success. I fixed one problem...the hose. I went and bought a new lower radiator hose. I still can not fix the overheating part though. I bought a new thermostat and gasket and replaced the old one with the new ones. The Jeep still likes to overheat. There is a very very very small leak in the gasket of the thermostat and it leaks a very tiny bit, would that cause the Jeep to still overheat? If that's not the problem, then what it is causing the overheating? Thanks again guys for all your help!!

If yours is an older closed-cooling system (pressure bottle & no radiator cap) you have to burp the air out of the system:

Park your jeep on a hill so the rear is higher than the front... shut off engine and let it cool down some. Open pressure bottle, unplug and remove the coolant temp sensor from the rear of the head (driver side) air will bleed off then coolant will come out. Don't let the coolant level in the bottle get too low, and if the motor is still warm, watch out for burns.

It may take a couple times of doing this to get all the air out

Also what helps bleed the cooling system is to drill a 1/8" hole at the very top of the t-stat, that way, when the t-stat is closed, it will bleed off any air trapped behind the t-stat.

Steve

Save having to drill the hole and put a dealer supplied OEM tstat in plus the OEM gasket. If it overheated bad enough it probably damaged the tstat in there, only takes once...

I got this response from this guy on Jeepforum.com . I was wondering if any of you have done this?

Here is the link to the radiator conversion - http://www.off-road.com/jeep/cherok...r/radiator.html

Your link doesn't work, but I suspect it's a link to replacing the closed system with the newer open system. What year is the XJ?, this only applies to 91 and older XJ's, maybe only 90 and older.

I did it on my 90, including a 3 row GDI. It doesn't work any better than the stock system did when it worked well. It is just as hard to burp the open system as the closed system, IMHO. I'm working on the MJ now, and I'm just going to get a new quality 2-row closed system radiator.

Fred

I have an 89 XJ....

so, it's not worth my time to do? I should just upgrade the type of radiator and keep the closed system?

My_Little_Pony said:

I have an 89 XJ....

so, it's not worth my time to do? I should just upgrade the type of radiator and keep the closed system?

Click to expand...

Not exactly.

Some proponants of the conversion from the older "closed" cooling system (like yours) to the newer "open" system (radiator has a radiator cap) claim that the newer system is "better." This is not correct. Within a particular brand and type of radiator (i.e. GDI 3-core, or Modine 2-core HD), the radiator frontal area and cooling surface area are the same. The open style does not cool eny better than the closed style. Some people who haven't previously encountered the closed type systems don't like it, so they have decided that anything else is "better."

If the radiator of your closed system is in good condition, there is no compelling reason to toss it and convert to an open system. However, if it's an '89 and you still have the original radiator, it's gone beyond it's reeasonable service life and is probably due for replacement. Once you decide that it's time to replace, you then need to decide if you want to stay with a direct replacement, or convert.

The sender/switch for the auxiliary fan on your system is located in the driver's side radiator tank. Most of the "open" style radiators don't have a fitting in the tank for this sender. Problem #1 for the conversion, then, is to find a way to control the auxiliary fan. It'll still switch on when you run the a/c, but it is also supposed to turn on when the temp goes over 217 degrees, and without that sender (or a replacement), that ain't gonna happen.

The heater control valve and plumbing are also different on the "open" systems. I don't think it's absolutely necessary to fully convert this stuff if you do the radiator, but the system will probably function better if everything gets swapped over. That adds a few more dollars.

IMHO the only vulnerability with the closed system is that plastic pressure bottle on the firewall. I replaced mine with a Moroso racing surge tank, but that's a pricey solution. There are junkyard bottles (from Pontiacs, among others) that have been written up. And Quadratec sells new bottles for around $15. Unless/until someone finds the definitive answer to controlling the aux fan when you convert, I would keep the closed system and deal with the bottle. YMMV.

Hey thanks Eagle for the advice. I will more then likely just keep the closed system and replace the radiator with a 2 core one.

Well, I got the cooling system to work perfect last night. So no need to do anything with the radiator yet. I burped the system last night and it started working perfect. It actually runs better now then it did before. Thanks with all the help and suggestions!!!