I thought all of us Mods had to go through sensitivity training. Did you skip that? LOL.

I am still in a depressed/border line alcoholic state from selling my 88... still hard to think about it. But I love my 98

-Just kidding about the alcoholic part... haha

I was thinking that, but I was thinking that if the radiator had a flow issue, it would really overheat during city driving like stop and go traffic. But I swear, I could have the air conditioner on and sitting in 100 degree weather and the thing will not go past 210. Its baffling to me, and right when I get off the highway if it starts overheating it will cool back down. But if this pressure bottle doesn't work, it looks like I will be replacing the radiator, it is the only part of the cooling system that I have not replaced, aside from heater core.

Good plan.

Lol I love my '88 except for the cooling issue. It really does awesome wheeling for being stock, just a matter of getting it to the trails, lol. Its a fun car, I am glad I bought it.

I bought my 88 right after high school. First came a roof rack and some lights, then a Rustys 3 inch kit, then a tires, then a 4.5 inch RC lift, then a dana 44, and some other goodies..then sold it ...got too good of a deal on the 98. My 88 is the first build thread in my signature if you wanna check it out. May give you some ideas..

You need to address the ground issues and the C101 connector issue before you get left stranded somewhere. Super easy to do and cheap!!

That's awesome, a lot of hard work, something to look forward to. Thanks for your guys' help, I will let you know how everything goes, we are going to the mountains this weekend again.

And cruiser, yes, I need to get that done, I saw your links, thanks for the help!

When was all this replaced ?

Right after I bought the car. I felt pretty stupid, when I test drove it before I bought it I drove it around the city it ran fine, drove on the highway and it was fine. Everything was replaced about 3 months ago. I replaced thermostat and waterpump first, and when that wouldn't fix the issue I replaced fan clutch, the hose coming from the water pump, the hose going into the thermostat housing, and two flushes. The flushes were done @ Midas. After I get about 20 miles down the highway, or going up an incline at a decent rate of speed is the only time it overheats. Only time, like I said I drove it around the city stop and go traffic the other day, it was around 100 degrees out and I had the air conditioning on and the thing will not get hotter than 210. Its weird...

alot of people will say a fan clutch does nothing for cooling at highway speed i was a beliver also until mine was doing same as your describing around town great a soon as i hit the highway she start creeping up. Ived all ready upgraded to open system i got tired of cooling bottle issue with renix well i replaced my flex fan even thought it seemed to be working doing this issue was gone instantly no mind you also i have no loss of coolant or crapy pressure bottle any more.

Just wanted to give a little update. It looks like the new bottle is working a little bit better. I headed up the same hill and the temp only really got up to about 220ish, whatever temp the mark is that is right past 210, still a little warm. Kind of hard to gauge since it was only about 85* ambient, I didn't have a bunch of people in the car so no load really. Maybe just replace the radiator this winter, still drives fine around town, even when I would get off the highway it never really got above 210.

Have you actually used a mechanical gauge to make sure that your meter is right? What if you were doing all this **** only to find out your meter is reading hot?

Yeah, before I put the new temperature sensor in, I did. That was why I put the new one on. After I put the new one in I measured it again and what the gauge was reading and what the meter were reading were just about the same, maybe 10 degrees diffrerence but they almost matched up.