I have a 95 jeep. It started to overheat over trips more then 30 minutes and when I would get out of work the radiator would be bone dry. So Ive since put in a new radiator. When we did this it went from taking 30 minutes to over heat to 5 minutes. The mechanic says its the head gasket. We didn't have any milky oil nor any oil in my radiators water. So we pulled it apart put a new one in rebuilt the engine and the same thing. Along the way we added a new water pump as well. It seems that when we turn it on it builds up a good amount of pressure. He had his pressure tester hooked up and said it was over 30 pounds. The reserve for the coolant starts to bubble up and when it does that sure enough the temp gauge is red. He now seems to say the head may be cracked. Which doesnt make sense to me since if it was cracked i would think it would be losing pressure! Now the first time it did this after putting in the radiator it sounded like popping coming from the front of the engine where the waterpump is mounted right above it. Im not sure if this is my thermostat or what. But thats the only thing we havent done. Would the thermostat do any of these things? Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated

 

did you change out your thermostat?

 

No that would be my question

 

Holy hell man. If you replaced your radiator, water pump and cylinder head you most certainly should have replaced the t-stat. If your t-stat is old and possibly broken and stuck in one position (especially the closed position) it could absolutly cause your issues. I would deff get a new t-stat ASAP! The cylinder head you replaced the old one with, was it a remanufactured one or was it brand new? When you had it apart, did you inspect the block throughly? Also, did you take the time to bleed all the possible air outta our system?

 

As for the tstat i forgot to pick it up and figured if i needed it we will put it in. Me and a friend are doing all the work so thats not an issue. And we didnt replace the head we used the old one. Didnt get it checked since if it doesnt work ill just put a new one in no biggie just some time lost. Plus I got to learn how to do it so win win. But I also dont think its the head. Most the people I have spoken with have told me the cracked head would lose pressure. Which is why I said f it lets put it in. And when it was apart yes everything was checked cleaned and all that good stuff. My main thing is it didnt start overheating in minutes till we put in the radiator. Before that I could sometimes make it to work (1 hour trip) before it would get hot. Now its literally minutes and its over heating. Which is why I think it has something to do with something we did during that!

 

You have a new radiator and water pump.

Install a new radiator CAP and a new 195 degree quality thermostat (I buy mine from Jeep and also like the Stant SuperStat).

The fan clutch can also create a condition of "temp creep" at idle.

See where you are at after that..........

 

thermos are cheap and a pretty big deal....especially if they're broken in the "closed" position...