Is it bad when your XJ sucks up coolant
 

Cause mine sure as heck does!! lately anyway! lost heat about 3 weeks ago and checked the fluid and sure enough bone dry!! And I have been adding it every other day since then...

Wat year and motor? Did you check the oil? Could have a blown head gasket.....

Have you checked your oil?

Could be a cracked head if it's a 2000.

As suggested, check your oil and see if it looks like a milkshake.

1. Have you performed a comprehensive search for a leak? That is job #1. Get underneath the front with a good light and a warm engine with a fully pressurized cooling system.

2. If you can't find any leak, it is very possible that you have a cracked cylinder head. There is a casting defect between cylinder 3-4 on the factory 0331 cylinder head that came with each and every 2000-2001 XJ. Do some searching on "0331 cylinder head" and you will get many hours of light reading that will educate you on this problem. The #1 symptom of a cracked 0331 head is unexplained coolant loss.

The oil is a nice shade of dark drown, black.. nothing milkshaky.. I have performed a leak check and nothing shows. It just slurps up the coolant..
The only reason I checked the coolant was because I lost heat about 2 weeks ago.. obviously due to the lack of coolant.. but man its like almost a gallon a week..

I should probably stop driving it daily 100miles to work then!!!

So should I be on the lookout for a replacement jeep? I have 250,000 total miles on the jeep.. Supposedly from the previous owner only 50,000 was on the top end rebuild when we got it, 2 years and 30,000 miles ago.. :dunno:

You have a 2000..
Im gonna bet you have a cracked head.

I bet it is blowing it right out the exhaust.

With that level of coolant consumption, if the head is cracked, you most likely will be able to see it pretty easily with the naked eye.

First, with a hot engine, look through the oil cover cap with a good light. Sometimes (not always) you can see the crack and anti-freeze seeping through it through that hole.

But even if you can't see anything through the oil cover cap, pull the valve cover and perform an inspection.

With that level of coolant loss, you would see a puddle on the ground if it was a coolant system leak (radiator, thermostat housing, water pump). Heater core leaks would dump coolant into the passenger side floor board and your cabin would smell like coolant.

If that isn't happening, you're probably burning coolant through a blown head gasket or a cracked head.

It all depends on where the crack is. If it is on the exhaust port side it will not get into the oil but go out the tailpipe. If is cracked on the oil side a gallon a week would definitely show up in the oil. The peek-a-boo test of the head will only confirm a crack on the outside (oil side) of the head.