its 20 degrees out here today and i was cruisin to work and then my heater stopped working, idle went to 2200rpms, and steaming from the radi cap, and the head on the exhaust/intake side. i did put some bars stop leak in yesterday. i wanna know why this happened so i dont fix the HG and have it happen again, thanks! oh yeah this is my first post here ha ha ha

 

you need to pressure check the cooling system and see if it holds water before you can try to fix it

 

Welcome to the Cherokee Forum!

If your asking why it happened, good luck...thats like asking why women do half the hair brained crap they do...you'll probably never know. If you still have the stock HG, keep in mind its 20 years old. May have just been its time. If you got coolant leaking to the outside of your block, your coolant may have frozen due to it being too watered down and cracked your block.

Like freedgr said, do a pressure check on the cooling system. You should also check your oil, check your coolant for oil droplets, check your plugs, do a compression test on the cylinders and visually inspect for exterior cracks...look for clean spots..the escaping coolant will steam clean around the crack. Check around the freeze plugs too, they call them that for a reason.

I'm feeling that same cold btw, I'm up here in Everett and its a toasty 26 out right now.