Took a drive to WV today, when I got home I parked my Jeep and noticed a very large amount of fluid underneath my vehicle primarily on the passenger side. Looked in the Passenger wheel well and it was covered in fluid. The fluid resevoir was only dropped to the fill line (I had just filled it to the full line recently). I pulled the grill face off and have found nothing obvious. I checked my oil and there is no milky residue on the radiator cap or any water in the oil itself.

there was quite a bit of fluid near this male fitting. What is this fitting? I wouldnt imagine it is a return line being on the bottom of the passenger side of the rad.


Im going to pressure test the rad system and and the head tomorrow.

 

Is it a manual tranny XJ? Ooops, never mind.

 

nah its an automatic. im dumb founded. i pulled it off our rack and drove for a half hour, the temp stuck at 210 like always and when i brought it back the levels hadnt changed. there wasnt any signs of new fluid on the under carage from after i cleaned it all. Im lost.

 

After reviewing the pic, I think the gasket/seal between the rad tank and core may be on it's last leg.

 

Well sir I hadnt thought of that. Im going to look into it tomorrow.

Thank you for your input, Its much appreciated

 

That is the radiator drain petcock, but it does look like the tank is leaking. I would recommend replacing the radiator.

 

Im fairly new to Jeeps and especially radiators with plastic on them in general. In all our 32 Fords and our 68 Chevys the petcock is entirely different looking. Thanks for the input, the Jeep is on the rack and is waiting for the big brown truck to come wednesday

 

My boy's 96 xj had a similar leak on the passenger side. Leak occasionally for a few days while he was at school and he drove it over on the weekend. We let it idle for a while, heat up, and you could look through the grill at the plastic side tank on the radiator. Where the tank is either welded together or at the center of the side tank, you could see coolant seeping out as long as the engine was good and hot. This was of course during the summer. Pulled the old rad., dropped in a new dual core and fan clutch and he was good to go. Good luck!

 

It wont be anything hard to do, just a pain in the rear because I had just finished everything i wanted to do on this and was going to focus my attention on my newest 68, guess it waiting.

 

Dayum! With '32 furds and '68 chubys, (those old cars and keeping them runnin') one would think u would be an expert at radiators. Kinda hard not to be.

 

Sometimes i feel like a lost when it comes to my jeep, the engine bay is cluttered with too much junk and not enough go.

Newest thing ive learned is that i will continue to never buy a radiator with plastic invovled with it

 

unless it is from 800radiator with the life time warranty.... I've had 3 new ones now after I started with the GDI 3 core that failed next was a aluminum one with plastic caps and now I have a 2 core steal/cooper.
Love that warranty!!!

 

Don't get chumped into thinking plastic/aluminum is bad. Everything that's left the factory for the past 25+ years has plastic/aluminum factory rads. '32 furds and '68 chubys didn't leave the factory with 100K mile warrantys (like some of todays vehicles) but they did leave with old school copper/brass rads, that routinely overheated and corroded/leaked. The phrase "leaky radiator" was coined way back when......not recently. There ain't a rad made, all metal or other wise, that lasts forever.

Since you are just learning about radiators, start out by learning the terminology correctly......ain't no such animal as a 3 core radiator. All radiators have 1 core......the core will consist of 1, or more, rows.

 

Wouldnt truly say im new with them but its been along day i did mean row rather than core. I'd much rather continue to TIG my old brass and copper radiators in hopes of fixing them than having to toss a plastic one out.

 

Take that aluminum/plastic rad to a pro (rad shop).....they'll have the tanks popped, the core rodded out, new seals in place and the tanks re-installed before u can find your tungsten inert gas rods.