Hi, guys.I just drove my project Jeep to get smogged and I noticed that even though it wasn't overheating.The coolant was squirting out through the lid. This is new to me so does anybody have any solutions without having to replace everything. Always appreciated.

 

First check the cap. If it won't hold pressure, it will "boil over" before it overheats,

 

Had to zoom in on the picture to guess at the year. (hint, hint) The fan in front , blowing on the bumper probably wasn't helping you much.

The aftermarket bottles and caps are garbage. The plastic bottles are thin and fail within a few years, and the caps that come with them tend to slip on the threads and pop loose and cause a boil over. Folks have posted that the Volvo 710 (?) cap is a direct fit and doesn't have this problem. I believe it's a motorad part number 10244. Or convert to the open style and get rid of the failure-prone bottle and heater valve. https://bleepinjeep.com/video/jeep-c...o-part-1-of-3/

 

What lawsoncl says is true. My own experience with my '88 tells me the caps especially are rubbish. It seems that after a bunch of heat/cold cycles, the plastic weakens and won't hold. For a while, I used a hose clamp around the cap to keep it tight against the threads so I can tighten it more without slipping. That worked but it looked janky. One day while rummaging in a salvage yard, I spotted an old Volvo with the hood up. It still had the cap so I grabbed it to try out.

Can't say for sure but it's been around 15 years with that cap on an aftermarket (likely Dorman) bottle. I still run the closed system, not wanting to stir the "Smog Gods". The cap and bottle have not given me any real trouble since.

 

The dorman bottles I used seemed a bit flimsy and not nearly as thick or sturdy as the original. Wrapping the threads with electrical tape kinda helped, but then it would still pop loose a few weeks later. Even if the threads didn't skip and cause a leak, the caps didn't seem to hold pressure worth a damn. The one I tested was venting at 8-psi.

I'd start out with the $10 green Volvo cap and see if that fixes it. If you ever decide to replace the radiator, I'd still suggest going with the later model with the rad cap and convert. All my cooling issues went away after I did that some 20 years ago.