Well, I found out where it's going. In my oil. I lost about a gallon of coolant over the last week. I have no heat and noticed a leak around my thermostat and h2o pump weep hole. I have had the heat issue for a while and have flushed the system out, a ton of brown crap came out. I replaced the radiator cap as well, but still no heat. Today I started running about 20* hot so I checked coolant when I got home. The overflow tank was empty and the radiator cap was actually cool. I was able to remove it with no coolant loss about 5 minutes after turning it off. I added about a gallon to the radiator. Of course I feared cracked head. Checked the oil cap and found a bunch of coolant. I have a 2000 xj 4.0 np231. Am I doomed? Could it be a head gasket? I got laid off three weeks ago, had to pull my kids out of daycare, and now am a stay at home dad of three kids. I can't afford a reman head, and It's my dd. Somebody give me some hope.

 

Hope you get something figured out man. Take it apart and take a look at it to see if it could be the gasket

edit: missed part of what you said

 

Yeah, I'm going to pick up a valve cover gasket tomorrow, diving in Christmas eve morning.

 

A valve cover gasket isn't going to help you here....

You mention that you found evidence of coolant on your oil cap. Is it a "milkshake" consistency?

If it is and you are using coolant and you have an 00-01, the odds are very high that you have a cracked 0331 cylinder head.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, I'm going to give you a thread that is required reading for everyone with an 00-01. It covers everything.

http://www.jeepsunlimited.com/forums...d.php?t=391831

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the link, and the gasket was so I could pull the valve cover to get a good look at what is going on. My oil looks like chocolate milk.

 

Sometimes you can remove the oil filler cap and with a good light, see a crack in the cylinder 3-4 area. Not always, but worth a look.

But pulling the valve cover does afford you a better look. Be sure to do your checking with a hot engine which has a fully pressurized cooling system. That would give you the best chance of seeing the antifreeze seeping out of the crack.