so I was driving home today and I have been checking the gauges pretty regularly because my cooling system has been acting up in my truck has been overheating. When I started to slow down I notice my truck was knocking and was holding a high idle. About 2500 rpm. When I tried to slow down I noticed it was really hard to press the brake to get the truck to stop then I started smelling a bit coolant /burning smell.I was right around the corner from my house so I made it into my driveway and shut off my truck. When I did that lots of smoke/ steam came out.I checked my oil and there was no coolant in it. I checked my coolant reservoir and it was full. That little filter on top of the valve cover was soaked in oil. And the truck wouldn't start again.I waited for the truck to cool down and then attempted to start it again to move it into the garage, it started right up with no knockingjust a rough idle. Would any of you know what might be going on with my truck? I'm going to drain my oil tomorrow and look for metal but if this has happened to anyone else please let me know.

 

1. Bad water pump. 2. Clogged cooling system. 3. Probably not a bad thermostat. 4. Bad fan clutch. 5. E fan not coming on when it should. 6. Remote possibility of blown head gasket or cracked head.

Your oil is cooked anyway, but before I changed it I would isolate the cause of the overheating. Sounds like you have been neglecting the warning signs for a while and now it has gotcha.

 

This is pretty all over the place... and hard to diagnose from across a computer..

As soon as I read that your brakes were hard to push... it sounds as if you lost vacuum... or at least vacuum to the booster..

the high idle could also be vacuum related.. as well as the oil blow by...

It almost sounds as if you were dumping oil through your breather tubes... this would explain the knocking as well to a point..

Im not sure what you mean by the filter on top of the valve cover...there is an oil fill cap.. and two breather lines running to the intake manifold and the airbox..

As far as the coolant smell goes... you could have a bad head gasket causing the cooling system to pressure up and go bye bye... this would explain the steam and smell...

As far as how to start looking into this... are you mechanically inclined? Are you wanting to start pulling things apart and doing tests? or are you just wanting ideas as to what it could be?

As Firestorm500 said... this is 99.99% directly related to letting your jeep overheat... that's another issue in itself

 

Smoke/steam is never good

Year and model?

 

Which will be moving up the ranking if it turns out to be a 0331 head '00/'01 that was tested by chronic overheating...

 

Need to know what year to narrow thing down. Like Roler said if it's a 90-01 you could have cracked the head.

 

*sigh* i see alot of new members who join.. make a few posts about a problem, and then i hear nothing back... I want to help this guy

the loss of brake assistance from the booster kind of throws me around for a loop... internet diagnosing is never easy..

 

It's a 99 sport

 

Well, no 0331 head then....

 

ok.. so we have the year..

Have you checked anything?? pulled anything apart??

 

I swapped the radiator, thermostat and hoses because i was over heating like crazy. It will start now but has a lot of white smoke coming out of the tail pipes until it heats up to normal operating temps, now keep in mind im in north dakota so its like -20 out side. I checked the oil and it looked normal with normal level. Could i have blown the head gasket when i over heated it? It runs now and maintains a normal temp but idles rough and knocks until its warmed up. Other than that when im driving it it runs fine.

 

Yes. The excessive white smoke is burning antifreeze. It is entering the cylinders until the engine warms up enough to swell and temporarily seal the head gasket.

 

Ok and that would cause the rough idle as well and should i pay someone to do that or do it my self? The radiator and everything else was easy enough but i know this is going to be alot harder

 

do some searches and research to see if this is something you are comfortable tackling yourself...

You may run into an issue with getting your head to re-mate to your block once you remove it... this could involve a machine shop

 

any hoses leaking?How many miles?if its -20degrees then your oil is thick.it will knock fur a while
Also did you clean your throttle body?
go to an auto store and they will run a tester for free for any codes if you have any,