Hey all,

I was driving to my buddys place to finish the head job on my Regal, when my Jeep overheated. But it was strange because it went from 210 to 260, back and forth a few times before staying at 260. To explain further, it would sit at 210 for a minute or 2, fly up to 260 in about a second, stay there for a bit then drop back down to 210 in a second, stay there, etc. I figured it was a bad sender, or gauge and kept going.

Eventually, the check engine light came on, and by the time I pulled over it was missing pretty badly. It wasn't missing until the check engine light came on. It died and wouldn't start back up so I had it towed home.

Now it's cranking and not starting like it has no compression. Sooo...probably a bad head gasket.

My question is this, what could have caused that overheating symptoms? Bad water pump?

When it overheated and I pulled over, radiator was cool and there wasn't much pressure in the radiator hoses. Also, my heat wasn't working very well for the past few days...maybe it was a stuck thermostat?

Regardless, lesson learned.

 

oh, 97 Cherokee with a 4.0...if that makes a difference.

 

If there was no/little pressure in the upper rad hose and rad was cool to the touch, then def a bad thermostat. Amazing how a $7 part can result in a $100 fix. Spend the couple of extra dollars and get a FailSafe next time... they stay open when they fail.

 

I replaced everything cooling related on my son's, hoses, water pump, temp sender, thermostat. I should've did the radiator then, ended up doing it a couple of mon. later, it never ran so cool, then flush the hell out of it. Good luch with it.
Charlie