96xjcountry

Hello all,

I have a 96 jeep cherokee that I have owned for a few months now. Just recently(today) I notices that the temp creeps up the the 3rd white line while at a stop. while driving it is between 210-215, the only thing that has changed is that I have developed an exhaust leak between the cat and the muffler, quarter size hole and large crack around half of the pipe. Do you think it has anything to do with my overheating issue?

myHEEPis.rad

take a look at your t-stat and replace if necessarily.. while your in the autoparts place pick up a bottle of radiator flush with some 50/50 fluid mix.. might just fix your problem.

DagBMX

X2, start with the flush, new stat. lots of guys will use a 180degree t-stat, which really helps.

then you have all the cooling upgrades, like 3-core radiators, fan clutch eliminators, replacing the mechanical fan with an electric fan and wire it to a switch, etc etc etc....

spittinimage

I put a 180 t_stat in my 96 and changed to coolant ratio to about 60% water 40% coolant and put a bottle of royal purple coolant additive in it and now never gets above 190 on my scan gauge. Best thing i ever did. be carefull with playing with coolant to water ratios dont want to get freezing point to high.

JENSSEN

Also try bypassing the fuel pump ballast resistor,...

LCFRJEEP

Can you ellaborate for us??

96xjcountry

Please elaborate.


Everyone else, thank you, I thought it was thermostat also. Ill try that first. Are those bolts a pain to get out? any chance of breakage?

RoadWarrior00

If it's staying around 210-215(slightly higher when sitting and therefor no airflow) as you said, I'd leave it be. The inline 6 in these Jeeps was designed to optimally run at that temp and lowering the temp by using a lower temp thermostat or other method/s will likely cause other issues down the road. That said, a good flush as suggested never hurts though!!

If you don't mind and have the extra cash I would suggest adding a cowl or vent/s to hood to help the hot air escape and leave the engine to running at the temp it was designed for by its engineers. As an added plus, it will keep the paint on hood from degrading as fast as usually does on these. The upgraded radiator and/or fans as suggested is also an alternative.

Guessing I will probably get a lot of negative feedback from this so just wanna say ahead of time that this is "JUST MY 2 CENTS"!!! LOL Just going by all the information I have learned online and in no way consider myself an expert.

mudfrog

Question on the flush. I have read your supposed to run the flush with just water in the system. Will it not work correctly if added straight to the coolant already in the system?

JENSSEN

Ok on the drivers side inner fender there is a white china looking part that has two wire connected to it. It's purpose is to drop the fuel pump voltage from 12v to 9v as people in the past complained that the pump was too loud. Simply remove the two wires from the ballast resistor and hook them together. What will happen is that the ballast resistor begins to break down and fail dropping the fuel pump voltage lower and lower causing a lean condiation so the jeep will run but the engine temps raise. Eventually when it fails completly you will be able to start the truck but when your ign tumbler moves back to the run position the truck will die. I can go more in depth if need be.

-J

96jeepxj

I had the exact same problem in my 96 xj, except mine would start to get even hotter when going up long hills almost to the point of overheating. Well I went with a simple prestone radiator flush kit that you can get pretty cheap at walmart\auto zone for like 4 bucks and it worked great. The radiator was full of thick sludge that eventually flushed out. Must have been the problem but with all that sludge gone the radiator started to leak bad from the plastic side tanks. Dicide to spend the extra money and get a CSF heavy duty all metal 3 row radiator which went right in, real easy. Radiatorbarn.com has them shipped for about $180 which is not bad considering a plastic tank 1 row radiator is about $100. Just something to think about.

Madman

If there is sludge in your system.

REPLACE THE RADIATOR!!! damn guys. Comon.

U ever pull a sludged radiator apart? I guarantee a flush won't remove the hard deposits that are clogging more then half of your cooling fins. Guarantee it.

96jeepxj

Yeah I have heard that to although I don't know for sure. What I would do is use a prestone radiator flush N fill kit that hooks right up to a garden hose and flush out the system. Then if you want to add some of the chemical radiator flush you can while there is just water in there.

FYI make sure you try to get all of the water that you can out of the radiator\engine before you fill it with a good 50/50 mix. The reason being that tap water has chemicals in it that can cause corrosion in the radiator. You are best off using distilled water for your 50/50 mix.

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96jeepxj

Agreed, that's why I went with the new radiator and I suggest that anyone having heating issues flush there system out so that you know what the damage is.

Madman

And just because your radiator isn't dripping doesn't mean it's not leaking.

My sludgy radiator steamed ever so slightly out of the seal between the plastic collar and the metal core. You could not see the white residue until it was removed from the car, but u could smell it sometimes.

I just didnt mess with it and replaced it. Car didn't overheat or act funny at all. But I knew it would soon come summer.


So I pulled my used one apart to look inside...


like I said, the jeep ran fine.