Alright.

I replaced the hoses (upper, lower, and heater hoses), added the coolant, burped system, added more, and filled overflow tank, took it for a drive to taco bell and back. Checked hoses when I got back, all is well, and I nearly make it to the front door when I hear the sound of a LOT of water falling to the ground at once.

Rivers of green everywhere and a somehow broken hose clamp on the lower hose, water pump end. I'm more or less led to believe that I didn't get all the air out of the vehicle, so I used a spare hose clamp and added as much coolant as I can (again, burping the system, a LOT more this time), and started the car without the radiator cap on, hoping it would eliminate any more air that I had. Now, this is where I've stopped for now, and I'm bit hesitant to drive it at all now if it means another accidental coolant dump.

Thoughts? Am I missing the obvious?

 

It sounds like you had a hose clamp issue, since you found it broken. What type of hose clamp were you using? Worm-drive style? OEM spring-style? I can't see how the OEM spring-style could break unless it was weak from corrosion.

 

It was a worm clamp, the replacement is also such. I guess the second concern would be if the head gasket's blown up, alas. Perhaps I didn't put the clamp up far enough the first time.

The replacement clamp is up there now and reasonably tight.

Edit: The worm clamp was also used on the old OEM hoses that I replaced.

 

If you had an issue with pressure being too high in the system, it should be relieved by the radiator cap.

Were all of the hoses you replaced attached with worm clamps, or just the water pump input? 2000 XJs came from the factory with spring clamps.

 

I'm betting it's a clamp issue. I've read quite a bit about their poor quality starting in the not to distant past.

 

For future reference, one place you can sometimes get sturdy hose clamps that don't just come apart like the cheap Chinese ones at the auto parts store is a farm cooperative or similar type of farm store. They usually stock the good stuff, because farmers can't be messin' with no busted hose clamps.

 

Okay, well, here's some more follow-up.

Had to drive to work today and both ways ended up being fine, though I did notice the temp gauge behaving strangely (it would stay below the 100 mark for a while, then jump up), but there are no noticeable leaks from any of the hoses now. Just now after driving home, the temp gauge climbed up to between 210 and the notch after that, which is something it hasn't done before. It will usually hit 210, then drop down since the cooling cycle starts at 195.

More confusion.

Edit: It was about 220 when I shut the engine off less than half an hour ago, and now the temp reads about 150. What??
If it comes undone again I'll search for the spring clamps.

 

The first problem was probably just a defective or damaged clamp. Now it sounds like you may just have air trapped in the system.

 

^^^ Agreed. Park facing uphill and let it idle a bit with the radiator cap off. Rev it a little from time to time and top off with coolant as necessary. That should purge any trapped air.

 

Yup. And here's where I come in to recommend the no spill funnel. I really wish I'd known about these years ago. Makes the process so much easier and cleaner.

 

+1

Also, last time I went to Advance, if you have one, they have nice, heavy-gauge worm clamps. Better than any other chain store clamp. You could feel it—nice heft for such a small piece of metal.

Last ones I bought from O'Reilly bent the adjustment channels under hardly any torque. Garbage.

 

I found mine at my local NAPA for roughly the same price: (~$30) if you can't wait / don't have Prime. Because they're usually like $40-$50, something ridiculous in most of the big-box stores.

They're worth it, if you're a home wrencher for sure. I tried the "wedge your funnel into the rad filler" technique end ended up with half a gallon of coolant on the garage floor -_____-

 

I'll give this a shot today and see how it works out. Thanks for the help guys.

 

There's an Advance somewhere around here, I think. I'll check em out, too.

Also, here's another question, where on earth is the drain valve on the radiator? I looked and looked and thought I was loosing my mind, but I couldn't find any petcock or nothing for it.

 

Passenger side bottom. it's a bit tricky to get at, but what isn't on a fully assembled vehicle… careful, most of them as plastic and won't take kindly to pliers.

it's just a threaded plug, not a petcock. At least on mine …but that may be aftermarket rads only.