Hey Everybody,

I replaced my lower radiator hose. I caught all the coolant and it looked good so I refilled the radiator. I did it slow and pushed the jeep up and down to burb it. I got the majority of the coolant back in the radiator. I also cleaned my resesvoir tank. I put the line back on and fill it up past full.

Earlier today I had the car in idle for about 25 minutes. The elec fan kicked on but the upper hose was empty. I could squeeze the upper hose and make the resevoir bubble a little. If I squeezed it with the rad cap off the coolant level goes up and down and overflows by the cap.

So I let it idle a little more, no leaks but I hadn't gotten the thermostat to open up. So after things cooled down, I did a radiator power wash and stuff. Let it dry then took it on a test drive with a few hills and a 6-7 mile drive going about 40-50 mph. I picked up a few things and drove back. Things appear normal but I squeezed up on the upper radiator hose, besides it appearing normally hot. I couldn't squeeze down all the way because i would get burned but it doesn't feel fool. The resevoir hasn't gone down much, like a half in from what I originally had it at.

What should I do? My dummy gauges didn't light up. I know the bulbs are good because it worked a few yrs ago, to which I changed the stat and the radiator.

 

At normal operating temp the hoses should be hot and almost rock hard to squeeze. If not, sounds like the rad cap is not holding pressure.

 

The thermostat could be froze up and not letting the water flow through.

 

Well when the resevoir was filled up. It was about 2 in from the full line. Its now sitting in between full and empty.

When I squeeze the upper hose, I feel some coolant in there. I can can also hear it pressing up on the radiator cap. I'll get another radiator cap, and run the car again for the little drive. I'll run it with the heat on high. We'll see how things go maybe the last of the bubbles will come out. If not i'll have to change the stat. Its only 4 years old.

 

Set your heater control to hot but leave the fan speed at the lowest setting. This will allow the t-stat to open quicker by not cooling the coolant as much at the heater core.

 

I went and picked up a new radiator cap. The old one said 16 lb and the replacement which is the oem is 13lb. I needed a new oil cap anyways so I got that. I'll wait for it to cool down some then squeeze it some more.

I picked up one of those 192 stats with the felpro gasket, just in case the hose isn't full. I squeezed it in the lot and it felt alot harder then before. I made sure to have the heat on full blast with the fan at low. I'll provide an update in an hr or so.

I really hope the upper hose isn't a little coolant and alot of hot air. Letting it cool down a bit should help. Fingers crossed.

 

Well, I put it on the highway and went 20 miles, down hillish at 65mph. I turned around got some free air. Then drove up hill slightly at 65mph for another 20 miles. I then drove it up and down this 1 mile stretch, its a huge high will 8 and 10% grades. I did that 3 times then drove it up and around small steep grades that are like 11% for like 100 ft. After the 2nd stretch at 8% I turned the heat off. No overheating, no sputtering and nothing to indicate (dummy indicators) that say overheat water, oil or a check engine light. So just for paranoia's sake next week I'll put on a new thermostat.

We'll see how it handles a 45 mile trip with a 2% downgrade tomorrow and the drive back on friday.

 

Squeeze the top hose till you fill it with coolant.

 

You definitely can't get if full on a level surface. I drove it to work today just fine. I'm going to park it on the incline parking in the garage. This way the rad side with the cap will be at the highest point (raised up about 1.5 ft). I think then I'll be able to get more coolant in there when i squeeze.

I also saw that autozone offers a 193 stat that supposedly exceeds oe because it has more cuts in it. They are claiming a 50% increase in coolant flow.