Please excuse any typos or gramatical errors, I am extremely frustrated and posting this from my phone..

About a month ago I started seeing little puddles of coolant under the jeep. I saw a small buildup on the lower rad hose and replaced it... no fix. Observed that the coolant is running down the front of the motor... replaced thermostat and waterpump gaskets... no fix. Decided to run it for a couple days while I track down the problem, in the mean time over heating. Overheating makes sense.... if it leaks out, it leaks in... leaking in means it sucks in air being that it is pressurized.. air+heat=steam... steam is hot and holds heat well.... jeep overheats. Well, Tuesday, the Jeep POURS coolant out, faster than I can put it in (literally just poured back out as I was filling radiator.) I limped it home and tracked it down to the waterpump. Replaced the waterpump with a Flowkooler unit from Quadratec, replaced upper and lower rad hoses, replaced heater hoses (Needed to replace one because I did the brass nipple conversion on the waterpump and it wasn't long enough) and replaced the gaskets for the thermostat housing and waterpump. Put the jeep back together and fired it to check for leaks... ran it for about two minutes and am leak free. Shut it off, cleaned up, and went for a test drive. Temp stayed stable at about 1/8" above 210 like it normally does, then slowly climbed up. Pulled into a parking lot, looked under it and its leaking... the same slow leak it had a month ago when this all started. Popped the hood and felt the upper rad hose, its pressurized and filled with air bubbles as I expected. Looking for the leak, its still on the front of the block behind the pulleys that conveniently block your view. I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know anything else that can leak in that location. This is my daily driver... I'm tired of walking 9 miles too and from work. This sucks, please help.

 

I would do a pressure test and get a mirror and light to look in hard to see areas. It sounds as if you've changed everything except the radiator, rad cap and the soft plugs in the engine compartment.

 

To help mine run cooler a friend took it to the carwash w/me and we sprayed the front of the radiator with the high-pressure washer and cleaned all the fins out.

They were filthy from the vehicle setting for almost 2 years with little miles put on it.

Now it runs proper temps.

Good luck, Wooddogg.

 

Could your water outlet be cracked?

 

this can also fold the fins over on the radiator so id be careful doing that but it is good to wash the junk out of the front from time to time

 

water follows the path of least resistance... Saying that your water leak could be no where near where your puddle is.. Just some food for though.

 

Your radiator was filthy from sitting? My jeep sat most of the time as well after the radiator was replaced. I have had issues with it running hot. Replaced the coolant overflow cap which helped a lot. Now it only overheats if I have a thermostat in and let it idle for about 15-20 minutes. With the thermostat in the electric fan does not turn on. However if I take the thermostat out it comes on around 210 and everything is fine. I refuse to believe it is the head gasket or bad head. Could my radiator be dirty as well? I havent done any wheeling. And since the radiator was replaced 3 years ago I didn't think it would be dirty.

 

check your freeze plugs!

 

Check freeze plugs, check your thermostat housing for cracks, do a compression test making sure your head gasket is good...Keep us posted!

 

Any time you have a coolant leak the first thing you do is a pressure test. Get the radiator pump and put pressure in the cooling system it will force coolant out of any place that leaks. Then you will know where the coolant is coming from, so then you can fix it.

 

UPDATE:: The leak was the copper nipple conversion, so I made damn sure it's never going to leak again. But.... It's still overheating and the top hose barely has any pressure. Could the severe overheating have damaged the thermostat? It's only a few months old, but I overheated the Jeep so bad on the way to work last week that it stalled out and wouldn't idle. I plan to pull the tstat tomorrow after work and run it to see how things go.

 

I hope you didn't crack the head....I know these motors are strong, but hopefully it isn't damaged.

 

check the freeze plugs! had the same problem wheni bought my jeep. replace the corroded ones with brass ones

 

My oil is as black as it's ever been, my coolant is still a rich green, my exhaust doesn't smoke, exhaust doesn't smell sweet. I don't think it's the head.

 

Excellent. I'm glad there is no damage to the head.