I believe everything is stock. I haven't changed anything in the cooling system since I bought it 3 years ago.

 

AT 220 coolant temp, a 160 t-stat will not flow anymore coolant than a 195 t-stat.....they're both wide open. The properly functioning t-stat does one thing and one thing only.......control minimum coolant temp. Unless the t-stat is sticking closed, u definitely have other issues causing 220 coolant temp.

One thing u can try, that doesn't involve draining the cooling system, is replacing the old fan clutch with a new one......but, since u have no idea how old the cooling system is, replace it. +/-$250 does it all, parts wise, including a new rad.

New:

rad
rad cap
water pump
fan clutch
t-stat & cover
belt & hoses (including heater hoses)
coolant

U've got the infamous 0331 cyl head.....u don't want to overheat it.

 

Thanks djb383. Looks like I will make a trip to Autozone tonight to see if they have everything I need.

Not too sure if I am giving you the correct temps though. I am slightly between the 210 line and the next one up. Lines are a bit difficult because it doesn't seem to have the same intervals. I will take a phone pic on the way home when its fully warmed up.

 

One of those point-n-shoot infrared temp guns pointed at the t-stat cover will verify your factory gauge accuracy.....now days they're cheap, worth every penny, handy as a pocket on a shirt.

Presuming your factory gauge is somewhat accurate, I would think the ambient temps in your area are still cool/moderate so 215-220 seems toasty and may be a warning sign. To the left of 210 would be better.

Our forecast tomorrow is 102 in the shade........that will separate the good from the bad XJ cooling systems, probably by noon. LOL

 

102 sucks man. Its supposed to be about 68 here tomorrow. Thanks for drawing that up for me with the gauge increments. Just got home from work at it looks like I am running about 215 consistently. Going to autozone now to pick up the new parts. I was hoping to get the 2 row radiator, but it looks like it is only for postal trucks with right hand drive. May have to order the radiator from somebody online.

 

68?.....WTF.......burrrrrrrr. Sounds like good "workin' on the XJ weather". 102 is too damn hot. Keep in mind that a 2 row rad is only like a 1/4" thicker core than the stock one row rad. A 2 row is far from twice as thick.

 

Thank you for all the help man! I just figured out everything that I am going to grab from AutoZone tonight and I will be heading out to pick them up shortly. I am going to pick up both the 180 and 195 degree thermostats. I will try the 180 and see where that puts my running temp on the beach tomorrow. If its lower than 200, I will swap out for the 195 degree thermostat. I think I will go with this radiator for now: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...232562_0_13752

This comes with a transmission oil cooler so that knocks out 1 of the upgrades that I wanted to do. I saw the difference between the 1 row and 2 row radiator and that is what made me change my mind, thanks for the heads up. Going to do a new water pump, water outlet, thermostat, fan clutch, radiator, and hoses. Hopefully I can get some of this knocked out tonight and finish the rest in the morning.

Thanks again for all the help. I will keep you posted on how this turns out.

 

While both the old t-stat cover and water pump are off, squirt a garden hose in the t-stat hole (cyl head).....most of the crud will flush out of the water pump hole (block). Stick the garden hose in 1 of the heater hoses to flush the heater core out the other hose. FWIW, we've been running a 180 t-stat year round. FSM says as long as coolant reaches 160, a normal heat cycle is counted by the ECU (so no CEL).

 

OK so I decided to just replace the tstat and housing to start isolating the problem. New tstat and housing solved the overheating problem, but the leak is still present. Now that everything is cleaned, it looks like it is coming from somewhere on the left side of the housing near the head. Going to steam clean the engine now and then try to see where the leak is coming from. Looks like it is splattering on the side of the tstat housing and then running down it to pool where I originally though I found the leak. Any thoughts on what else this could be? I will try to take some pics to aid in troubleshooting. I sure hope this isn't going to be an expensive fix.

 

Gasket mounting surface on head and cover must be sterile. Make sure t-stat stays seated in its groove in the head when installing cover. Apply thin film of coolant compatible RTV to both sides of gasket. Do not crank down (overtighten) on the bolts....snug is good enough.

 

Well after steam cleaning, I realized that it wasn't coming from the t-stat housing. I squeezed the upper radiator hose and a bit of coolant came out so I got a ride to the store and picked up a new hose. Installed and cleaned everything again so I could easily see location of leak. Ran up to operating temp and everything looked, no leaks. Washed, waxed, removed the steps, and took care of a few other things that I needed to get done to prepare for some upcoming mods. Ran again up to temp after I was done and everything looked good.

I just ran to the store and checked when I got back home again and it appears to be leaking from the head gasket. Not too happy right now, but its only leaking from the front around the t-stat housing and maybe an inch or so around the compressor side. Good thing I steam cleaned today or I would have never been able to see the way the coolant was running out through the seam. Was going to drop the car off at the mechanic tomorrow anyways since I need an inspection and was going to have the transmission flushed. Hopefully he can give me some good feedback on what is going on an what I need to do. Don't really have the cash to have the head gasket done by somebody else, so I am going to have to do it myself if that is what is indeed wrong.

Thanks for all the help you guys gave me. It just sucks now that this appears to be a bigger problem than I had originally thought.

 

Thanks man. I scraped the gasket with a scraper until it was completely clean and then used a rag to clean the surface further. Only bare metal was exposed. One side of the gasket was sticky, so I set that up perfectly, put some coolant on the other side to moisten gasket a bit and torqued to 20 N-m as direct in an e-copy of the service manual I found online.

 

Is this the area of the leak (red circles)?

 

Yeah that looks like it. Its the seam that runs almost through the middle of the thermostat housing. Can't really see the pic too well from my phone, but that looks like it.

 

Hummm, not sure what mean by "seam that runs thru the t-stat housing". Got a pic? The pics I posted show the head and block....the t-stat housing/cover bolts to the head and the water pump bolts to the block.