newb 1

I have a 95' Jeep Cherokee 4.0 my mom has had it for 5 years in St. George UT. Had all regular services done. Never had any major problems. I now have it in Northern Ca. and I have noticed when I start it up when cold, there is water dripping out of the exhaust, not out of the tail end but out of the catalytic converter and muffler. Obviously, once warmed up this stops, but when I checked the radiator, the fluid was low. Put a pint and a a half of water in radiator to top off. Checked after a short drive and water was low about half a pint of water. At that time I noticed where the overflow hose hooks to the radiator, that hole was plugged. Prior to any of this when I got the vehicle operating temp. was 200 Degrees. With little variance. After, topped off with water when it gets to 200 thermostat opens and needle goes down to 195 and this happens repeatedly. Could this be a problem where water is leaking out the exhaust due to bad head gasket or cracked head. Hope this makes sense
Please Help

CJ7365

water coming out of the exhaust is normal, if its coming out of the cat, it just means you have a leak or small hole.

Blown head gasket you would have water in your engine oil.

Unplug the hole going to the coolant resovoir tank, refill your radiator and check again.

Operating temp for the 4.0 is 200-210 degrees

newb 1

cleaned out hole, ran to operating temperature of 200 degrees. first thing I noticed was when it reached 200 degrees the thermostat would open and it would dropdown to 195. this was not happening before. it was just staying at 200 and would flectuate very little. anyway once it reached operating temperature, I shut it off and noticed overflow tank had increased about an inch-inch and a half. My concern is that before I had the vehichle, someone had used stop leak. Because it swas a very hard material blocking the overflow exit in the radiator filler neck. One other concern, could the head gasket be leaking into the exhaust side only therefore not showing up in the oil? Thanks for any help you can be

odgreen

if it was a head gasket there would be a massive amount of white smoke.. your heater core could be part clogged due to stop leak causing the funky readings on the gauge. run a bottle of prestone rad flush and put new coolant in and see if anything changes. also the low problems you where having could of been from high pressure causing coolant past the cap due to the overflow hose being clogged..

Bustedback

Normal for water to come out of the exhaust because the water is a byproduct of the chemical reaction in the cat converter. After the exhaust leaves the cat on a normal operating engine, all that is left is water vapor and carbon dioxide. Where abouts in NorCal are you?

notop46

It could be a small head gasket leak. Keep an eye on your coolant level. It should stay at a constant level over time for a cold engine.

It also could be combustion by-products. Depending on how much humidity there is in the air you will see more or less water coming out of the exhaust when the eingine is cold. When it heats up, the water will not condense until it is out of the exhaust.

Is it more humid in NoCal than UT?

81Z4ME

When mine was brand new water would drip from a small hole in the bottom of the pipe between the cat and muffler. It only did it at start up (the pipe/cat/muffler are cool/cold, you start the engine and warm/hot exhaust starts to flow through the pipe and the moisture starts to condense/gather/flow towards the tailpipe exit - all vehicles do this till the engine/exhaust are thoroughly warmed up.

Anyway, I called the Jeep dealer and they told me that the hole in the pipe (between the cat and muffler) was there on purpose to give the moisture/water and early exit from the system -to make the exhaust last longer. My Cherokee is 10 years old, has 106,000 miles on it and still has the original exhaust. I can't complain about that.

Water temp? Well, the temp when you first start the engine is cold (compared to what it will be once running for awhile) and as it heats up (in the engine - remember the thermostat is closed till the water/antifreeze reaches a temp. that results in the thermostat opening and allowing flow from the engine to the radiator) what is in the engine gets hot but whats in the radiator is still cold.

I regularly (because I scan my gauges every little bit) see the needle on the temp ga. rise above "normal" on engine warm up, then the needle drops low (as the cold water/antifreeze from the radiator flows into the engine) and then finally settles out as the water/antifreeze mixture reaches "normal" temperature and flows through the system become more normal for operation.

newb 1

Thanks everyone for all your help and suggestions. At this point, I have cleaned out the overflow outlet at radiator filler, I have driven it twice and I am still getting water out of the exhaust. However, the radiator overflow seems to be working now, because when it is cold overflow container is at a certain level that I marked. Once engine has warmed up, overflow container level is up a little and when I shut the vehichle off and it has cooled down the level returns to the lower mark, where it was when it was cold. Does not seem to be getting lower each time. And my radiator has stayed full.
On another quick note, when I turn the heater on, the AC Compressor also goes on. Is this normal? Thanks for any info.

newb 1

Also wanted to add to the person who questioned where in Northern Ca I resided. I live about 30 Minutes North of Sacramento in Auburn.

odgreen

if you turn it on for defrost yes.... or if there is a ac button thats on yes.,..

djb383

There are 5 positions that engauge the a/c compressor.

dbcox

Prolly condensation as stated before, but a simple oil test will tell you if you have any water in the oil...Any at all. Plus it will tell you tons of other info, but it can easily lay to rest your head gasket worries

djb383

X2^^^^^