Temp sensor/gauge possibly bad, have a cracked wire somewhere in line. Might want to hook up an aftermarket temp guage. They are fairly cheap like $10 at autozone, temp wire it and see what it reads. If it reads correctly then you know it is your dash guage, if it doesn't then it's your temp sensor.

 

thanks sounds like a good way to trouble shooth the dash gage. Thanks.

 

Found a 3/4 shroud, the plastic part acrost the top was missing. That was the best one I could find at the local u pull n pay. I'll keep you aprise as to where this is going. remember no news is good news.

 

It never entered the red today. The shroud made a big diffrence in the engine temp at idol. Think that licks that issue.
everyone thank you all for your input, and moral support. Another success story.

 

FYI i got another gage today. Installed it now it reads about 220 when its actually 170 (measured with a high dollar ir scanner.)

 

I hope you didn't pay too much, you can buy a new one for $26.65 shipped:
http://www.am-autoparts.com/Jeep/Che...FROe4AodqVsAIg

 

No, the guy charged me $4.00 for it because it was broken. I did find the top piece to it, I'm goning to riviot it back togeather.

 

O.K. its been 6 months.

The following work was done at the 4 month after this thread original repair.

I developed a severe oil leak after 4 months of driving the Cherokee. I thought it was the rear main seal. It turned out, when I installed the oil pan the gasket, where it meets the rear main bearing cap the gasket slipped ¼” into the pan area. You can not see this when installing it on a motor already installed in the vehicle. It pinched off 1/8 the oil pan gasket, and failed at 4 months.I discovered it when I went to replace the oil pump and rear main seal. I ended up replacing the pan gasket, rear main seal and the Oil pump.

Lessons learned:

If your going to go as far as I did. Make sure you do the following:

1. Replace the Oil pump. Don’t rebuild it. It was notworth my time in the long run. I didn’t save a dime. I had to replace it after 2 months. My oil pump rebuilt pump, lost oil pressure after only two months. The money spent on a new oil pump will be money well spent, trust that.

2. Install a new rear main seal. You got the pan off. It’s real easy to do. There is a U tube video that shows how to do it. If your recovering from an over heated/cracked head situation, the rear main seal is most likely cooked, thus you can be sure its days are marked, the heat makes the seal hard and brittle. I dropped the old one on the shop concrete floor after I remove it. It sounded like it was made out of ceramic not RTV silicone. It went ping! ping! ping! across the floor. Yes it was that hard.

3. When installing the pan gasket, it’s really hard to seethe position of the pan gasket where it touches the rear main bearing cap. I recommend you purchase a roll of white ½“ plumbing Teflon thread tape. Pull off 2 to 3feet. Keeping it a flat as possible, loop it loosely over the top and under thepan gasket, allow it to hang loose, at the lowest spot on the pan gasket. Leave 2 equal lengths hanging down so you can tug the pan gasket into its proper position, this is done just before you start to apply upward pressure to seatthe pan and install the first few bolts. When the bolts are in place (handtight) you should be able to pull one end of the tape and it should slide rightout leaving the pan gasket in place where it belongs..

I thought some follow up was in order. Im putting this one to bed.

Thanks to Jeepcherokee.com for this forum and to all you gear heads that replied and gave much needed motivation, support and know how. It helps backyard mechanics get their crap in order to get thier major repairs done right.

 

For the oil pan gasket:
Make sure the surface on the block is clean and apply super weatherstrip adhesive to the upper surface on the gasket, stick it on the block and wait about 15 mins. That gasket wont be moving anywhere. You can apply a small amount of RTV to the mounting flange on the oil pan when you install if you desire. What ever you do don't over torque the fasteners.

 

Where are you taking your reading?