I posted in hopes someone in Connecticut also knows the real answer... I just can't afford a fine... I've tried to keep it as legal as possible as it is also my daily driver

 

make some half doors. Then you can keep the tunes too. If those speakers even still work. mine don't...most of the time lol

 

I've actually watched that video last yr when I debated doing them... don't have the money to buy spare doors from the junk yard to cut up... or make tube doors... maybe in the future I will but atm my bills are alil high... more worried about my bad u joints I have to replace soon before I spend money on doors lol

 

Junker doors might be cheaper than a ticket? Sounds like a good idea to play it safe and just put your doors back on until you can afford half doors or know for sure it's not illegal. You could stop buy a local police station and ask?(just don't do it without doors ;-P)

 

Please tell me this is not what I think it is. FYI it's an oil dipstick from a 90 4.0 now I did do the steam cleaning yesterday as per instructions, meaning I did not dump 32 oz of water into the TB all at once. I also just got this back from my best friend after letting him borrow it for a couple months while he got his up and running, so it's a DD of sorts.

 

 

Lol just trying to give a little background

 

Might want to call your DMV or local police station and make an inquiry.

Yikes!

One thing about the steam cleaning is that you really really REALLY should drive it hard afterwards. This boils out any moisture that has slipped past the rings, which, depending on the state your engine is in, could be significant.

Change the oil and monitor it.

 

I thought I had ran it hard after, but I'll start with the oil change before diving into the top end. Thanks for the heads up

 

Renix heads aren't known for cracking. If you dumped a gallon of water into your engine, it's going to hold some. I wouldn't stress it unless you see that again.

 

cheers

now another question. in the past month the jeep has been overheating pretty easily in traffic and even when coasting at a regular speed.

it became really bad this weekend, peaking in the red line of the temp gauge. putting heat on blast made it cool down a little, but I was still concerned so I looked into the coolant reservoir only to find a small amount of brownish liquid. It's a 96, so I thought that was odd, still looked under the cap and also the dipstick, oil looks normal.

My thermostat was probably changed anywhere from a year to 2 years ago, that's when the last coolant "flush" was done, but I don't think it was more than emptying the radiator and filling it up again, so not a real flush.

My XJ stays in an interior garage most of the time (when I'm at home) and I didn't notice any leak.

Right now what I plan to do is flush the system 3-4 times with distilled water and the prestone liquid flush product to clean the inside. Once it becomes clear, I'll fill with 70/30 coolant/distilled water mix because of the 100% water that will be left in the system. Then I have ordered a new 16 psi radiator cap. Anything else I should do? I don't think my water pump is faulty, and the radiator also seems fine.

 

Is your auxiliary e-fan working? Especially in traffic and at slow speeds the mechanical fan is useless for keeping the engine cool. On my '99 it's easy to test by unplugging the coolant temp sensor while the engine is running and the e-fan will kick on after a few seconds(you get an OBD code too but that's easy to reset). Might be a '97+ thing though. There are lots of threads for troubleshooting the e-fan.

 

thank you for reminding me of this. the fan seems to kick on the first time it overheats, but once the temp drops down and the fan stops, from the small amount of diagnosis I made, it seems it never comes back on. I'm not 100% sure of this, but I know for a fact it kicks on sometimes, and others (like when I was in the red) it was NOT on. I wired it directly to the battery and the motor definitely works. The question is, what would cause this? The temps sensor is on the thermostat housing right?

 

The relay may be crappy, however...

1996 uses an ECT sensor separate from the sending unit for the dash. The dash gauge's sending unit is located in the rear of the head. A wildly different reading between these units is not uncommon on older models. (1997+ uses the ECT for all purposes.)

Buy/borrow a little infrared laser thermometer gun and see what the actual temperature is at the thermostat housing. Canadian Tire has these on for $20 regularly, sometimes $15. Invaluable tool. Then you will know if you're ACTUALLY overheating.

As for the brown mess in the coolant bottle, this isn't "good" but is very typical of older vehicles with open cooling systems. You should do a proper flush, not drain-and-fill. You don't need to use distilled water the whole time, just make sure that the water that remains in the engine that gets mixed with coolant is free of minerals.

When was the last time the fan clutch was replaced? When the radiator gets really hot, your Jeep's fan should make it sound like a big truck with how much air it moves.

 

Maybe the connector? On mine one of the PO's replace the e-fan with a newer one and spliced in a pigtail to convert the connector to the factory type. The factory connector was screwed up and you had to hold in the wires to get terminals in the connector to contact.