dingdong

Seems Jeeps have a problem overheating. I bought an 87 jeep not to long ago. 6 cylinder. Wagoneer limited. The owner said it had a new radiator, well I wonder! Water that came out before flushing I noticed was brown, if new radiator was installed, they never flushed it. If Ran fine, for a few months, no overheating, then I was making a 40 mile trip a few weeks ago, when "You guessed it" Overheat, the radiator hose busted, I mean it exploded. Anyhow, I was stuck and had to tow in. I flushed radiator, put in new antifreeze, new radiator hose, new thermostat, 180 degree, was recomended by a friend, but later I found not a good idea to put in a cooler thermostat, the norm I think is 195 degree. Anyhow, still overheating. Well, it seems there is everything in the world to check on one of these monsters, from radiator to water pump to cap on water resevoir container, or pressure cap. So, how do you know, if it's radiator, pressure cap waterpump or whatever! Just replacing, everything seems a little expensive and daunting, and Yea, Mechanics cost, so do parts!

whowey

As long as its the mid-size wagoneer and not the full size one, your Jeep is identical under the hood to the Cherokees. You just got the sexy fake wood sides and nice interior.

But these early systems with their closed system(no radiator cap) were notorious for overheating if not taken care of.

One of the things that is a pain to do with these systems is to make sure there are NO air pockets in them. Burping the system is almost always required. Alot of people do it by raising the rear end, the loosening the temp sensor on the back of the block, and then filling the system .

dingdong

Actually the sexy wood siding was stripped off, the seats say limited on them, I think it is a wagoneer limited. Nice ride for it's age, has a little rust, but not bad, if jeep doesn't give me to much trouble, I may fix it up a bit. Interesting. Burping. Never thought of that. Since flushing and new antifreeze, it isn't as bad on the overheating. Short trips are O.K. haven't drove far enough yet to notice if there is any major overheating. I'll put in my regular thermostat, take the 160 degree out and see what happens. Go from there. I may do a burp on it first, before spending any major money just to make sure, then see what happens. The motor is supposedly only suppose to have 50,000 miles, suppose to be a new factory motor 6 cylinder, I think it is, the tag on front looks relatively new, can't make out numbers on the tag because it has some wear, do you know where the motor serial number may be, or identification number might be. And the water drain plug on block, I was looking for it next to freeze plugs, but I couldn't find a drain plug, thought of draining block and back flushing, I noticed a screw type of fitting, looks like a bolt not a drain plug, going into the engine block by the manifold exhaust coming out of the side of the engine, but it doesn't look like a drain plug. So I don't think that is it, I know it is hard to tell if you don't know engine model or ident number. And what is the best cleaner for flushing when cleaning out water jackets, I think that is the name, I have heard that some really good cleaners made for cleaning out the engine water flow area inside engine will do a great job, I thought the engine may be somewhat rusted in those areas keeping the water from circulating well inside engine. I know about the stuff at Wal MArt, engine flush cleaner, but that may not be the good stuff! Thanks for advice!

FleXXedOUT88

convert it to a late model cooling system i did it with junkyard parts for about 100 bucks. its super easy! and ihavent had a single over heating problem since. mine kept blowing up the pressure tanks. but any way going to the open loop system is easy and very worth it. you need the radiator water neck and over flow tank. and about 8ft of 3/4 radiator hose and your all set. good luck!

FrankSchmeiser

Yeah swap the old radiator out for a 92 -01 radiator some new hoses and think about putting in some hood vents.