Actually no. My Carbon Fiber rattle can looks terrible in comparison to your Herculiner. I did add the hood spacers though. The difference in operating temps is night and day, and I am ok with the look.

 

I've never understood the hood spacer thing. Cherokees came from the factory running the correct temperature so why can't they now? On my Cherokee and my Comanche I've never had overheating issues except when the electric fan malfunctioned on my Cherokee. The Comanche I didn't even have the electric fan for a while because the bearings in it decided to self destruct. I drive both of them hard in the heat and wheel my Cherokee with the ac on in the middle of summer.

 

What can I say? I live in central Florida and it may as well be the African continent for 7 months out of the year. Temps frequently in the upper 90s which feel like over a hundred with the humidity. The new radiator helped immensely but I was having heat soak and high idle issues because of it. I no longer have those issues and when the e fan kicks on, there is a steady flow of hot air escaping out of the hood vents. Temps now max out at 205 or so even with the AC on blast. Happy camper.

 

I can't help wondering if the change people see from hood spacers in an XJ isn't just from sucking cool air from the cowl area, directly onto the brass temperature sensor.

I did see a massive drop in coolant temp when I put Hyline vents on my YJ, but that's just compensating for what I believe is a blown head gasket.

 

At 47ºC, uphill it get hot, the clutch get hot, even the power stering gets hot.
The XJ was never intended to extreme work in hot environments.
Also to say, I've seen many cars stopping due to excesive heat and I've never seen a cherokee or a Land Cruiser doing the same.
It never hurts to try to run cooler on Summer.

 

If you have a 2000 and later you have underhood temp problems. Electronics become more susceptible to malfunction as they age due to heat. The 2000 and 01 XJ's have a massive hunk of iron manifold under the hood, and I didn't start having problems until I went back to the OEM setup, despite the fact that I previously had those infernal pre-cats (also under the hood, right under the manifolds).

If you have a 99 and older you won't have underhood temperature problems at all most likely. I've had a 93 and 98 and had no problems. Even my 2000 with the stroker, supercharger AND the cats under the manifold didn't give me any problems, although the manifold, TB and even the body of the IAC got so hot you would burn the ever-living out of your hand if you touched them. I had aftermarket headers, but with the Clifford Performance headers I had it was next to impossible to tighten down one of the manifold bolts so I went back to the OEM design (the header pipe crossed right over the top of the bolt head, you had to have either the entire engine or head out of the engine bay to get enough torque to kind of get it tight enough).

Hence the reason I went back to the OEM iron hunks of heat radiation. Afterwards I had heat soak and misfires on deceleration like a ****, until I put the spacers on there.

Another source of heat in all 4.0's is a weak lower radiator hose. It will collapse under higher speeds from the water pump suction and restrict flow, and increase heat in the head. I don't even know if it's possible to find a lower radiator hose with a spring in it anymore. You'll have to look. I saw a video where a guy replaced everything in the coolant system and it still ran too hot. Once he upgraded the radiator hose on the bottom it stayed under 210 consistently.

 

Not really so. My '00 has not had any temp problems since day one. Knock on wood. Of course when I bought her she was kinda of running and not really driveable. One of the things she needed was a new radiator and while I was there did the thermostat and all new hoses. Only reason I put the '98 Grand Cherokee 5.9 hood louvers in the hood was cause that I saw a couple guys do it here and I just loved the look. And she is a CA Emissions '00.

 

A worn out lower radiator hose*

That spring is in there from the factory because the system is filled via vacuum. It isn't needed in a properly functioning system, but an old hose with weak walls can collapse under load. The fix is to replace the old hose; not necessarily to upgrade it. That problem is much older than the 4.0L motor.

 

So it is that time of year to power wash all the Fluid Film, chlorine crap they put on the roads, etc from underneath the Jeep. Figure get her in the air today to get it done tomorrow.

 

Installed a new alarm with remote start and push to start button. Got rid of the key until a problem appears if it ever appears. Convenience, convenience.

 

Since it was sunny and warm this afternoon I gave the A/C in the XJ its yearly top-up. It has a slow leak in the evaporator which requires the addition of a can of refrigerant each year when warm weather starts. I know I should really fix this, but for now putting in a can of refrigerant for a few bucks once a year versus pulling the entire dash out of the vehicle... well, I'm getting lazy in my old age.

 

I changed the differential fluid in my 98 today. While i had the covers off i sandblasted/painted them. Also removed the cruise control servo to get rid of extra stuff under the hood i dont use

 

got the garage all set up and the jeep parked in it to start pulling some stuff apart

 

Put a new third brake light on it

 

I drove it to work and back. Apparently I dicked up the Spicer U joint install because I have INTRODUCED driveline vibes starting at 55 mph.

When I got home, I shot it with more lithium grease in the vain hope that I will not have to rip out this driveshaft and do this entire procedure again really soon.

Good news? They sell the same Spicer joints that I got from Amazon at my local box store. Bad news? They are 100% more expensive at said box store.