Bobby3062

Yesterday I began the task of reinstalling a factory condenser and hoses that had been removed from the vehicle previous to me owning it. Typically, the jeep runs around 190 degrees when hot but after the condenser install, my temp has gone as high as 230. I am running a 190 fail safe t-stat and cooling system is flushed. I had planned on installing a new radiator from a 1998 xj parts jeep I purchased which had an alluminum radiator in it. The problem is that the transmission cooler hose on the bottom of the existing radiator is a quick connect type fitting and appeared to be soldered/welding into the old radiator. I looked around at parts online and this seems to be an easy to order part to go ahead and do the swap but I wondered if I am missing anything or any pointers. I am enclosing a picture of the radiator I plan to use because I'm not sure how many cores it has or how much it will help but again, I had it on hand and it will cost me nothing extra so I want to install it so it will hopefully have me running cooler.

xj wheeler

There's others on here that will know more, but your '90 has what's called a closed cooling system. The radiator from the '98 would be from an open cooling system. You can install it in your '90 but you will have to change over some other parts as well (not sure on which ones). Hopefully someone with more knowledge about it will chime in.

Bobby3062

yea...I figured I could just bolt it in and not use the cap on the radiator..Or in other words, it would be there but I would never use it...Everything else seems to match up perfectly and it looks as though the spout for the radiator cap has sufficient clearance to be installed. Do you guys think I will see a big difference in running temp with the alluminum installed??...My current is probably original with close to 300k miles on it with some visable scale on the inside...Of course I know I need to clean the alluminum one really well prior to installation but it appears to be in good shape otherwise.

Illuminator

Found this writeup hope it helps.
http://www.olypen.com/craigh/rad.htm