Temps Climbing Before Summer.

[AussieRCBasher]

Hey guys well after a trip on the weekend to Swan Reach from Adelaide.. Approx 120km roughly.. i had to take the hills on the way home and even knowing it was only about 20km worth of them my jeep started to heat up. it hit 100 maybe 102 or so on the guage but i wasnt taking it hard at all. then on the way down it went down again so i thought nothing of it.. the temps werent hot during the day maybe 17-20C day.

now the thing is this is my daily driver and in town it can be slow and it does get warm 80-90 on a slow day but now its hitting 100 again and even 90-100 on a good day and as soon as im on the straight road home it goes back to 70 which it usually sits at.

why is this going on? my airfilter is clean and doesnt pick up hot air from the engine. the filler bottle for the radiator is full and hasnt gone down at all. the radiator is all clean and still full of coolant. i dont get it. i know the jeep is known for 100C but its never ran it most of the time..

any help would be good. im planning on ripping that POS fan out and sticking a thermo in there but ive never needed to till now. also planning on redirecting alot of air into the airbox to see if that helps.

thanks

[Glenn]

You might need a new Theromstate, make sure its a 95degree one, you should never be running much less than around 95, cooler than that and your causing extra wear to the engine, my temp is always up around the 95 and in slow traffic over 100, the electric fan doesnt even kick in till something like 108, so I'd say if your engine runs as low as 80 it definately needs a new thermostate.
Also replacing your themostatic fan with an electric one won't nessarily make it cool any better, unless of course your fan hub is worn out

[AussieRCBasher]

thanks i might go pick an ea flacon one up this week. and see how that goes. it just worries me cos it seems like the Jeep is the ONLY car that ever overheats! every other car ive driven sits at half or lower.. even my mates 350 Chev Holden Ute with turbo 400 and ford 9" running on headers doesnt overheat!! my fan kicks in at 105. my mates an auto elec soil get him to put an adjustable switch so i can set it to kick in ealier. he offered this to me a while ago but i didnt take him up on it.

thanks for your help.

[AussieRCBasher]

oh i forgot to say.. i cant imagen what its going to be like when summer comes at we get temps of 35-40 here and if its hitting 100 in 18-20 double that and i think im gonna have problems.

PS: Anyone know if it illegal to drive without your bonnet on? hehe

GOJEEP seems to have done a lot of research with the cooling system on his XJ. His website has lots of info on the subject. Now I dunno if there is a better way to cool down your system, but what GOJEEP has done appears to work for him.

http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoRadiatorFitting.htm
http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoElectricFan.htm
http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoBonnet.htm
http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoWaterpump.htm

http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/index.htm

[Snapey]

Had the same thing for years (literally) - then replaced the viscous fan unit and fixed the problem! I know a lot of the people on this site don't like the viscous fan set up and recommend replacing them with an electric thermostat unit - but hay - it works! I've also put a manual override on the a/c thermo fan which I use for heavy off road or high temp/heavy traffic situations.

[AussieRCBasher]

thanks Jack ans Snapey. i look on GoJeeps website ALL THE TIME!! hehe he has so much info and stuff its really helpful. Im going to clean all my engine in a couple off weeks as its caked in dirt and oil from somewere. my mates going to put in an override switch on the second fan and he said that he might be able to remove that little one ans stick in a larger one while hes at it.

thanks for your helps guys.