Last month I signed on with the topic ‘Viscous fan drive or electric fan ?’ (13 June). My temp gauge had been running around 215 – 220 and I had already replaced the radiator cap and thermostat. No change.

I didn’t know much about the viscous fan. Was it working ? Yuri and alosix both responded that they had experienced fairly normal temps at crusing speeds even though their fans weren’t moving. My temp would stay around 220 on the highway. Viscous fan might be ok.

So next to get replaced was the water pump. With 83K miles, it looked ok. But for the hassle, just stick a new one on. No change.

Next, a shop monitored the heat flow in the radiator and said there were signs of blockage. How could that be when I had flushed and replaced the antifreeze at 30 and 60K miles ? And replace the radiator with what ? Well, on this same page, on 22 May, 4lowYJ started a topic “Do aluminum radiators work ???’ He had been experiencing temps of 215 – 220 on his ’97 TJ. On 31 May he said he ordered a CSF 3 row copper and brass radiator from Radiator.Com and his problem was solved.

So I did the same. And it solved my overheating problem too. The bolt patterns were identical and it slid right in.

Popped the top and bottom covers on the old radiator and, sure enough, about half the cores were blocked with a very fine gritty pasty material. The drained antifreeze showed no signs of sediment. Any ideas what might have caused this ?

Tks

Earnie

Im glad your problem was solved with the new radiator!
A possible solution to your question on what the grit may be is mud. 4Wheeling a lot will buildup. Another answer could be rust being shreded from your water pump turning into a paste of metal shavings.
But to be honest that boggles my mind too.

I think I may have the same problem. Yesterday I was driving down the road and I lost a lot of power. My temp gauge was in the 210-225 range which is usually what the temp has been running. Well this morning I was driving it and it started overheating so i pulled over to the side of the road to let it cool down a while. after it cooled i drove it a few miles further and blew a hole in the top of the radiator. I have two questions could a coolant flow problem result in a loss of power? and what problems should i look for after i replace the radiator with a 3 core.

Now that the holiday weekend is over and people are back at work, I’ve collected some info and think I can connect the overheating dots.

I took the radiator core down to the local radiator repair shop and asked them why were half the cores (the cores located opposite the inlet side) plugged ? The top of that half of the radiator was dark while the open core side was a lighter color. A shrug of shoulders but a comment about the white powdery stuff in the groove for the cover seal. Caliche from the well water we use.

This was the same shop I took the radiator to 18 months before when there was a small leak from the cover gasket. They pulled the top cover and then inserted a thin rod down each of the cores to clean them out. The bottom was still on so they rinsed it as best they could, crimped the cover back on and I was on my way.

I next stopped by the shop that used the infrared device to look for heat spots across the old radiator while it was in the jeep. They looked at the cores that were blocked, and because those were on the far side from the inlet, said the very fine material (it was pasty when wet) appeared to be sediment from when the cores were scraped into the bottom when the radiator was repaired. Unless all that sediment was rinsed out, it would circulate through the system and settle into the cores where the turbulence was less.

I’ll buy that. In hindsight, I should have sprung $200 for a new radiator instead of $125 for a repair.

Who uses distilled water in their cooling system ? And any recommendations on how best to flush when doing a drain and refill ?

you pretty much figured out what I was going to reply with -> 'hard' water will cause clogging in the radiator

BTW: if you want your Jeep (or any other rig for that matter) to cool down on the side of the road keep the engine running!! Otherwise there will be hardly any heat exchange and thus hardly any cooling ...

Hey "Earnie" (M.E.)

Glad you found the site and the help you needed.

We NEED to take your TJ out and let it seem some real dirt, mud, sand, and rocks before it dies from sadness. It is an OFF ROAD vehicle you know! The road between the black top and your house does not count.

How about we start making some plans for a trip to Big Bend and run the "Black Gap Trail". Really awesome sight. We need at least 3 to 4 days to even get an idea of what Big Bend has to offer.

Give me a call. I will be back in town on Friday.

Carlos

When all else fails. Roll me over and lets take anoth er line.

quote:

Originally posted by Carlos:
Hey "Earnie" (M.E.)

Glad you found the site and the help you needed.

We NEED to take your TJ out and let it seem some real dirt, mud, sand, and rocks before it dies from sadness. It is an OFF ROAD vehicle you know! The road between the black top and your house does not count.

How about we start making some plans for a trip to Big Bend and run the "Black Gap Trail". Really awesome sight. We need at least 3 to 4 days to even get an idea of what Big Bend has to offer.

Give me a call. I will be back in town on Friday.

Carlos

When all else fails. Roll me over and lets take anoth er line.

Black Gap is fun (if you really get into the 'park'), but it's bloody hot this time of the year.

The Pinto Canyon ride is even nicer

Iceman:

Yeah the Gap is a lot of fun and great historic run. Lots to see and way to much for an 8hr blistering run.

I ran it 3yrs ago by myself (not real smart) after they had had some real heavy rain. The first 50yds was a challenge with those big ol rocks right in the middle. On 3 wheels to get over it then came the real work. Down the side of that waggon trail along side that hill. What made it worse was that it was wet and a little slick. YEAH, I did some puckering going down that hill. The gap itself was really not all that hard. I did a bump start on it and was up.

I was/am running a almost stock TJ. K&N cone air filter, TB spacer, 2 inch BB lift, procomp ES3000 shocks, and 31x10.5 BFG MT on 8x15 black steel wheels.

Never even spun a tire running the whole loop back to the spring.

Hey Iceman, if the trip is made would you be interested in running as our guide?

We are both new at it. Earnie has run Moab on his sons yota but his TJ has NEVER seen anything beyond black top and farm roads. Easy farm roads.

I have run long mud runs on river bottom east of Austin and very soaked plowed farm land (with access) on my buddys farm. I also run PINS down in Corpus to the 40mm beyond the black top. Beyond the Gap thats about it. Some other easy stuff but that abou it.

I would not want to do it until maybe Oct.

Carlos