Chico

Replace the cable going from the negative terminal of the battery to the block. Clean both connections real well. Get the cable at Autozone that has a second wire that runs from the battery side and bolt it to the inner fender. Replace the ground braid from the back of the block to the firewall. This worked for my problem. If it works for yours we might as well sticky it. It seems to be happening to a couple people with XJ's in my area.

wait wait wait, forget all that work. You said Craftsman right. Take the whole set to Sears and they'll replace every piece in that set one by one. I did it. No reciept needed.

This is going to sound dumb but I had similar symptons. Couldn't figure out what it was. I changed everything you did and no differnce. Then I put a new cable from the negative terminal on the battery to the block that also had a second wire attatched that bolted on to my inner fender. I cleaned up all three connections real well and problem solved.

I put a CSF 3-core in my MJ about 2-1/2 years ago when I installed my stroker. The engine ran hot (220* - 225*) all the time w. the 195* factory stat. I called Hesco, they recommended pulling the CSF rad and putting in one of these single core aluminum rads: http://www.alumrad.com/dblpass.html The running temp immediately dropped immediately 10*-15* and stayed there. When I pulled the hoses to drain the CSF, big globs of solder came out. I shook out about a pound of solder balls out of it later. I send it back (my dime) and they refunded my $$ after I screamed, so no more CSF products for me. Maybe I just got a bad one and they've improved their QC now. I also remember a bunch of guys on NAXJA had similar problems at the time. The crowd now watches silently :popcorn: Anybody else?

Well the level of coolant in the bottle is not going down. However water does come out of the tailpipe at start up with a little bit of smoke. It goes away after warm up. I'm reasoning it's because the engine has 220,000 miles on it and I don't believe the PO's treated it well. "unexplained missing" maybe, truck never idles over 500 rpm but I figured it was because the inside of the valve cover is nasty with build-up and won't let the engine breath properly. When I unplug the vac line from the VC to the intake mani it idles great. (getting around to cleaning it :oops: ) What did you mean by"water don't burn"? I'm gonna borrow the pressure tester from autozone for the coolant sometime this week. The rad is getting changed anyway to the three row one. As soon as I send the money Taz is sending me a new shroud. (sorry TAZ, forgot to go to the bank today) Bought a "block test kit" at NAPA today. Looks like a big glass crayon. I skimmed the directions quickly it said to place over coolant bottle, pour some blue fluid in, turn on the engine, and start sucking air out of the bottle. If the fluid turns yellow or green then there are combustion gasses in the coolant and I guess that means the head gasket is crap. We'll see tomorrow when I do it. Back to the original "getting hot". I said the gauge was showing the engine getting real hot. Not in the red but close. Hit it with a laser thermometer from harbor freight and at it's hottest would read 230-245. Well today after chasing down a couple friends w/laser thermometers and rechecking with theirs I found out that not only is the truck gauge reading incorrectly (which we knew) but now my laser thermometer is off by about 20-25 degrees, which means my engine is really running at 210-225 Which means after all this crap it's actually pretty normal :wall: I'd still like to bring the temp down a bit. Hopefully the full shroud and new rad will help. Thanks for all the help guys. I'll update with the tests when I get em done :cheers:

Yeah I'm buying that one next week. Story in a couple posts.

There's no redness to the dipstick. Compression test was done with engine cold from overnight wait. Cylinders 2-6 were all 150-160. Cylinder #1 was 135. The oil on the dipstick does smell like gasoline a little :dunno:

You're going to have to splice I think 5 or 6 wires

So, called NAPA today. 1988 radiator=$145 1992 radiator=$158 These are both aluminum with plastic ends. He then told me the 1992 also had a copper one w/brass ends for $210. He can't get it though. I take it the copper one is better? Anybody have any opinions? Later on, I called a friend who's a VW mech. He said don't spend the money on the radiator because he thinks the head gasket is blown. Told me to get a kit that hooks up to the coolont bottle and somehow changes color if there's a loss of compresion due to a head gasket leak. Anybody have any experience with this?

So Pete, what should I ask for at NAPA tommorow? A 91 or newer radiator for a 4.0 automatic.

If I get one with a radiator cap don't I have to change evrything else over to the newer style though? At the begining of the week the gauge would read a bit over the 210 mark I used a laser thermometer to point at the sensor on the head. It said anywhere from 215 to 225. Tonight the gauge is almost in the red and the same spot/laser thermometer is reading 230 to 245. :eek: However nothing is leaking/system is under pressure and the big reason I think it's blocked is because the fan isn't turning on until it gets really really hot (wasn't like that before). The temp at the fan switch is perfectly normal (160-180).

The days here have been getting warmer. So has the MJ. My truck's getting really hot now but not overheating yet. Here's my first question. With the temperature hot, the top of the radiator fins are warm , but the bottom is cool. Is this normal or does it mean my radiator is blocked? The truck has new: thermostat, fan switch (electric fan does work but does not bring the temp down) fluid, pressure bottle and cap. I guess the water pump works because fluid shoots into the bottle and I just replaced the fan clutch and bled the closed system by removing the sensor on the back of the head (which blew all over the place when I took it off) Question number two: If it's normal for the radiator fins to be cool at the bottom what should I check next?

Don't listen to T. The rest of us want to see em. :D

Thanks hornbrod :cheers: TAZ, PM on the way :D

K, thanks guys. Would not having that bottom part have a negative effect on the cooling system? What I'm really asking is getting a new one going to actually help keep the engine temp cooler?

Anybody have one? I changed out my fan clutch today and noticed there's no bottom part to it. Is that normal? Sorry I don't have anything else to reference to. :cheers:

May 31st.

x4 or 5 or 6. I lost count.

Buy the MJ if all you want is the engine. Sell off the interior and anything else that's good and get the money for the scrap metal then. It should just pay for itself.

If you google insurance quotes there's a site that asks for your info. I can't remember what it was though. Anyway, you punch in your stats, it asks you a bunch of questions and your email address. I did it. In a couple of days insurance quotes started rolling in from local agents. I went from paying about $2800 a year for three cars to $643 a year. You just have to wait a week to see who sends you the best rate. $2100 was well worth the half hour it took out of my time. If your in central PA call my guy. Douglas Erwin 717-533-0252 546 West Chocolate Ave. Hershey, PA 17033 Out of state (800) 209-7183 I don't know if he does out of state but it's worth a try. Between all my policies he probably saved me close to $5000 a year :eek:

Allright. Mitch wins the Comedian of the Month award :rotfl2: :rotfl2: Maddzz, if no one can figure it out by tommorow I'll call my computer guy for you. Good luck :cheers:

Should have said something. I just sold mine I wrote this really long post but when I hit the submit button it dissapeared :nuts: Anyway, you won't save any money on gas but it is a great car. Let me know if you need any input on it. I've owned 14 VW's now.

We have a Yamaha Zuma 49cc scooter. It gets used for delivering pizzas and when I'm too tired to ride my bike to work. It gets about 80 miles to the gallon. But only because we drive it at WOT all the time or it would do better. Top speed is about 40MPH. We never even get on the highway so it's all we need. I believe it was $2300 two or three years ago. It's already paid itself off in gas alone because we do about 100-200 miles a day with it. Someone who's extremely bored needs to figure out how much we saved in just gas compared to a car that does maybe 18-22 MPG. Only part that sucks is that if the temp drops below 50 degrees it starts to get cold riding it. But that's just like any other bike. My Comanche on the other hand is only getting 12-14 MPG in town. I guess it's because I only drive it to work 4 miles and back. Still trying to figure out if that's normal. I probably save about $30 a week in gas between using the scooter and the bike. But hey that's $120 a month plus $150 extra because I quit smoking which comes to almost $300 dollars a month that I can blow on the Comanche :rotfl2:

Man, only when I see pictures of palm trees is when I seriously miss Miami :cry: Looked like fun. Hope you had a great time :cheers:

Just get new ones at NAPA. They're not that expensive and you know they'll work right.....hopefully.