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I'm taking my engine to be rebuilt.

It is the closed system renix that has had overheating issues since I've gotten it with 50k.

Because I'm tired of cars overheating, I'm now looking into every way possible to keep the engine cool.

I now have an aluminum 3 row radiator and everything to convert to open system.

Now that everything is apart, I'm getting anal about things and been looking into heat wraps because the intake and exhaust are weaved together.

Also I got a pacesetter header and I will paint it with ceramic coating and maybe wrap it.

From what I've read, you want to put the heat wrap on the part that is hot(like header)...but also I've read about wrap that you put on the part that you want to keep cool(intake).

And then I see that people put wrap on the fuels rails on other cars to keep the fuel temp low even though there is minimal improvement.

I've even seen people say to keep aluminum unwrapped to let heat escape.

Also we have a heat shield between the fuel rail and intake manifold...I'm thinking about painting or sticking a wrap to.

I'm curious about the different heat solutions, in terms of wrap or coatings, that other 4.0 owners have done or think should be done.

 

Thanks,

-Chris

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My 217,000 mile original 4.0 has never had over heating issue. The key is to at least every other year clean out your radiator and whole cooling system. The radiator can get corrosion and blockage over time so I think about every 5 to 7 years to remove it and flush it out with pressure, to know that crap off. I have the original 29 year old radiator and I have done this 4 times. 

 

I live in Texas where we get at least 40 days a year over 100 degrees and about 40 days of freezing. I use 70% water and 30% radiator fluid. In the winter months I park in a garage, and on super icy days I use a half radiator blocker. Never had any heat issues even in low gear tracking across muddy 200 acre run, running a/c at full. I still use the renix bottle and you just got to make sure the cap is good.  don't fill it past min in bottle and do the regular maintained. Most people I see just wait till they have trouble to change fluids and parts. I hear that water pump sound weird I go ahead and change it, even know I am on only my 3rd water pump in 29 years.

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Hood louvers and raising the back of the hood works sort of.
Take some heat wrap and wrap your exhaust. They make stuff just for exhaust usually on motorcycles. Got a crap load of it if you near Enid OK

ZJ HD clutch for you fan is loud but works great. Plus you can pretend your taking off in an old fighter biplane to defeat the Red Barron
Ford Taurus electric fan if you want to go that route. You can hook it up to a switch and just keep it going all the time or turn it off whenever
Other than that just make sure your stuff is cleaned and replaced when they get old. Just because you have low miles doesn't mean your seals aren't starting to corrode. I'd take the time and swap to an open cooling system too.
 

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The theory of heat wrap is you want to wrap hot things to prevent them from radiating heat, and you want to wrap the "cold" things so they reflect radiated heat.

So basically you'd want to use exhaust wrap (generally a woven fibreglass cloth) on the exhaust and then some kind of foil on the other bits.

I'll add that the factory cooling system in good condition should be enough, emphasis on "good condition". Admittedly my '91 MJ has the later, open cooling system, but the only times its overheated were with major leaks (blown hoses) and low coolant levels. Even running coolant mixed for -60F, (2:1 antifreeze to water), the only time I've had a heat problem was on the 6000' climb out of Death Valley a couple weeks ago behind a slow-moving vehicle at an ambient temperature approaching 120F. Once out from behind, I didn't even need to shut off the a/c.

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My 217,000 mile original 4.0 has never had over heating issue. The key is to at least every other year clean out your radiator and whole cooling system. The radiator can get corrosion and blockage over time so I think about every 5 to 7 years to remove it and flush it out with pressure, to know that crap off. I have the original 29 year old radiator and I have done this 4 times. 

 

I live in Texas where we get at least 40 days a year over 100 degrees and about 40 days of freezing. I use 70% water and 30% radiator fluid. In the winter months I park in a garage, and on super icy days I use a half radiator blocker. Never had any heat issues even in low gear tracking across muddy 200 acre run, running a/c at full. I still use the renix bottle and you just got to make sure the cap is good.  don't fill it past min in bottle and do the regular maintained. Most people I see just wait till they have trouble to change fluids and parts. I hear that water pump sound weird I go ahead and change it, even know I am on only my 3rd water pump in 29 years.

I think that's a good idea. It overheated before I got it and I replaced the radiator before but it's got stop leak in it. Still going to convert it since I'm half way there

 

Hood louvers and raising the back of the hood works sort of.

Take some heat wrap and wrap your exhaust. They make stuff just for exhaust usually on motorcycles. Got a crap load of it if you near Enid OK

ZJ HD clutch for you fan is loud but works great. Plus you can pretend your taking off in an old fighter biplane to defeat the Red Barron

Ford Taurus electric fan if you want to go that route. You can hook it up to a switch and just keep it going all the time or turn it off whenever

Other than that just make sure your stuff is cleaned and replaced when they get old. Just because you have low miles doesn't mean your seals aren't starting to corrode. I'd take the time and swap to an open cooling system too.

 

Yes. I've got my eye some louvers. I modified the fan shrouds to fit e fans, but I didn't know about that clutch. Thanks for that. I think that will be way better than the 14" fan I bought

 

 

The theory of heat wrap is you want to wrap hot things to prevent them from radiating heat, and you want to wrap the "cold" things so they reflect radiated heat.

So basically you'd want to use exhaust wrap (generally a woven fibreglass cloth) on the exhaust and then some kind of foil on the other bits.

I'll add that the factory cooling system in good condition should be enough, emphasis on "good condition". Admittedly my '91 MJ has the later, open cooling system, but the only times its overheated were with major leaks (blown hoses) and low coolant levels. Even running coolant mixed for -60F, (2:1 antifreeze to water), the only time I've had a heat problem was on the 6000' climb out of Death Valley a couple weeks ago behind a slow-moving vehicle at an ambient temperature approaching 120F. Once out from behind, I didn't even need to shut off the a/c.

:thumbsup:

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  • 2 weeks later...

217,000+ on the '88, Closed system - no over heating in Texas. Lower radiator hoses cause most overheating, as they collapse under heat when the spring rusts out.

A tight system with a good fan clutch solid hoses and tank should cool very well. Timing, lean fuel conditions and dirty air filters are common causes also.

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