kidso

I bought a 96 XJ three weeks ago to replace my "stolen" XJ...darn thieves!! Anyways, my 96 is all stock with 92,000 miles 4x4. It was running warm around 230 for driving in town. I took it out for a 100 mile run and it went up to 240 on the highway with my AC running. (I live in Arizona).

Anyways, yesterday I decided to put lots of new parts on my XJ simply for the trust factor in this used vehicle. I put in a new 195 thermostat, new upper thermostat housing, new water pump, new CFS 2-row metal radiator with new hoses, I put in a HD ZJ clutch fan in as an upgrade and a 10-blade electrical fan as an upgrade too. I also changed out my power steering pump and reservoir because they were leaking. I flushed my power steering and cooling system and bled both of them. Today, on my first drive, it is still running 230-240. What the heck? My temp sensor seems stable, as the temp slowly rises and stabilizes there. It is not eradic moving back and forth. Advice please?

tjwalker

It's time to "verify" your temperature. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that your gauge is reading inaccurately.

Get yourself a point and shoot laser thermometer (very inexpensive now, good tool to have) and point it at the thermostat housing of a hot engine. That way you'll know for sure what temperature your coolant is.

If it is not reading that hot of a temp with a laser thermometer, I would replace the coolant temperature sensor.

Also, it takes approximately 3-5 complete heat up / cool down cycles for the cooling system to bleed out any air pockets and with all the work you did, you could still have a couple left.... even if you bled it.

Also, is the radiator cap new? Should be. Is the shroud intact? Fan clutch good?

Good luck and keep us updated!

kidso

My fan shroud is intact. I put in a 16 pound Stant radiator cap and a new temperature sensor in the upper housing unit of the thermostat. After warming up, the temp gauge rises to 235 and then it seems like the thermostat opens as it drops down to 215 for a couple minutes and then rises back up to 245 and the red zone. That is its running temperature. I have jacked up the front end everyday now for 3 days to burp my coolant system with the radiator cap off. Each 20 minute burping session still gets a couple dime sized bubbles to pop up when I squeeze the upper radiator hose. Am I missing anything? Did I install a faulty new thermostat? Ideas?

PatHenry

Sounds more like the bad gauge reading as tjwalker suggested.

It's always possible the t-stat is bad. I'd verify the gauge reading before doing anything else though.