Wojtas

Hey guys, so this is how the story goes.

When I first bought my 01' xj with 134k miles on it, it already was at the 'chocolate milk' stage and ran at 210 as normal driving temp and would go up to 220-230 while offroading. It never overheated so I didnt bother changing the coolant.

And then on a cold day in February I took it on the beach, parked, sat a little, and the crap started to boil over.

At this point I knew it was time to flush the coolant and put new coolant in, which I did (50/50) and it ran better than before, with a 190-200 temp on the road and 210 while offrading.

And then, the water pump started to go (I could hear it squealing). It didnt go immediately, but surely enough, it went.

Then one day I let my girlfriend take it up to a place we call Levlons here on long island (giant sand dunes) and the water pump took its last breaths. As the water pump blew, the serpentine belt fell off, jeep overheated, and blew a hole in the radiator (this is my theory since I was not there to witness it.)

At this point I towed it back home, got a $130 replacement radiator from AZ, as well as a duralast thermostat and water pump and some new dexcool 50/50.

And surely enough, new radiator and all, it kept overheating. So yesterday I flushed it about 3-4 times with peak coolant flush, flushed the heater core about 8 times to unclog it as best as I could, and the **** keeps overheating.

I am lost and very frustrated, and it seems as much as I try, I cannot get rid of the 'chocolate milk' in the coolant.

The way I see it, is this.
I bought a ****ty thermostat and it keeps making it overheat
Or
The radiator is cheap Chinese junk and its making the jeep overheat
Or
There is so much crap in the heater core that it keeps clogging it and making it overheat
Or....
My head gasket is going bad and im getting oil in the coolant ):

Any help would be greatly appreciated guys, its no fun owning a jeep that you cant wheel cause it decides to overheat all the time ):

Turbo X_J

How long did the GF drive it after it over heated? Compression test would be the first place to start.

NathanJ

Those years have the dreaded 0331 head and don't take to overheating well. Known for cracking. Is there oil in the coolant bottle? It will separate.

rnmcguire

Dude the brown "milkshake" is from oil in your coolant. This is either from a cracked head or blown head gasket. By replacing coolant parts you're just applying a Band-Aid to a sucking chest wound. As stated above start with a compression test.

RTorrez1

First mistake is you kept running the engine you knew it had a problem with the coolant. Replacing all of those parts isn't going to help you one bit. Like the others said you need to do a compression test. But more then likely you already cracked the head. I would just pull the head. Now for the bad news. Since you kept running the engine knowing you had coolant and oil mixing you probably already trashed you bearing. So be prepared for an engine rebuild because the coolant/water will trash the bearing.

travs2448

Your biggest mistake was putting dex cool in the system. that garbage is for GM cars ONLY! and you mixing that in your system that is designed for regular coolant is horrid. When dex cool mixes with regular coolant it forms the chocolate milk sometimes rusty looking solid substance even if you flushed the system.

And now that you boiled your engine over (into the red i presume) you almost certainly have a cracked cylinder head since thats just what 00-01 jeeps do. search here and google for jeep 0331 cylinder head problems. This means that not only may oil be mixing with antifreeze but the antifreeze/coolant may be or is mixing with you oil. Which is eminent death to your engine. Don't drive that thing another second until you find out if its cracked and fix everything.

also at this point i would run compression and pressure tests to be sure the engine still worth saving

Bustedback

So you have been a member of this forum for almost a year and never seen any posts about 2000-01 4.0 heads cracking from overheating, chocolate milkshake coolant, or causes of overheating? And you still have no idea of why it is overheating? A hint; you need a new head at the very least, but I suggest replacing the whole engine. There can be a lot of damage done because you drove so long with coolant on the oil.

travs2448

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/00-...erview-118922/

Take this and read it. many times over!

s346k

you appear to be great at diagnosing problems, but terrible at correcting them before they create bigger ones. if you let an (most any) engine get hot often, you're on borrowed time. it sounds like the head gasket or head is bad.

just FYI. next time you hear a noise, all but 100% confirm it's a broken axle, please change it before the tire and all decides to depart while on the highway .

Wojtas

Alright, but something isnt making sense here. If I was getting oil in the coolant and vice versa wouldnt there be signs of coolant on the dipstick and a lack of oil? Last time I did an oil change (2.5k miles ago) I filled all 6 quarts back up to the brim.

Yes, I KNOW THAT 0331 HEADS ARE NOTORIOUS FOR CRACKING, no reason to be rude, but not all engines are created equally, some 0331's can crack at the first sight of overheating and others wont.

I just want to know how to diagnose the problem, im guessing I should be looking for low conpression whilst doing a compression test (can anybody tell me what healthy conpression should be?). Any other diagnostics I can perform?

Edit: I am a 17 year old and I simply dont have the money for a rebuild as some of you suggest, nor the money for a new car. I cannot afford not to drive it. Thus PRAYING it is not something costly, maybe just a blown head gasket or at maximum a new head.

djb383

Really?.............hummm.

bigbadon

X2^^^ First things first. You have to get that dexcool s**t out of there, it is acidic and that is probably ate your water pump. A simple flush will not get that stuff out. GM has a procedure and chemicals for cleaning and neutralizing dexcool systems. You can try the cascade trick and it works fairly well. That mixture will eat your engine gaskets,radiator,heater core and thermostat housing if you leave it it in there.

southsidecatac

Sorry dude. Looks like a bunch of posters got up on the wrong side of the bed and decided to give you an epic beat down. There is some sound advice in this thread if you can wade through it.

Wojtas

I have flushed it out about 10x last night, bought around 2 bottles of radiator flush and put in peak antifreeze at a 70/30 antifreeze/water

Wojtas

I am looking for advice, not criticism, if you have nothing to offer, please dont comment.