does the heater work good?

Sounds like you did everything right.

Just wondering if there could be junk in the radiaor / system that is not letting it cool properly.

And the fan and everything work fine I assume?

I would blow back air through the cylinders to make certain the head gaskets are fine. Then go from there.

 

head skimmed both head & block must be spotless ,, all ports inspected just to make sure nothing fell in to obstruct anything , re build good quality gaskets , new head bolts as heat streches them is a must and as you had head skimmed old bolts are throw away , torque down in proper order working back and forward across the head from centre outward , rad is prob fine block bottom hose fill with water & leave over night on dry cardboard to see if it leeks any water & cardboard would let you see where if still full open bottom hose if all water runs out it not blocked or leeking , so put it on in make sure all is tight , fill with water & anti freeze ,, start her up bleed out air heater in car on full so to make sure no air is traped , and job done ,, have a cuppa here or a beer there , good luck . andy

 

All righty.

Thanks guys. About the beer... This lady is not all that into beer, but I don't mind a good twisted lemonaide or twisted smirnoff. Will that be ok?

I was wondering if maybe I should run a coolant flush through first, then replace gasket again, and cross the fingers, Or replace gasket, and run the flush through before I refill with rad fluid? I hope I can get this right. I like this jeep. The engines only just getting broke in ya know. 203k... runs smooth, no hiccups, nothing...

Thanks for all the help.

 

Well, that was fun. I redid the gaskets. Took the head to the mach shop, they checked it over again and its still good.

tested the thermostat, working proper.

Bought a new rad cap...

I put the sucker back together, filled her up, started her up, let her run for an hour... Shut her down, parked her over cardboard and back in the house. My head is freaking killing. I am going to be so ticked off if it was the rad cap... really ticked off. The rubbers look good on it, no cracks or tears, but... replaced it anyway. Wish me luck.

 

Sometimes the simplest stuff is easy to miss the rubbers dont always look bad. But if it does not hold pressure and the coolant boils it looses all cooling ability and since these systems run at 210+ its easy to have a big problem. All that matters is its fixed lol

 

All right... new head gasket, new tappit, new rad cap, thermostat, water pump. Water is going into res, but not going back out. Just filling up, then out. Jacked up the driver side to burp, but now I can not get that rad cap off to burp, it'll turn, but won't release. HUH? I am getting so irratated. Top rad hose is empting out, can squeeze it to burp, but still continues to easily collapse when squeezed. Thinking I might be replacing that. BUT I can't get it to burp if I can't get that rad cap off. AND even squeezing the hose, I water is not returning out of the res. Could it be that I need a new res?

 

Ok.. finally got that cap off. Went to auto store, talked to the guy there, gave him the POS cap I just got, and he gave me a new one... I went to work today, never over heated, pressure is great, can not squeeze the hose at all, and water is doing it's thing. So... Now I don't want to think about all the money I have put into this job and circle back around to radiator cap... just a simple $5 rad cap... well two rad caps. ONLY, after pressure testing the cap that was originally on, it's a good cap still... At least thats what east end says. SO... any one need a 16psi cap? I put on a 13, like the specs call for, and wahlah. Problem solved.