Cooling upgrades

dlargo

Observer
Afternoon all,

Been lurking for awhile and decided to post for some advice on some cooling upgrades and advice. I have a 2001 XJ (obviously) with the 4.0, Auto, 231 TC, with everything basically stock. In March I installed a 2.5" OME Lift, JCR front bumper, winch, and roof rack with 6 KC lites. All runs well and works as it should. Living in Houston and with Summer knocking on our door I wanted to do some upgrades to the cooling system. The temp sits between 210 and 220 on a daily basis. Within the last couple of days it spiked to 260 for second and then back to normal. I have no leaks and just replaced the coolant with a 50/50 mix of antifreeze/distilled water.

The electric fan is what I am concerned about. I have noticed it will not come at with the AC (as I believe it should) 100% of the time. It is random. How can I go about testing to make sure that it is functional and what kind of upgrades can I do to beef up the cooling system without too much fabbing. I like to keep things as close to stock as possible....or at least the perception of stock.

Thanks
Danny

IMG_1340.jpg
 

Yuccahead

Adventurer
Might be worth replacing the Thermostat. It might be sticking and it's easy and inexpensive to replace.
 

dlargo

Observer
Yuccahead....thanks. I replaced it about 6 months ago with a Stant brand thermo. Is it worth replacing the radiator even though I cannot see anything wrong with it. I assume it is the original and I would replace the tstat again along with the hoses and pump.

Danny
 

XJSleeper

New member
My 97' was getting hot here in Tulsa, OK I put some homebrew hoodvents in and it dropped the temp 10-12 degrees. You can buy the manufacturers vents for around $100 which was too much for my taste so I bought some 93 cent saufet vents from a local home improvement store and it works great.
 

FordGuy1

Adventurer
Wire in a aux fan overide switch. Super easy and very effective in low speed wheelin. When I run the aux fan it never goes over my stat temp.
 

alexfm

Explorer
A second vote for an auxiliary fan override switch. I did that, as well as some homebrew hood spacers and my temps stay pretty close to 210 as long as I'm not idling in traffic of stuck in a lot of stop and go kinda traffic. I'm also running a stock temperature thermostat as well.
 

Chi-Town

The guy under the car
The aux fan is meant to cycle with the cycles of the a/c compressor, not be on full time when a/c is selected on the controls. An over ride switch is ok but you'll have to remember to shut it off at speeds over 20mph (rough estimate) otherwise the fan can start to back feed voltage.
I've used a lot of different radiators in XJ's and hands down the Griffin units are the best investment I've made. When you have low humidity and high temperature you'll need as much thermal transfer as possible and the Griffin radiators are great at it. Couple that with a good water pump, new thermostat, a high flow or ported thermostat housing, and a ZJ fan clutch and you should be good to go at any temp.
 

jeep-N-montero

Expedition Leader
Swap in an OEM thermostat and clean out the cooling stack, this is the space between the radiator and A/C condenser where a lot of crap likes to get stuck and block airflow. Also swap in a new fan clutch if you do not know when it was last changed. Lastly, pour in a bottle of Water Wetter.
 

Chi-Town

The guy under the car
Stay away from water wetter, it's essentially just pink soap that can actually worsen thermal transfer from the metal of the block and head to the water/coolant. I've tried about a dozen or so different coolant additives and nothing works better than the proper mixture of distilled water and coolant.
 

jeep-N-montero

Expedition Leader
Stay away from water wetter, it's essentially just pink soap that can actually worsen thermal transfer from the metal of the block and head to the water/coolant. I've tried about a dozen or so different coolant additives and nothing works better than the proper mixture of distilled water and coolant.

Want to bet green cash money on this? I run it in both Jeeps, my diesel tow rig, and our past and current track cars. Been using it over 11 years and always will, put it to the test and it works.
 

Chi-Town

The guy under the car
Gladly, the chemical composition of water wetter causes it to adhere to the metal in your engine and interfere with the transfer of heat to the fluid running through the system. I have flushed it out of more road race and rally cars than I can count with dramatic increases in cooling system efficiency. If your cooling system is designed correctly and operating properly you shouldn't need any kind of additives at all.
 

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