4.3LXJ
05-21-2010, 01:09 PM
It is getting to that time of year where there is going to be over heating issues. I have certainly had my share with my XJ. I finally cured it. Went up my nemesis hill a couple of days ago. Granted it was not 115* with the air on, but I never could do it in any weather with my XJ since I put the Chevy in. But I made it and the temp never made it over 200*
So I thought I would pass on a few things. One, I am convinced we have the deck stacked against us with that long skinny radiator the 4.0 has. My 2.8 had a single core pulling 6000# over the pass at 5000 ft in first gear and didn't get hot. Put in a 4.3 with a Griffin radiator and it gets hot. go figure. The folks at Griffin say if it gets hot, you have an air flow problem. This last winter I addressed the heat problem several ways.
First, one that anyone can do. I put in water wetter. It does what the name says and reduces the surface tension of water and allows it to transfer heat better. The sprint car guys here use a lot of it. For full benefit, you need to run only 10% antifreeze with it. So if you are in a colder winter climate, you may need to change coolant twice a year. It is not a cure all for an ailing coolant system, but will help in marginal situations.
Second. Vent the hood. The biggest thing I did was swiss cheese my hood. I noticed my engine did not get hot with the hood off. I have some big holes there, and they did the trick. I started to make some classy looking louvres and scraped it because it wasn't so classy looking after all. Improvements coming.
Third, add an oil cooler. I put two in my hood due to lack of space for anything else. They have fans in them that run off a thermostat set at 160*. They are so efficient there that the fans have yet to come on.
Fourth. We all like winches and they are great to have. But they can affect air flow. If you can, mount your winch low so you have maximum air going through the radiator. Lights the same way, they block air too at highway speed.
So I thought I would pass on a few things. One, I am convinced we have the deck stacked against us with that long skinny radiator the 4.0 has. My 2.8 had a single core pulling 6000# over the pass at 5000 ft in first gear and didn't get hot. Put in a 4.3 with a Griffin radiator and it gets hot. go figure. The folks at Griffin say if it gets hot, you have an air flow problem. This last winter I addressed the heat problem several ways.
First, one that anyone can do. I put in water wetter. It does what the name says and reduces the surface tension of water and allows it to transfer heat better. The sprint car guys here use a lot of it. For full benefit, you need to run only 10% antifreeze with it. So if you are in a colder winter climate, you may need to change coolant twice a year. It is not a cure all for an ailing coolant system, but will help in marginal situations.
Second. Vent the hood. The biggest thing I did was swiss cheese my hood. I noticed my engine did not get hot with the hood off. I have some big holes there, and they did the trick. I started to make some classy looking louvres and scraped it because it wasn't so classy looking after all. Improvements coming.
Third, add an oil cooler. I put two in my hood due to lack of space for anything else. They have fans in them that run off a thermostat set at 160*. They are so efficient there that the fans have yet to come on.
Fourth. We all like winches and they are great to have. But they can affect air flow. If you can, mount your winch low so you have maximum air going through the radiator. Lights the same way, they block air too at highway speed.