My new, wait... now old radiator

[Mykal]

You think your luck stinks...
installed a new fan clutch last week. Radiator shit out yesterday. Installed a new one this morning.
I burped the air out, let it idle for 20 mins or so and it was good.
Hopped in with the girls and headed out. Got about 4 miles down the road and it was overheating.
Pulled over and this is what I found. With water leaking out. Yeah, busted right through it.
Not really sure what happened to be honest. The fan clutch is tight, the radiator doesnt move at all.
Im pretty confused.

http://www.crawlinrocks.com/hosted/xj/rad1.jpg
http://www.crawlinrocks.com/hosted/xj/rad2.jpg

[anodyne33]

Sucks. Bad motor mounts?

[Mykal]

I was thinking that but two things tell me its not along with a visual inspection.

1. - When I throttle the motor it doesnt move hardly at all.
2. - The previous radiator wasnt marked up at all in this area and it went through way more abuse then this one seen on 4-5 miles of road.

[tjblair]

X2 motor mount. you have to check them with it in gear. have someone get in the jeep and put one foot on the break and spike the gas. Like your doing a brake torque. It should be pretty obvious if it has a bad motor mount.


Side note I never understood why they call it a motor mount. It should be an engine mount . Unless its an electric car.

[Mykal]

Ill try that but I really dont believe its bad. Like I said, the old one had no damage at all in this area and it seen way more abuse. Hell, when I set the airbag off it never touched the radiator and that fan clutch was really loose.

[abrzrkr]

What are those tabs for? They look extra, break them off!

[tjblair]

Ill try that but I really dont believe its bad. Like I said, the old one had no damage at all in this area and it seen way more abuse. Hell, when I set the airbag off it never touched the radiator and that fan clutch was really loose.
That doesn't mean that it hasen't gone bad since then. Either way it's easy to check.

[Mykal]

I dont know, they were not on the other one. I plan on taking the cutoff wheel to them when I replace this radiator.

[tjblair]

If it had a bad mm before and the clutch didn't have those tabs I might not have hit.

[Mykal]

Ive driven it for the past two weeks with those tabs on and the old radiator. It never hit it at all.

I dont know... Ill check the mounts again.

[Dick.Breakey]

If it had a bad mm before and the clutch didn't have those tabs I might not have hit.


this is true

[tjblair]

when you do make sure to also check it in reverse and drive.

[Deadman 94 xj]

Might be a good time to ditch the mechanical and put in an electrical fan. You'll be in there anyway.

[Mykal]

i already have an efan next to it.

[JeepSteeler]

Ask me how I know....you didn't happen to accidentally leave a tool in there when you buttoned it up - it falls down, lodges between rad and clutch tabs, screams across the rad, then out. Just a really wild guess if you can't replicate what appears to have happened.

[Mykal]

Haha, nagh. I triple checked before I closed the hood. Since I put the winch bumper on, I quit using the motor as a table and use the bumper now. lol