I have a 2000 Jeep Wrangler Sport 4.0 with 160,000 miles on the original engine. I purchased this Jeep about 3 years ago and it had a bad water pump on it when I bought it. I changed the water pump, fan clutch, and thermostat as soon as I bought it. Even with that, the temperature would begin climbing over 210 degrees while idling at traffic lights, etc. The temperature would begin to drop once it was moving again, however, on hot Texas days, with a lot of stop and go traffic, the temperature would stay high and occasionally, the temperature would climb rapidly and then suddenly top out and the engine warning light would come on. This happened several times while my son was driving it.
The radiator blew about a year and a half ago while he was driving it so I replaced that. The temperature issue still persisted. I changed the water pump, thermostat, and fan clutch again about a year ago. The problem persists. I replaced the water pump with a Flow Kooler model last August and again replaced the thermostat, still gets hot when idling through stop and go traffic.
I can smell a slight odor of coolant after I have been driving it, some times more than others. There are no visible coolant leaks under the Jeep and it does not appear to lose coolant, at least not much at all.
I have changed every part in the cooling system so far except for the heater core, which does not seem to be leaking or the source of the issue. I have been suspecting that the head gasket may be the issue, but I was researching the issue and I am concerned it could be the cylinder head itself as this year model evidently is notorious for developing a crack between the 3 and 4 cylinders. However, I do not see evidence of oil in the cooling system or coolant in the oil.
I am just looking for some guidance from the folks that have faced this issue, as it is apparent there are many. My inclination is to go ahead and swap out the cylinder head, but I just dropped $1800 on having the transmission rebuilt last week and would prefer to not spend the $500 to swap out the cylinder head if it's not necessary.
I would certainly appreciate any thoughts, comments, or experiences. Thank you in advance for any assistance!
The radiator blew about a year and a half ago while he was driving it so I replaced that. The temperature issue still persisted. I changed the water pump, thermostat, and fan clutch again about a year ago. The problem persists. I replaced the water pump with a Flow Kooler model last August and again replaced the thermostat, still gets hot when idling through stop and go traffic.
I can smell a slight odor of coolant after I have been driving it, some times more than others. There are no visible coolant leaks under the Jeep and it does not appear to lose coolant, at least not much at all.
I have changed every part in the cooling system so far except for the heater core, which does not seem to be leaking or the source of the issue. I have been suspecting that the head gasket may be the issue, but I was researching the issue and I am concerned it could be the cylinder head itself as this year model evidently is notorious for developing a crack between the 3 and 4 cylinders. However, I do not see evidence of oil in the cooling system or coolant in the oil.
I am just looking for some guidance from the folks that have faced this issue, as it is apparent there are many. My inclination is to go ahead and swap out the cylinder head, but I just dropped $1800 on having the transmission rebuilt last week and would prefer to not spend the $500 to swap out the cylinder head if it's not necessary.
I would certainly appreciate any thoughts, comments, or experiences. Thank you in advance for any assistance!
