How hot is your heat?

Nathanael Rusciolelli

Nathanael Rusciolelli

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 4, 2016
Messages
118
Location
North Carolina, United States
I've been doing some experimenting with my heating system in an effort to get the moderately warm heat from my vents a little hotter (been way too cold in NC). I just recently flushed the heater core which was probably long overdue (a lot of murky stuff came out of there). The heater core flush seemed to help the heat in my jeep warm up a little faster, but as far as max temperature, I stuck a thermometer in the vent and it only read about 110*F. I was wondering if anyone else knows about how hot theirs gets or maybe if there is something else I should check in my system. I have heard some stuff about the thermostat possibly being the culprit but I thought I'd ask the experts. Any help is appreciated.
 
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I know ours gets hot enough to be uncomfortable. Now we are not driving it this winter (read 0 deg F) there were times in the fall, before the salt, when the temps were around 30F. And that was with a soft top.
 
Yeah, i too saw a recent post where someone flushed the core with vinegar.
Claimed it made a huge difference.
 
Nathanael Rusciolelli said:
My jeep runs around 180 usually. It used to run 210 on the dot but I had the whole cooling system redone. Always run colder since. I kind of thought it was a good thing but what do I know.
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That is not a good thing. 180 is too cold. It needs to run at 210 for the computer to keep everything optimal.

Sounds like who ever redid the cooling system put in a thermostat that is less than 195 degrees.
 
Mine is about 135 degrees at the dash vents on high fan speed and 145 at the lower vents. Slower fan speed will get hotter air but I measured at full speed. I just did this because of a problem with my 15 jkur heat which the dealer was not understanding that lukewarm is not acceptable heat...
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Stockli said:
That is not a good thing, they were designed to run at 210.

What chang d in the system to make it run so Cold?
Click to expand...

Ugh! as usual I just end up making the problem worse when I try and fix it. I changed the thermostat today and the gasket and I start it up and coolant leaks like crazy from the housing. I don't know if I didn't install it correctly or if the guys at auto zone sold me the wrong gasket (looked the same as the old one). Its dark out now so I'll have to wait till the morning but what do you think went wrong? Looked like it was leaking from the bottom of the t-stat housing. I cleaned the housing before installing the new gasket and tightened it down real good. I hate cooling system problems!
 
Check the housing to make sure you didn't crack it. One problem I ran into with the Stant premium 195F thermostat, p/n 45359, was that it was made slightly larger on the outside diameter than the recess machined into the head. It seemed to install properly and stayed in place when I placed it into the head but I cracked two housings before I discovered the bottom of the thermostat was not flush into the recess. Had to carefully sand the O/D down a few thou to make it fit. I found the housings to be readily available in the local parts stores so cracking must be fairly common.
 
My heat is pretty weak, it heats up the cabin in like 10 minutes, but it doesn't feel very hot out the vents.

My TJ has AC too as well, as it's the Sahara trim and the AC is non-existent... I need to do a whole recharge of the whole HVAC system in general. :sconf:
 
Nathanael Rusciolelli said:
Ugh! as usual I just end up making the problem worse when I try and fix it. I changed the thermostat today and the gasket and I start it up and coolant leaks like crazy from the housing. I don't know if I didn't install it correctly or if the guys at auto zone sold me the wrong gasket (looked the same as the old one). Its dark out now so I'll have to wait till the morning but what do you think went wrong? Looked like it was leaking from the bottom of the t-stat housing. I cleaned the housing before installing the new gasket and tightened it down real good. I hate cooling system problems!
Click to expand...

Replacing the thermostat and and housing is a pain in the ass. I damaged 4 gaskets lol. Basically what happened to me is that the thermostat stays in place up until the housing is about to make contact putting it back. It tends to slip down without me knowing it and when I tightened the housing bolts I inadvertently ruin the gasket. What I did to finally get it to stay in place was put a dab of RTV on the edge of the thermostat to hold it against the block. waited till it dried and the 5th gasket did not get ruined and all is well LOL
 
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