overheating my cherokee... need help!

[dingus]

last night i drove around for a good half hour, then stopped. jeep was fine. drove home. jeep was fine. this morning i drove it around for seriously like 3 or 4 minutes, the temp guage was skyrocketed and i pulled over. luckily i don't trust this thing yet and it drank a GALLON of coolant. then this afternoon after my SAT's i drove it home and drained out all the coolant. right out of the radiator... by popping the grill off and opening up the bleed valve on the radiator. then i filled up the overflow tank but it didn't take, so i started it up and after a few minutes it overheated, and didn't suck any of the coolant down. so i opened up the bleed valve and then it SLOWLY accepted the coolant. so then we filled it up, added some stop-leak, and went for a drive. we let it sit idling in my driveway for a good 20 minutes while we cleaned up my garage and moved some cars around. it was perfectly at the dead-middle range (NOTE: heat was on full blast)... then we drove through town, having some fun etc... parked. jeep was fine. (Note: now, the heat is off) 20 minutes later, we get back in and drive through town and about 10 minutes later i check on the temp gauge and its in the beginning of the red zone. we drove home and popped the hood and it leaked out a LOT of coolant all over my driveway. luckily its raining right now, its being washed away. when it leaks it comes out the overflow tank both at the bottom hose (which has the little cheezy clamp on it) and out the lid (which was screwed on pretty tight).



and now between posting this and editing it, i went out and checked it out again. i started it up and let it reach operating temperature. then i let it keep sitting and it overheated to 3/4 temperature (on the guage)... then i hit the gas and held it at about 2500-3k rpm's and the temp dropped back down to normal. heat had no affect on this. i tried it with and without heat on...



any insight here? i'm just a poor highschool kid and don't really wanna just send it into a shop...

[addsig]

[dingus]

just some more information for ya:



i'm using napa antifreeze/coolant "for automobiles and light duty trucks"

--->mixed 50/50 with distilled water



(perhaps they make a better coolant?)



mobil 1 10w30 oil - "higher mileage vehicle formula"

(143xxx miles, history unknown)



[addsig]

[RAVEN13xxx]

Sounds like your thermostat is sticking. Try a new one. They are cheap, about 6-7 bucks with a gasket.[addsig]

[dingus]

ok... yesterday (sunday, around 7:30) i went out and picked up a thermostat. it went in REALLY easy, and the jeep was up and running in about a half hour. (i don't rush these things, i was careful with everything; if i rushed everything it would take like 10 minutes.) i took it out today and beat the **** out of it for a good 20 minutes and it never even reached "normal" operating temperature. this would be because i put in a 180 degree thermostat instead of a 195 degree. peace of mind is mine once again. now all i have to do is put in the housing gasket that i got from the dealer this morning because the parts dept. was obviously closed last night.



thanks a jillion guys![addsig]

[RAVEN13xxx]

That's what we are here for. [img]modules/phpBB_14/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [addsig]

[dingus]

haha... and i had some fun (wasting 2 gallons of coolant) replacing that gasket! i pulled the housing off and cleaned off all the junk from the create-a-gasket goop stuff i used last night in a pinch and slapped the gasket on there. in my haste, i put the thermostat in, but it didn't seat. so i tightened the housing on without knowing that the thermostat had fallen out and i tightened the housing down over it. well, i started it up and i had a nice big stream of coolant shooting out everywhere. it took me a few minutes to figure out what i did, and after draining the system, everything is PERFECT now.[addsig]