Wrangler 4.0L cooling system capacity?

Hi all, could anybody tell me what the cooling system capacity of a

2000 Wrangler 4.0L is? I had my radiator leak about a month ago and the dealer replaced it with a new one. The day after I picked it up, I checked under the hood and noticed there was no antifreeze in the overflow reservoir, so I filled it up and drove around and parked my jeep . I checked again later after it had cooled down and it had pulled all the coolant out of the reservoir down to the minimum level. I filled the reservoir up to the maximum level and it has stayed there since. I'm just wondering what the capacity is as I am concerned as to how much colant the dealer did or didn't put in my radiator when they replaced it and if I could have damaged anything by running with the radiator low. My concern is ever since then my temp gauge has been swinging up and down somewhat and will get warmer that it ever used to. The temp gauge used to always be very steady except when it was really hot in the summer and would creep up a bit when idling at stop lights. Now it swings up and down. I am wondering if I may have damaged my thermostat or temp sensor while running with low coolant level. Also wondering if running 100% antifreeze could affect normal running temp. I always see where it says to use 70% antifreeze / water mix. When I filled it I used straight antifreeze. Could this affect things? Any thoughts are most appreciated. The dealer blew me off when I called them regarding not filling the radiator and said I probably just had some air pockets in the system and don't worry about it, but can't help but feel somethings is not right and needs attention. FWIW it has been extremely cold here (low teens) and if anything I would think the Jeep would run a little cooler and not hotter. If I'm crazy tell me so, but any thoughts or suggestions would be most appreciated. Thanks
Reply to
TJ Bittner
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Ouch!

Ok, you do not fill an empty system by filling the overflow bottle and driving it with an empty engine and rad.

This will destroy the valve seals and fast turn your engine into an oil burner that gives off a nasty puff of blue smoke every morning when starting up. It also can crack the head and blow the head gasket.

You need to fill the rad with the engine running and the rad cap off. Once full, you put the cap on and fill the overflow bottle.

'Pure' antifreeze will not cool an engine down and the engine 'will' overheat leading to the above problems just like running empty does.

The strongest mix of antifreeze and water that is safe is 70% coolant,

30% water. This is for sub 0 F temps. In most areas 50/50 works fine.

The 70/30 will not work in the summer in traffic or when towing, it will overheat. Folks that live in real cold winters and hot summers or tow, swap coolant ratios for summer and winter.

Pure coolant just won't work. It won't transfer the heat away from the metal. You can pick up a coolant tester for a couple bucks at automotive stores that will tell you if you need to drain out some of the 'thick' mix and add water.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

TJ Bittner wrote:

Reply to
Mike Romain

Mike: I'm curious as to where this idea came from. A heat transfer graph of an Antifreeze-distilled water mixture will show the ability to "throw off" heat increases as the Antifreeze component is increased up to about the

73-75% level. Beyond that (higher % of Antifreeze) the ability starts to drop drastically. As a result, the first thing we would do when prepping vehicles for parade duty in hot weather was to ensure the fill ratio was at the 75% level to ensure maximum heat transfer through the rads. Also, since factory fills are, in most cases, around the 50-50 level, topping up with small amounts of undiluted ("pure") Antifreeze is acceptable (with the caveat of not exceeding the 75% level).

Bob

Reply to
Robert Brace

From experience working in garages and from observation. I used to change lots of systems from 70/30 to 50/50 and back because seasonally of the overheating complaints from folks that tow and get stuck in traffic.

I don't know where you got your data, but a fast search on the net and the first ding gets me this:

A mix of water and antifreeze EXCEEDING the 50\50 ratio (say 70\30) increases the freeze point protection down to -72 degrees F., but at the same time, it will reduce the cooling efficiency of the system. And, when the weather warms, such a 70\30 mix could cause the Engine to overheat.

From:

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Mike

Reply to
Mike Romain

Don't worry.

The system holds something on the order of 4 gallons, the overflow bottle holds about a quart. It sounds like they simply filled it once and didn't wait long enough for the tstat to open and close a few times. What you experience is pretty normal, and it doesn't sound like any damage was done.

Reply to
CRWLR

Reply to
L.W.(ßill)

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