Not so much fun over the weekend

On Sunday at about 2am the coolant line has came off & dropped all my coolant in the bad part of north Seattle. Its the hose in the passenger fender (pinch weld). It came off from tire hitting it. I believe Knappaster did the same if I remember right @ Camp Commander. I didn't know it popped until I saw the temp jump to red. Its one thing if happens during the day, but @ 2 am & by myself was not fun at all. I normally have spare coolant when I go wheeling, but in downtown Seattle who knew. After waking a friend up twice (he fell asleep the first time thinking it was a dream that I called) My friend came & picked me up & took me to grab 2 gallons of coolant to put in the jeep to get back up going. Also fixed the hose that came loose too.

This is where I found out how much of a PITFA this cooling system is. I had popped the cap off with the jeep cooled down (about an hour & half after the hose came off & it was 34 out & raining. I filled up to the top. Then started it & let it run for about 5 to 10 min topping off when the level dropped. Also topped off the coolant reservoir. Started to drive home about 5 min later the temp jumps to red. It sat in red for about 2 min before I was able to get somewhere that was lit that I can safely park at.

Looked at it again and there didn't seem to have any flow to the top radiator hose & when I popped the radiator cap it gurgled but wasn't hot water. I took a taxi home (been up going on 26 hours by then)

Came back about 4 hours later & dumped about 2 gallons of water in it & started for home. When I first got there I did notice that the coolant reservoir was empty. On the way home the temp would keep going from half way to 3/4 way & then go back to half way. It did get to red once on the way home, I went to pull over at this point then the temp dropped right back to half way. I was guessing that there was an air bubble stuck in there. I was able to get it home 25 min away. I took it in to have the coolant system flushed & it completely fixed the issue. They used a pressurized system to flush the coolant.

Well now its at the shop for an unrelated reason, and they have to replace the fender liner because it is split from when sliding off the road in ice from the week prior, so the shop will try to pound the pinch weld flatter & then try to use a few screws to bring the fender liner closer to the fender. Lets see how that works out when I get it back.

Ya that sucks and crapy weather makes it worse. There is a procedure for filling the system up there is a blessed screw if I remember correctly. Hope it all works out man I know one guy pulled all his lines over out of the way not sure how that worked out for him though

I feel your pain, That is similar to my story but I had great weather and lots of friends around to put my Jeep back together.

I am dreading the day mine comes off

is it better now?

Yes this issue is resolved.

I had a similar issue with over heating when I did my coolant flush. Like Sal mentioned, on the upper radiator hose where it goes into the engine there is a hex screw. For future reference (I found this out the hard way) you need to take that hex screw out and fill it with fluid until it comes pouring out. If you dont do that the coolant wont circulate properly and do exactly what your XK did. I did the rear heat/ac delete so I dont have to worry about ripping my lines off!

Well I will know next time, I must have missed the write before hand. Just glad no damage from over heating

I had the same happen to me. That's why I shaped some sheet metal over that area and removed the rear section of that fender. To get the coolant in I had to pour some in then rev it up (while it was cool already) so the pump would force in the fluid. When the temp started rising too much I stopped it for a few minutes to let it cool then added more and revved it again to about 2500 or so just to get the water pump to force the fluid through. Like matt said there is a procedure to do it easier but I didn't know it at the time so just had to keep revving till it held a good temp, drove it home and refilled one last time.