Just recently my jeep overheated and cracked the radiator, have replaced thermostat and installed new radiator, at idle and light work temp is well below 210, however when driving up inclines and after stopping(turning it off) it goes well above 210, about the same temp where the old radior cracked. Car was idled and in trafic for over an hour and got no where near 210, closer to 190. Fan tested and works fine. Turning on heater reduces temp. No fluid present in oil, no smoke from exhaust. Could this be a bad head gasket, or could there be another solution. Water pump was replaced 5 months ago also, no leaking at all from water pump. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, also radiator cap holds pressure no problem.

Yeah man... I had the same thing happen with my 5.9, sorry to say after I replaced the radiator and fan it still overheated. It turned out to be the head gasket... so good luck finding a set of heads... I got lucky....

Just recently my jeep overheated and cracked the radiator, have replaced thermostat and installed new radiator, at idle and light work temp is well below 210, however when driving up inclines and after stopping(turning it off) it goes well above 210, about the same temp where the old radior cracked. Car was idled and in trafic for over an hour and got no where near 210, closer to 190. Fan tested and works fine. Turning on heater reduces temp. No fluid present in oil, no smoke from exhaust. Could this be a bad head gasket, or could there be another solution. Water pump was replaced 5 months ago also, no leaking at all from water pump. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, also radiator cap holds pressure no problem.


Where did the radiator crack, sidetank? If so it would be a good idea to replace the radiator cap as well, this is prolly the reason it cracked due to excessive pressure in the cooling system.

Now as for the temp climbing to over 210 when shut off, it is normal for the temp to increase when the engine is off because the water pump is not pushing coolant thru the engine keeping it cool, so it will increase a bit.

I to had a problem with my radiator side tank cracking a couple summers ago.
My normal around town temp, would be around 235 then 200-210 on the highway. The the radiator cracked I replaced it and immediately the temp dropped down to running around 180 around town driving and about 150 on the highway. Now I use a 160 T-Stat in the summer and keeps it running right around 150.