Reddit reviews Hayden Automotive 2787 Premium Fan Clutch
We found 2 Reddit comments about Hayden Automotive 2787 Premium Fan Clutch. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Severe dutyDesigned, tested and built by applicationOE performance, fit and appearanceBuilt to meet or exceed original equipment performance
Okay, take all this for what it's worth (your mileage may vary, I am not a lawyer, I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, yada yada yada).....
I bought an '02 WJ in Feb (to replace my '01 XJ) and had similar issues like you're describing. Based on my experiences with my XJ previously, when it comes to the cooling system I tend towards doing a complete overhaul in one go rather than addressing one component at a time.
For your rig, you've got 4 main components to deal with (in my opinion) when it comes to the cooling system:
If you've already replaced the fan & relay/controller, you should be able to (mostly) rule that out. If you need to check and see if it's running, physically pop the hood and look. It should also be on full time when you switch the AC on.
You've replaced the waterpump, but you say it's "steaming". From where? Grab a flashlight and see if you can figure out where the steam is coming from. It might simply be that you either didn't torque the bolts down enough and it's leaking under pressure, or the surfaces the gasket sandwiches between weren't cleaned resulting in a poor seal, or a combo of both. If it's visibly coming from anywhere around the gasket, you might need to pull the pump and re-do it with a fresh gasket & gasket sealant. Make sure the surface of the block is scraped clean of all the old gasket material and use a good gasket. I have a low opinion of the ones that come with the water pumps and will spend the $$$ on a Fel-Pro (Fel-Pro 35629 water pump gasket).
Check your coolant for debris, particles, any fines or silts that you can see, etc. If the radiator has never been replaced, odds are good that in the 16 years your WJ has been running the radiator is clogged. If you replace the radiator, a good flush of the cooling system will get rid of most of that junk so you don't end up clogging the new radiator and get a fresh 50/50 mix of coolant in there. Top it off with a new Stant radiator cap while you're at it.
Same deal with the thermostat, it may simply be time to get a new one. Consider getting a new housing & gasket while you're at it. Not necessarily a requirement, but I tend towards replacing the housing when I do the thermostat "just because".
Stick with the OEM 195° thermostat - I ran my 4.0L XJ with the 180° thermostat during the summer in Vegas (100°+ routinely for months) and it noticeably helped but I went back to the 195° thermostat after summer temps ended. If that's your climate, the 180° thermostat might be good for a while but I don't recommend it as a straight replacement.
Is replacing nearly everything in the cooling system overkill? Maybe so, but I take into consideration my WJ is 16 years old (like yours) and I have no idea what kind of maintenance the previous owner has done. So it may cost a little bit, but it's worth it to me knowing all the main parts to the cooling system are "like new" which should eliminate overheating issues.
For a little bit of perspective on why I think that way (ie- total overhaul) this is what the thermostat on my '01 XJ looked like when I replaced it a few years ago: https://imgur.com/a/FvZQi9E
The extra ring looking piece to the right of the thermostat is piece of another thermostat that was inside the block.
When I replaced the radiator on my WJ, I pried off one of the end tanks the core was clogged like you wouldn't believe.
Once you've gone through all that, you also have the option of installing a mechanical clutch fan. This thread on JeepForum gives some good info and links. The tl;dr for that is to go grab this Hayden 2787 fan clutch and this Dorman 620-602 fan and spin it onto the threaded nose on the water pump.
I've got the Torque app with a bluetooth OBD-II scanner so I can check the real numbers vs what the dash gauges are showing. Trust me, you can be running hot before the temp gauge starts to creep past the halfway mark.
After replacing all the bits & pieces I talked about above, and installing a mechanical clutch fan, my WJ is running cold. Yesterday was high 90s here in Vegas, and idling in a parking lot w/ the AC on the temp never broke 200°. Creeping through traffic on the freeway w/ AC on hit 206°-210° but didn't get higher. Driving about 75-80mph for a while, and it was in the 190°-195° range.
These are the same temps I was seeing with my XJ after I did the cooling system overhaul, so I have no doubt when it starts breaking 100° here in Vegas I won't be seeing any overheating issues with the WJ.
For my WJ, I removed the electric fan entirely because the relay kept failing, even after replacing it with a brand new relay four times. I still don't know why that kept happening. I replaced the electrical fan with a beast of a mechanical fan, an 11-blade viscous-clutch fan. The only way to remove the fan shroud (which is what the electric fan mounts to) is to also remove the mechanical fan, sadly, as far as I know. To make things easier, I only have the fan shroud attached by the top two bolts, and it stays on absolutely fine with no vibration or anything. It's nice not needing to worry about electronics failing now... the fan just always runs when it has to, and worst-case, the clutch is the only thing that can fail, and if it does then it will just be stuck on full blast all the time which is literally fine lol.
If you're interested, here's the setup I have for the mechanical fan, which is guaranteed to keep the engine even cooler than the electrical fan ever could:
The fan blades
The fan clutch
You'll need to get from your hardware store: four m10x1.5x12mm bolts. My hardware store didn't have any of that exact length so I had to get 25mm length and just cut them down to 12mm. Pretty easy with a Dremel and cutoff disk.
If you have any other questions, feel free to respond to this comment. I highly recommend upgrading to the proper mechanical clutch fan setup if you're having issues with cooling the engine. For under a hundred bucks you can make the upgrade using the Amazon links above. Hope this helps!!