- Location
- Dayton, OH
Niiiiiice, and I concur. He probably needs to pick up that order from the pharmacy before he can get anything done
- Location
- Dayton, OH
Some better shots from Big Rock before the damage ensued:
- Location
- Dayton, OH
After the side of the X took a pounding at Big Rock I have been slightly tentative to get back on the trails. A trip to the Wilds open normally to Land Rovers had extended the invitation to any vehicle so I pounced! But alas, too slow... I didn't see the registration window had already closed, but the itch was back. I had to get back on the trails again, and it just so happens that I recently picked up a new camera (Samsung NX1000 with the kit lens + the 50-200mm)
Now I had every excuse to get out somewhere. Thrashing Trails in Xenia, OH has been my "go-to" spot for shakedown runs as it's less than a half hour away. Unfortunately that's really the only big plus since it's mostly dirt and mud, but it does present a great opportunity for testing out the X and new photography equipment. I started Saturday off right with a nice medium Starbucks blend:
I have been into a few other niche coffee companies lately, but this was a good way to kick off the morning. Since this was my first "solo" trip with no other vehicles, I asked if my brother would join to keep me from doing anything stupid. He pleasantly obliged and I loaded up the dog, picked up my co-pilot, and we were on our way:
Not only was this run my first without another vehicle, it was the first for Kosar (the pup, named after Bernie Kosar as my fiance finds some way to root for the Browns) as well. I've always wanted to bring him along before but in the past we've traveled much further and he hasn't proven he can do well on long rides. This was the time for him to prove himself tho. Thrashing Trails is identifiable by their "Green Goblin" marking the entrance of the park, otherwise it would be very easy to just keep on driving by.
The place is mostly filled with quads and bikes so we occasionally receive an odd look or two commonly followed by "Are you driving that Jeep down the trails? You know it's gonna get muddy right?"
A smirk and a nod is always my reply.
The majority of the trails are very tame, very similar to logging roads or just simple dirt.
One of my favorite features of this new camera that I'm not used to is the continuous shooting mode. I can't help but giggle holding down the shutter and having 8 shots burst off in a row. I think the sequence was below was easily my favorite of the day
Overall, it was a good run. No damage, some good photos, decision making that didn't turn out to bite me in the ass. A good day indeed.
Now I had every excuse to get out somewhere. Thrashing Trails in Xenia, OH has been my "go-to" spot for shakedown runs as it's less than a half hour away. Unfortunately that's really the only big plus since it's mostly dirt and mud, but it does present a great opportunity for testing out the X and new photography equipment. I started Saturday off right with a nice medium Starbucks blend:
I have been into a few other niche coffee companies lately, but this was a good way to kick off the morning. Since this was my first "solo" trip with no other vehicles, I asked if my brother would join to keep me from doing anything stupid. He pleasantly obliged and I loaded up the dog, picked up my co-pilot, and we were on our way:
Not only was this run my first without another vehicle, it was the first for Kosar (the pup, named after Bernie Kosar as my fiance finds some way to root for the Browns) as well. I've always wanted to bring him along before but in the past we've traveled much further and he hasn't proven he can do well on long rides. This was the time for him to prove himself tho. Thrashing Trails is identifiable by their "Green Goblin" marking the entrance of the park, otherwise it would be very easy to just keep on driving by.
The place is mostly filled with quads and bikes so we occasionally receive an odd look or two commonly followed by "Are you driving that Jeep down the trails? You know it's gonna get muddy right?"
A smirk and a nod is always my reply.
The majority of the trails are very tame, very similar to logging roads or just simple dirt.
One of my favorite features of this new camera that I'm not used to is the continuous shooting mode. I can't help but giggle holding down the shutter and having 8 shots burst off in a row. I think the sequence was below was easily my favorite of the day
Overall, it was a good run. No damage, some good photos, decision making that didn't turn out to bite me in the ass. A good day indeed.
- Location
- Hainesville IL
looks at twisted tree photo*
"go home nature, youre drunk!"
sweet pics!
"go home nature, youre drunk!"
sweet pics!
- Location
- Dayton, OH
I know right? Definitely why I had to snap a pic
- Location
- Denver Adjacent
Jack Stilts
Skid Plates
- Location
- Michigan
I just remembered you have an RLC bumper. Gotta stop by the RLC fan page and show it off!! 
it's under Site Sponsors on the home page.
it's under Site Sponsors on the home page.
- Location
- Dayton, OH
I just remembered you have an RLC bumper. Gotta stop by the RLC fan page and show it off!!
Thanks for the suggestion.... done!
- Location
- Dayton, OH
Sweet pix man... but really a Browns fan??? Geezzz
Go Bengals!
Gotta love her thru all the ups and downs. It just so happens I am a much happier individual during football season. GO PAAAACKERS!
Nah dog, that ain't me. No fun.
- Location
- Dayton, OH
Want to throw this out to see if anyone has any ideas. Xearth was overheating and it turns out the thermostat wasn't opening which lead the water pump to fail. Both have been swapped but it's still getting hot and up to the point of overheating. I'm just carrying about 5 gallons of coolant with me everywhere. I can make it about a half hour (and back if it can sit for a while) but any longer and it's toast. The new thermostat is opening when it gets up to temp. Tested for a bad head gasket and that still looks ok (WHEW). But I'm kind of at loss right now
- Location
- Probably in class..
Have you replaced the radiator yet?
- Location
- machesney park IL
Its going somewhere. Either out the overflow, out a leaky hose, bad gasket, out the exhaust as white smoke or in the engine oil. Any puddles under the truck when you park it?
Last edited:
- Location
- Dayton, OH
I have not done that yet, that'll have to be the next thing tested
Yup, started off clearing out any air bubbles and then ended up just flushing it to be sure
This is what I can't figure out. There is NO sign of leaking coolant anywhere under the vehicle (which makes me nervous about the gaskets, but the test showed negative there). It was leaking the first time it overheated under the overflow resevoir, but after replacing the thermostat and water pump I've yet to see any leaking. I'll just have to go thru a little more carefully and try to find the culprit. Thanks for the input everyone
- Location
- Dayton, OH
Radiator has been replaced, in addition to a new thermostat. Turns out the thermostat we had installed was defective. Been driving it for about 4 days now with no issues. But that still hasn't been enough time to confirm that it's working. In another 100 miles or so I'll be pretty confident if it's fixed or if the issues are continuing on. If we're good I'm looking forward to getting back down to Kentucky and/or Tennessee. Been a while since I've seen anyone. Until then, here are a few pics from what I've been up to:
Xterrafauss
Suspension Lift
- Location
- Jacksonville Florida
Looks like a good time man!
It's been for ever since I have been climbing, I think it was 5 years ago. Miss it a lot.
It's been for ever since I have been climbing, I think it was 5 years ago. Miss it a lot.
- Location
- Dayton, OH
All right, another overheating update, and we're getting the whole picture this time in case I've left anything out.
1st time there was an issue: Drove to chicago for a wedding. Made it there just fine but on the way back, the temperature spiked and I lost power steering and the X came to a halt. The water pump and power steering run off the belt that was thrown when it overheated. Put on a new belt and water pump, and thermostat and it seemed ok.
2nd time: Then a couple weeks later (I drive 2 miles to work every day and only scoot around town) I was heading back from a gym 20 minutes away and the same thing started to happen when it overheated in Indy. The temperature gauge spiked and it started steaming from under the hood. I stopped, turned the car off, and gave it a couple minutes then topped the radiator off with coolant to get home.
Since then I've just been adding coolant to the radiator every 100 or so miles to keep going. There are no obvious leaks under the X when it's parked, but it is definitely over using or losing coolant. We swapped the thermostat again because it didn't seem to be opening and allowing any flow once heated up as well as the radiator. To no avail. On a semi regular basis (read: bi-weekly based on the amount of driving I'm doing) I have to add coolant directly to the radiator.
Took it to a dealer last week to get it looked at to see if they had any thoughts. They thought primarily the bumper was obstructing air flow and the body lift was throwing off the alignment with the engine and the radiator, also reducing air flow. I let them swap the thermostat (that's now 2 that have been installed since the first overheating issue), seals around the radiator, and a new top half of the fan shroud. That was kind of a kick in the manhood to the let them do that, but I was desperate to have my baby back on the road.
That got me to about 250 miles or so when I normally have to top off the coolant every 100. So I started to get my hopes up. Then the temp spiked again and I had to add coolat to prevent it from completely overheating. Took it back to the dealer today and they have no idea. Back to the lack of air flow. My dad seems to think it's leaking coolant into the head gasket, we did a test and it was ok. Dealer joe said he did a compression test and it was fine. But I'm getting an excessive amount of white smoke coming out of the exhaust and again, losing coolant.
I'm kind of unsure what to do now. I think our next step we've talked about is doing a head gasket sealer. Any thoughts? Is this the time when people add an e-fan to the engine? I feel like I'm not getting to the root cause of the issue and I'm trying to just get rid of the symptoms
1st time there was an issue: Drove to chicago for a wedding. Made it there just fine but on the way back, the temperature spiked and I lost power steering and the X came to a halt. The water pump and power steering run off the belt that was thrown when it overheated. Put on a new belt and water pump, and thermostat and it seemed ok.
2nd time: Then a couple weeks later (I drive 2 miles to work every day and only scoot around town) I was heading back from a gym 20 minutes away and the same thing started to happen when it overheated in Indy. The temperature gauge spiked and it started steaming from under the hood. I stopped, turned the car off, and gave it a couple minutes then topped the radiator off with coolant to get home.
Since then I've just been adding coolant to the radiator every 100 or so miles to keep going. There are no obvious leaks under the X when it's parked, but it is definitely over using or losing coolant. We swapped the thermostat again because it didn't seem to be opening and allowing any flow once heated up as well as the radiator. To no avail. On a semi regular basis (read: bi-weekly based on the amount of driving I'm doing) I have to add coolant directly to the radiator.
Took it to a dealer last week to get it looked at to see if they had any thoughts. They thought primarily the bumper was obstructing air flow and the body lift was throwing off the alignment with the engine and the radiator, also reducing air flow. I let them swap the thermostat (that's now 2 that have been installed since the first overheating issue), seals around the radiator, and a new top half of the fan shroud. That was kind of a kick in the manhood to the let them do that, but I was desperate to have my baby back on the road.
That got me to about 250 miles or so when I normally have to top off the coolant every 100. So I started to get my hopes up. Then the temp spiked again and I had to add coolat to prevent it from completely overheating. Took it back to the dealer today and they have no idea. Back to the lack of air flow. My dad seems to think it's leaking coolant into the head gasket, we did a test and it was ok. Dealer joe said he did a compression test and it was fine. But I'm getting an excessive amount of white smoke coming out of the exhaust and again, losing coolant.
I'm kind of unsure what to do now. I think our next step we've talked about is doing a head gasket sealer. Any thoughts? Is this the time when people add an e-fan to the engine? I feel like I'm not getting to the root cause of the issue and I'm trying to just get rid of the symptoms
CaptainMorgan_SOS
Need Bigger Tires
- Location
- Alamogordo, NM
This might help, but you may have already done this. I had a VERY similar experience with mine and did something RacerXXL (I think) told me to do; I burped the coolant, or some mumbo jumbo word like that. There is a bolt that is on top of the intake manifold that has the throttle cables laying directly on top of it. It is on the driver's side, right across from the spark plug wire that goes down through the space in the middle of the intake manifold on the passenger side. Pull that bolt out (don't lose the copper crush washer on it) and start filling radiator. Once coolant starts to come out of that hole, put the bolt back on.
What he told me was that there may be a huge air bubble in the intake which is not allowing the coolant to flow everywhere it should an causes overheating; this gets rid of that bubble. I did this to mine and have not had a problem since and that was about 2000 miles ago.
If you've already tried this, I'm sorry, but just thought I would throw this out there because when this same thing happened to me I was at a loss until this was brought up. I also have a 2" BL and had to remove that piece on the lower part of the shroud. One other thing he said it could be was the fan clutch could be bad, but since burping it fixed the problem I didn't replace the fan clutch.
What he told me was that there may be a huge air bubble in the intake which is not allowing the coolant to flow everywhere it should an causes overheating; this gets rid of that bubble. I did this to mine and have not had a problem since and that was about 2000 miles ago.
If you've already tried this, I'm sorry, but just thought I would throw this out there because when this same thing happened to me I was at a loss until this was brought up. I also have a 2" BL and had to remove that piece on the lower part of the shroud. One other thing he said it could be was the fan clutch could be bad, but since burping it fixed the problem I didn't replace the fan clutch.
- Location
- Denver Adjacent
This is REALLY good information to have. Maybe that's why mine wants to overheat at idle after going sideways on that trail at nXm.
CaptainMorgan_SOS
Need Bigger Tires
- Location
- Alamogordo, NM
Thank RacerXXL. He's the one who told me. I have yet to have a problem since I burped it. I made sure to do it when I changed out my radiator 2 weeks ago too. I made a 2000 mile trip 6 weeks ago when I moved from VA to NM and I just made a 800 mile trip out to San Diego this last weekend with the X and all is good. I've been racking up the miles lately
- Location
- Dayton, OH
All right, tried the ole burp test but she checked out. As soon as I loosened up the bolt some coolant started coming out. So it doesn't appear we've got an air bubble up in this. The head gasket is starting to look more and more suspect, when up to temperature it's still blowing white smoke like crazy.
[video=youtube_share;LseixhAc0SA]http://youtu.be/LseixhAc0SA[/video]
Need to give it time to cool down, then add some sealer and see how that goes
[video=youtube_share;LseixhAc0SA]http://youtu.be/LseixhAc0SA[/video]
Need to give it time to cool down, then add some sealer and see how that goes
CaptainMorgan_SOS
Need Bigger Tires
- Location
- Alamogordo, NM
Damn. I was hoping the burping thing would solve your issues. It does seem to look more and more like a head gasket. If it is any consolation though, your X is looking nice!
- Location
- Dayton, OH
Me too man, would have been thrilled. I appreciate it! Just gotta make sure it stays on the road (and you know, get to the trails too)
- Location
- Central FL
Thats what happened to mine... Head gasket went and I couldn't justify the 2k or so it was going to cost to replace it. Be careful with the leak stop, I tried it on mine and ended up gumming up the thermostat. I replaced it but to no avail. I hope you have better luck and it's not the head gasket...
- Location
- Dayton, OH
I'm sorry to hear that Tim, that sucks. So I did the sealer the other day, and I haven't driven it much yet. But here's a video with another look at the exhaust. *Granted* the temperature out is slightly higher, but this is on start up whereas the other video was after it had already been running for 20+ minutes. Before when I came to a stop I'd be surrounded by the white smoke catching up. Here it is as of this morning:
[video=youtube_share;u-uqQNaXJXk]http://youtu.be/u-uqQNaXJXk[/video]
- Location
- Dayton, OH
I don't think I updated here, but it doesn't appear to be leaking into the oil either. Have driven a bit the past week and the coolant level hasn't dropped a bit. Here's to hoping 2014 comes with more trail runs. If this ends up working out, the X has a short bucket list for runs:
1) NXM
2) LR Run at the Wilds
Hopefully she will be able to make it thru more than that, but as of now I'd like to put those on "paper". As far as additional mods, the 31's are probably going to be replaced this year. They've got about 36,000 miles on them, but I'm reeeeaally ready for 33's. I like the tall and skinny design, so I don't think I'll go wider than 10.5". Also, when I do the tires I'd like to have a rear bumper with a tire carrier to hold that spare and get rid of the hitch for a better break away angle. After some HD TRE's and TRA's that might be most of what I'm looking to do.
Cheers!
1) NXM
2) LR Run at the Wilds
Hopefully she will be able to make it thru more than that, but as of now I'd like to put those on "paper". As far as additional mods, the 31's are probably going to be replaced this year. They've got about 36,000 miles on them, but I'm reeeeaally ready for 33's. I like the tall and skinny design, so I don't think I'll go wider than 10.5". Also, when I do the tires I'd like to have a rear bumper with a tire carrier to hold that spare and get rid of the hitch for a better break away angle. After some HD TRE's and TRA's that might be most of what I'm looking to do.
Cheers!
- Location
- Central FL
Thanks man. I stayed with the x just couldn't get a 4wd. Hoping to get one in the next year or two but this will do for now... Glad to hear the leak stop seems to be working for you. Hope it holds up!
Sent from over there...
- Location
- Dayton, OH
So the X held up for about another 3,000 miles before it started overheating again and churning thru coolant. I think I'm going to get some more stop leak and see if that will buy me any more time. I also did pick up a new DD until I have the time and energy or funds to do the head gasket.
Jack Stilts
Skid Plates
- Location
- Michigan
DUDE. That thing is BEAUTIFUL. I am extremely jealous. Does it have anything else done to it?
xterraminator
Wheeling
- Location
- Maple Ridge,BC
I work with a guy here at our office who has the same problem but on a chev van. Every day he has to open a valve at the top and let the air out. This is called air lock. When you get air in your system it prevents the coolant from flowing. What I think your problem is that you have a tiny pin hole or very very small hair line crack in your engine block or head so air is leaking in very slowly and at the same time when you have vacuum its sucking the coolant into your engine which in turn gets burnt and out the exhaust. A combustion test will not help. Sorry to burst your bubble but I think you might want to start looking for a new head or have it pulled apart. You can run your engine till its hot, turn it off, pull the oil plug out and take some oil out in a clear dish or bowl. Lets the oil in the dish cool and see what separates out. You might see water at the bottom. If so your hooped. Hope you find the problem.
xterraminator
Wheeling
- Location
- Maple Ridge,BC
Sorry vapor lock not air lock.
Sent from Samsung Note 2 using Tapatalk
Sent from Samsung Note 2 using Tapatalk
- Location
- Denver Adjacent
mmm..... Old Land Rover.
- Location
- Dayton, OH
Thanks man, and negative. It's stock unless you want to call the brush guard and hellas modifications. When I popped the hood when I first looked at it I started giggling. The thing is super clean. I asked him he had taken any long road trips in it, and he mentioned driving from Dayton to Columbus a couple times and that's it. In case you guys are unfamiliar, that "trip" is a little over an hour. I couldn't be more pleased right now