Many questions #1 Heavy Duty Cooling

I am new to the Jeep community. I bought a 04 Liberty 2wd 3.7 from a friend of mine with a right hand drive conversion kit to deliver mail out of on my mail route. Mail delivery is some of the hardest miles a vehicle can endure so I'll have many questions in the coming weeks. My first has to do with Heavy Duty cooling. My jeep does not have a package and between the friend I bought the Jeep from and myself, we have gone through 5 "parts store" radiators and 5 or 6 "parts store" cooling fans in the past 18 months give or take. I replaced the last radiator with an OEM from the dealership and had a shop replace the fan the last time (unknown if the mechanic used OEM). Now that I have laid out my situation, can anyone tell me what all I would need to buy in order to have my cooling system completely upgraded to be considered truly Heavy Duty? Will I need to purchase a modified radiator, hoses, and/or other parts or will the addtion of the mechanical fan, clutch, and shroud pretty much cover it? Has anyone who has installed HD cooling noticed any real difference in keeping the motor cooler? Are there any other issues that I may need to address that may extend the life of my cooling components? I have checked the thermostat and it works. I have replaced the cap (as did the previous owner several times). I make my living with this vehicle and I need to keep it on the road. ANY help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I believe twobobs set it up on the second post of this thread.

http://www.jeepkj.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53731


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Thanks I'll check that out.

As far as noticing a real difference after installing the hd cooling components. I installed mine for my off road travels in Colorado/ Utah. It would over heat in 4 low climbing up long high mountain passes(some over 13,000 feet)The transmission light would also come on. After the install I never had it happen again. I did put a 03 radiator in it also because the trans cooler is in the radiator were as the 04 it is a stand alone cooler. I hooked the both trans coolers up in series. So if you are worried about a lot of slow/ Idle driving the hd parts will do the trick.

kskj said:

As far as noticing a real difference after installing the hd cooling components. I installed mine for my off road travels in Colorado/ Utah. It would over heat in 4 low climbing up long high mountain passes(some over 13,000 feet)The transmission light would also come on. After the install I never had it happen again. I did put a 03 radiator in it also because the trans cooler is in the radiator were as the 04 it is a stand alone cooler. I hooked the both trans coolers up in series. So if you are worried about a lot of slow/ Idle driving the hd parts will do the trick.

Click to expand...

The reason I put in the HD cooling is for just what kskj is talking about: ****** cooling and leveling out spikes in trans temps for when I'm towing my boat and when off road.

A benefit I wasn't expecting is better A/C when in traffic on hot summer days. Seems the electric and mechanical fans keep air moving over the A/C condenser while my electric-only cooling struggled. Your mileage with the A/C may vary, however.

I think it's a very worthwhile mod, especially if you get the radiator with the in-rad ****** cooler. As mentioned above, run the two trans coolers together to maximize trans cooling and prevent spikes. The only downside is getting to the oil filter; the big shroud makes for a tight squeeze. However, I trimmed off just enough material from the bottom of the shroud to make it easy to take out by just removing the two bolts that hold it to the radiator, disconnecting the electrical plug and lift it out. Replace the oil filter, then put the fan shroud back in. Poof! Nice clean oil change without the scraped up arm.

Hope this helps...

Bob