Thank you for the feedback. I will crawl under there this weekend and post the results. Is it possible to tell from the VIN#?
Also, a guy from the Benzworld site offered to send me a pair of Old Man Emu springs for my truck for free. How do they affect the performance/ride?
This is my first 4X4 so forgive me if I ask stupid questions.

 

That is the thermostat. Here is how it works; hot coolant from the "T" enters thru a metering disc with small holes. That mixes with colder fluid from the radiator. This mixing warms up the main body of the stat and opens, sending more coolant out the side hose to the water pump. A new 180F stat (warm weather) from Atlantic British or other on line vendors is a great improvement. At idle, when cold, the metering disc descends to allow more coolant to warm up the heater. Once main stat opens, it shoves the bypass disc back up and only hot metering flow comes that way.

There are no stupid questions, even on Jeep forums.

 

Since you are in Houston, I would definitely recommend you swap out that stock 195 degree thermostat for a new 180 degree thermostat to help keep your coolant temps down. I lived in Sugarland for a while. Welcome aboard.

 

Full disclosure - I took a promotion and move to Houston, in the early 80's; did 320% of quota, so they moved me back to Atlanta to help out there. Enjoyed my year there, lived off FM1960, and SWMBO and I actually got a promo flight on the Goodyear blimp which was based nearby at the time. The one thing I recall about Houston's infamous traffic was that people just made their own exit ramps where needed from the freeways. And you started running your AC in January.

 

Thanks guys. I'll order the new thermostat this weekend. Am I safe assuming the green coolant is correct? The recovery bottle kinda looks like it might be stained orange, but I doubt this truck had Dexcool in it. As a matter of fact, I am certain the previous owner just topped off with water when it was low.
Also, when I first start the truck and the engine is cold I hear a fairly loud sound like some sort of fan or pump on the passenger side behind the dash. After 2 or 3 minutes it goes away. Is that normal? Any ideas what it could be?

 

You do know our fair city.
I was teasing some friends in New England about the cold snap they are having now and mentioned that it was going to be 78 here today. They will get their revenge in a couple of months though when they have the tops down in their convertibles and it will be 100 here with 95% humidity.

 

That's your thermostat. Its different then most vehicles that have the tstat on top of the block

 

Looks like the warm weather thermostat is out of stock till 2/14 at AtlanticBritish. I asked to be notified when they are in stock.

 

Since Atlantic British is out of stock on the warm weather thermostat I looked on eBay and found the item by brands Eurospare and Motorad. I'm not familiar with either brand and the Atlantic British site doesn't list a brand name. Do you have a brand preference? I know in my other life there are brands that the forum members will avoid at all costs. I don't want to get the wrong one.
Thanks again for all your guidance.

 

Yes, what is that? Curious about it since my 2004 is the same.