TJ Hood interfering with radiator cap

patooyee · May 9, 2015

My brother in law has a 1999 TJ. Its pre-owned and we've been chasing ghetto repair jobs on it ever since he got it. It has a 4" suspension lift via spring plate spacers as well as a 3" body lift all to barely fit 35" tires. (They rub at full lock.) One of the first things we did when he got it was replaced the engine and radiator. (Long story, not worth telling.) But it has always had a spot on the bottom of the hood where the radiator cap rubs. It has rubbed through the paint and eventually always results in the cap popping off and puking coolant out. He doesn't always realize this has happened as he is driving so it sometimes runs the coolant down resulting in air at the top of the radiator. I have read that this brown sludge that he is developing is a byproduct of a chemical reaction of the coolant interacting with air. If not, I have no clue where the sludge is coming from. He has good compression, the engine is a new reman unit, it is not losing oil, and the sludge does not smell like oil either.

Anyway, my main question is about the radiator cap hitting the hood. I don't know why this would happen on a basically stock Jeep with stock radiator and stock engine. I can cut the part of the hood that is hitting the cap but it doesn't seem like I should have to on mostly stock junk. The old radiator also rubbed in the same spot, probably why the engine overheated and ultimately had to be replaced. I figured some other TJ people might know what is going on? I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of Jeeps.

kushKrawlin · May 9, 2015

Dnt know bout tj; but mine hit the hood, I had to cut a circle in the support thing that runs across/under the hood. Text me if Ya wanna see the really professional work. Ha

patooyee · May 9, 2015

Hm, I don't recall if his had those brackets or not. But he has an electric fan so it shouldn't matter, should it? The purpose of those brackets are to enable the factory mechanical fan to still fit in the shroud? With en electric fan shouldn't the top of the radiator still interact with the hood the same without needing to be lowered? Raise the hood, grill, rad, and fenders all equally and all should be equal?

patooyee · May 9, 2015

Just confirmed, no drop brackets. But still, I think those are mainly for mechanical fan vs shroud fitment issues, on the radiator cap. The cap / neck itself is in its stock location right now.

hokie_yj · May 9, 2015

Is it possible that it's been wrecked and something is tweaked bad enough for it to rub?

patooyee · May 9, 2015

hokie_yj said:
Is it possible that it's been wrecked and something is tweaked bad enough for it to rub?

I wouldn't place anything out of the realm of possibility with this Jeep. But if it was wrecked I haven't seen any indications and I'm somewhat familiar with looking for signs having worked at a dealership before. He also knew the previous owner for several years before buying it and would have known if it was wrecked during that period. I'm not sure how many owners there were before that guy though.