Got the ATF cooler lines replaced. Not sure I would have made a different call, but the Sunsong parts are not a good fit. Definitely a few issues, but they'll work out okay for now. I'll figure something out later. They don't leak, so it's an improvement.

Cooling system passed a vacuum and pressure test, so I filled it up. Anti-climactic, but key to letting the motor run for more than a minute at a time.

I did the initial wiring for the fan - positive from the control center up front, and grounded to a stud near the ECM. I connected the coil of the relay to the ASD relay's output:



and, for now, ran the control wires through the driver's door jamb. It's good enough to test the fan...



At 95% duty cycle the fan is off, and it goes faster and faster until 20% at which point it's at max speed and anything further causes it to stop.

I've not run the engine to "hot" at this point - just to 280F or so. Idling in the driveway that takes an eternity! But it ran for probably at hour today, mostly idle but little throttle here and there for good measure.

I've got two obvious issues:

1. The factory electric fan runs all the time, and I don't know why. I tested the relays and they work. The fan comes on as soon as the engine is started, even when it's stone cold. The AC is off. The AC system has a vacuum in it, and I tried disconnecting the two pressure sensors to see if that changed anything. There are no CELs. I have the relays out right now to keep it from running, but I gotta fix this. There isn't much in the manual on this, but since the fan relay coils get power from THE ASD relay and ground from the ECM, the only culprit is the ECM running the fan... But why?

2. There is, of course, an oil leak. It's not THE leak - I'm sure I need road time to see if that's fixed. But a very slow drip from the turbo. I can't tell if it's the feed or return - but all the related seals & gaskets are new.



You can see the bottom of the hot side housing is damp. I put a little arm onto the two return bolts & feed banjo, hopefully that cures it. It's slow enough I'm not worried, but it's no long-term plan.

Gonna try and sneak it out on the road this week.... Praying for no (additional) leaks!

Like all things CRD, the FSM is not super helpful in diagnosing this always-on fan.

The button in the HVAC panel talks to the BCM per 8W-45-5
Most of the AC system (coil, cabin heater, radiator fans, low pressure switch) all talk to the ECM per 8W-42-6
The AC pressure transducer (aka high pressure switch) talks to the FCM per 8W-42-7

What I think happens:

So the button tells the BCM "AC request," the BCM tells the FCM "AC request," and the FCM checks the pressure transducer (near the compressor) to see that system pressure is within an acceptable range. The FCM *must* send an AC request to the ECM, as it's the ECM which is responsible for engaging the compressor coil and turning on the fan. Right?

I'd entertained the possibility that there's a wiring problem, but that seems unlikely. That fan relay coils are powered by the ASD relay and grounded by the ECM. If that ground was bad, the fan would start as soon as the key is switched on, but it doesn't.... it waits until the engine is started. That sure seems like everything is behaving in the wiring department.

There really isn't much room for error here - it's all CAN messages until it gets to the ECM which turns the relays on or off. The only reason it would turn them on is if there is a an active AC request *and* the pressure switch reads pressure. It can't read pressure, there is none. It can't have an AC request, the button is off.

The fan will also respond to high temps, but OBDII shows coolant temperature that agrees with the gauge. High temps don't seem on the table.

Why is the ECM pulling the relay coils down? And why *both* of them and not high speed or low speed? What am I missing?

Also, I wanna say, again, the FSM was written by idiots. It says:



and



but the wiring diagram *clearly* indicates the "high pressure switch" is actually a 3-wire pressure transducer connected to the FCM. Stupid.

The sensor itself is clearly a pressure transducer, not a simple switch. 3 wires, 5v reference voltage on one pin. Stupid FSM.

The only theory I have right now is that with an out-of-range value from the switch, the ECM doesn't know what to do and runs the fan as a failsafe. I imagine the only way to find out is to charge the thing up and cross my fingers.

Got nowhere further on my to do list, but with the fan relays removed the big issue isn't so much a big issue.

It has very expired tags, so under cover of night I snuck it onto the road. Over 17 miles of mid-size surface streets with a little traffic and 25-50mph speeds, no warning lights and no fires.

Unfortunately, I have doubt the oil leak is cured. Arriving back home, there was a moderate size drip under the bell housing and a moderate size drip from the starter... Issues previously experienced. Nowhere *near* the volume, literally just drips, but from the same places.

The only thing that gives me slight hope is that the drips are *black* oil, and what's in the sump is still pretty light colored having only 45 minutes of running on it. I have my fingers crossed that I'm just seeing remnants of the old leak being reheated and coming out. I have this thought in the back of my head that I neglected to clean up the pool of oil at the bottom of the bell housing before I put the motor back in. I'm really hoping that's the case. If not, it's a multithousand dollar lesson learned, and this Jeep has a date with the river.

Hoping this is what I failed to clean up, and the source of the drip.



This picture is from a year ago, but I have a distinct recollection of setting the motor in place and thinking, crap, I forgot to clean that up.

Really, seriously hoping.

Your theory sounds plausible since the oil in the sump is "clean" and the drip is black. I'll bet it fizzles out eventually. Fingers crossed...

_________________
2005 Liberty CRD. New rockers, exhaust valves; Provent, EGR block & butterfly delete & V6 air box at 100K

1998 XJ 4.0L, 2" lift

First Jeep: 1962 Willys CJ-3B

Did another 20 miles last night - roughly the same route, but with a little more stop & go including a stop for fuel. Running on a quarter tank of diesel leftover from 2017 wasn't feeling great. Upon return, there was some black blood at the bottom of the bellhousing & starter, but even less than before. I'm feeling hopeful.

I have the mechanical fan gone and the factory electric fan unplugged - I just have a PWM signal generator taped to the dashboard so I can control the BMW fan manually. I'm not gonna rely on the factory gauge to tell me it's hot, so I've been driving around with OBDII scanners. I've had some weird results! I plugged in my Ultragauge (a little OLED OBD live data display) as it's the most convenient, but after 4-5 minutes of running it just stops showing data. Even weirder, after that's happened NO OBDII tool will connect to the car. I next plugged my Autel MD802, which is what I've been using over the past couple weeks to monitor the engine when it idles in the driveway. It worked for about 15 minutes, then disconnected and would not reconnect either as a generic OBDII scanner or as a Chrysler-specific scanner... in OBDII mode it couldn't find *any* live data, in Chrysler mode it just sat there "trying to connect." That was all Tuesday night. Last night, I brought with an OBDLink MX along with Torque Pro on my phone. That stayed connected for the full length of the trip and worked perfectly.

No real idea why some tools work and others don't. Kind of annoying. Also kind of don't care.

The *point* is that I'm shocked at how stable engine temps are. In 50F ambient, it warms up to 180F within two miles. During the remaining 8 miles of surface streets out temperature stays between 176F and 183F, even at long stop lights. Park for about 30 minutes, then the same thing on the 10 miles back. It'll probably be a week or three until I can finalize the e-fan setup, but I'm feeling a lot better about running with no fan, at least under these conditions.

I can't help but wonder if the factory mechanical fan contributes to short thermostat life, maybe even other ill effects of low temperature. A mechanical fan is always spinning, even when the clutch is open the fan is running at ~20%. Seems like it's going to be suppressing coolant temps even further at stops & low speed. With no fan, hovering around 180F means the thermostat is in a constant state of opening and closing... with a mechanical fan I'd think that swing would be even wider. I can't imagine that's good for the thermostat motor.

I would really like to know what sort of performance people see with the mechanical fan, and with the mechanical fan + TDF's thermostat. This is intriguing to me... I'll keep my eye on it as I put more miles on, and as temps increase seasonally. My evening drive is to take the dog to her favorite park, so the timing & conditions are very reliable.

I've now logged 100 miles since putting the engine back in. What's kinda fun about that is that I bought this Liberty in 2016 with 179,640 miles on it, parked it at 180,010 miles. Of that 370 miles, 100 of it was the trip home. It now has 180,109. The last week represents 20% of the total number of miles I've driven this thing. The dollar per mile ratio here is quite poor! My commuter right now is a 1993 Saab 900, which I bought for a parts car and paid $500 for. I've done 1100 miles in it with the only cost being fuel. Eeek.

Anyway, I am not sure I fixed the leak from the turbo drain, but it's better. I can't tell if what I saw this afternoon is remnants or new... but it's less than before, so progress.

I'm still seeing oil at the bottom of the bell housing, but it's less every day. No more oil from the starter for a couple days. What was on the bottom of the bell housing today is better described as a film than a drip, so I'm really hoping at this point it's just leftovers and will be gone entirely soon. It's certainly never gone this far under my watch without making a terrible mess. The only reason I ever care right now is I don't want a surprise in the future.... if it kept up this rate of loss forever, I'd be *fine* with it.

Made a little more progress on the fan wiring... I permanently installed a 60 amp maxi fuse:





Next I need to find a mountable base for the relay. Right now, it's zip tied to the front cross member... functional, but not pretty.

I need to accumulate the parts to make the fan controller as well, but that's not pressing.

I'm pretty confident at this point the motor isn't gonna explode, so as soon as it's not 45F here, I will charge up the AC. I'm sure the front fan is adequate for cooling in this weather. Once that's done, I can swing by the smog inspection and - finally - get it registered again. Oh, once that's done I believe I gotta make an appointment with a dealer for some sort of recall from last year. Cannot forget that!

Was the recall for the rear trailing arms? Did mine last fall after I finally got it back on the road after several years too.

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2005 Liberty CRD. New rockers, exhaust valves; Provent, EGR block & butterfly delete & V6 air box at 100K

1998 XJ 4.0L, 2" lift

First Jeep: 1962 Willys CJ-3B

That sounds right... it's a circa 2018 recall, and I seem to recall it's for the rear suspension. I hope that's the case - I really don't want anyone monkeying around anywhere near my beautiful engine bay right now!

I need to start getting the skid plates cleaned up and reinstalled. The forward one I will probably leave off for a while longer to monitor leaks, but the other ones can be reinstalled. I just don't want to put them back in covered with filth. (I feel like an idiot paying this much attention to a Jeep - I haven't cleaned the inside or outside of my Suburban in five years... but the Suburban is just dirty, not oily.)

I have "fixed" the factory electric cooling fan....

Turns out, when the AC system is empty (or under vacuum) it must push the pressure transducer into some error range, and the FCM turns it on full blast. This morning I vacuumed out the system again and recharged it, now the factory electric fan works properly.... on with the AC, off without it.

Unfortunately the AC system has a leak in the DUMBEST POSSIBLE PLACE ... the Shraeder valve on the high side. After vacuuming. after filling, I disconnected the gauge and found a slight hisssssss from the high side port. I tightened down the valve thinking it might help. The hiss stopped, but I don't trust it. I'll let it ride for now, but I'm sure I will end up replacing it and having to refill it before summer.

Not what I wanted, but could be worse. Who knows... by then the oil leak could be back and I'll be ready to drive it into the river.

They do make valve replacement tools so you can change thr Schrader without evacuating the system.

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2006 CRD Limited
Frankenlift Prem II, JBA UCA'a
Duratrac 265/65R17's on American Racing 17x8 Fuel rims
GDE Hot tune and Trans Tune
Euro TC RL037142AA
Rebuilt Trans w/Transgo 68RFE
Air Box Mod
BMW oil Sep
MRBP exhaust
F-104 Fumoto valve
Hayden fan clutch

Whoa! That's news to me... I just have a simple tool that would definitely evacuate the system. Looks like I got something to research! Thank you!

After charging the system so the fan would turn off, I took it in for a smog test... gotta do that before I can (finally) renew its registration. It's was about a 20 mile round trip, making this the first time it's done 20 miles at once, first time on the freeway, and as it was a beautiful day today, the first time running in >50F weather. This is what I've got on the bottom of the bell housing:



It's something, but *barely* anything. It does seem to keep getting smaller, but after 200 miles I'd kinda expect it to be gone. Maybe not... TBH, if it leaked like this forever I wouldn't care one bit. My only concern is that it's just a precursor of what's to come, but all I can at this point is wait.

Okay, does anyone know what kind kind of valve cores the CRD uses? Old-style Shraeder? Eaton? JRA?

So, obviously no CRDs at the junkyard. One '04 and one '06 V6... and this is what's in their high side port:



They look like standard valve cores, but oddly they are 5.1mm OD and 19.5mm long which makes them more like R12 cores than R134a cores. Not such what that means.

I bought this kit when I replaced my condenser, orifice line and dryer in my crd:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F12MXSY

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2006 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited
Gen2 Fuel Head - Magnaflow Exhaust - Ram transmission swap - In-Tank Lift Pump
Moab Wheels - 245/75/R16 LR E Cooper Discoverer AT3 Tires - OME Lift 790/90009 948/60069 - Etecno Glow Plugs - V6 Airbox
RUNNING B100
Pic of my Jeep!

Just replace with standard AC schrader cores then. And make sure you put proper caps on.

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk

_________________
2006 Liberty CRD Limited

Provent @ 43,000 km
SEGR in progress
SAMCO Sport hoses @ 48500 km
Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac LT225/75R16

Yup, that's the plan. Bought the exact same kit as ebbnflow from Amazon last night... hopefully the leak is slow enough I won't have lost too much in five days. We'll see!

Amazingly, seems like keeping the plastic cap on the leaky valve was enough to prevent a pretty fast leak... second I took the cap off it was pssssssshhhhhhhht'ing all over the place.

I picked up this tool:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015KH93K/

and that Glarks valve core set and had it fixed in about 3 minutes.

Next up, hopefully my last order with moparpartsgiant for a while... a replacement CCV hose and a replacement turbo oil drain gasket. Pretty sure I'm still gonna be left with a weeping rear end (ick), but I can live with the current state. It's not what I want but it's definitely not worth starting over again. Next time I'm covering that stupid rear bearing carrier with sealant. I am sure it's what's leaking and not the RMS.

That is because the cap is the seal, not the schrader. The schrader allows service access.

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk

_________________
2006 Liberty CRD Limited

Provent @ 43,000 km
SEGR in progress
SAMCO Sport hoses @ 48500 km
Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac LT225/75R16