I have an 88 YJ with a 350 Chevy motor. I am running a BE COOL radiator with an electric fan but am overheating in the desert or when I am rockcrawlin'. It seems that there is not enough surface area in the radiator to cool the engine. Any ideas on radiators to put into the YJ?

If it don't puke it's guts out you are OK!! Do you have a 190* thermostat in there? If not then get one and take her out to see what happens. Just because it is not in the normal range is not bad... In fact it should run better at 230* than it does at 190*.
Big JIm <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

I am running a 190 thermostat in there right now. But actual temperature is in the 220 range. No engine problems right now. It just gets real hot under the hood, but the hoses haven't showed any signs of weakening. Thanks for the tip.

Last Sunday Jeff Gordon won a 500 mile race with steam pouring out of his engine for the last 60 miles. His temp guage was pegged at 280* and his engine was turning over 8000 rpm. Hot makes the engine run better till it goes away. I'd run what you have now till it DOES puke and then start worry'n bout it.
Big Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

You could put louvers in the hood to let the heat out. Summit sells some abs ones in a couple of different sizes. I put a 304 in my cj7 and it seems to run hot on the highway although listening to Jim it might not be to bad since it has never puked its guts out. I just ordered a couple of the summit louvers though to see it it will help. A friend has a 350 powered YJ and it was overheating even in a winter outing so he tried removing the hood completly and it helped, the motor ran a lot cooler.

If louvers are not what you pictured on the hood of your YJ maybe a cowl induction type of hood scoop would work to help reduce the underhood temps. Might be worth a try.
As to the high engine temps I tend to think they are a little high and maybe if the louvers/scoop don't help you will need something else. Do you have an auto or a stick? If you have an auto it could be eliminated from pre-heating the coolant by routing your trans fluid through its own cooler not the radiator. The next thing you can try is a pusher fan in front of the radiator to help when on the trail/rockcrawling. Last but not least would be to increse the cfm being pulled through the radiator by increasing the capacity of your current fan. All these things may have to be used together to affect the decreased temps you are looking for. Just MHO.

My rule of thumb for radiator size. The radiator surface area should at least the same as your engine's cubic inches, 350. I try to get the biggest radiator I can fit.
I swapped in a Chevy 350 into my Dodge D-50 4x4 and I run a 27x19 inch 2 core Griffen aluminum radiator. The radiator barley fits. I added a 1/2 inch spacer between the hood hinges and hood to hold the rear of the hood about 1/2 higher allowing the hot air to escape. I have a light weight plastic fan driven by the engine and two 10" electric fans in front of the radiator. I've never had to turn the electric fans due to overheating. It runs about 190 even when I am crawling.