I recently bought a used Cherokee with 116K that appeared to be in good condition. I was aware of the head crack issue and the symptoms both which I found to be missing. Yesterday I was changing the valve cover gasket and inspected the typical crack location and am curious(paranoid!) if I'm looking at a crack. This is only visible from an angle on the side and is not visible inspecting the head from the oil cap. Is this any reason to worry? If so I intend to do the oil pressure/compression check and consider my options from there.

From the side

From the top

 

Pressurize the cooling system and you should see the coolant coming though the crack . that's how I found the crack on the head I just got done changing .

 

Thanks, plan on doing so tommorow, will let you know.