Hey its Bigwilly

I introduced myself in the welcome section and i thought i would pop over here.

The background is i am involved in the Online Poker industry and live near a safe juristiction.
Due to the way the industry moves so fast people move from country to country.

A girl left to go to costa rica in a hurry so to help her out i bought her 86 classic cherokee for €400 = $584.

I have plenty of cars in my household so this is a pure hobby car to play with over the winter.

I knew the car was in bad shape and had been sat at least 6 weeks.

The car has always been a bit noisy since the girl bought it 2 years ago but recently before it was parked up it kept stalling.

This is an automatic car so i jumped it with jump leads.
It started ok but sounded like it was misfiring on a cylinder or two.
I left the jeep running for 10 minites to charge the battery up but when i setoff the car stalled.

I opened the oil filler cap and there was lots of smoke coming out of the hole like the engine was burning hot.
I put more oil in the engine and checked the dipstick to see but the level was fine.

So i tried to setoff and the car stalled.
I wont idle anymore and keeps cutting out as soon as i let off the accelerator.

I am sure i can get new parts for the vehicle here but i will be looking round all the breakers yards to see if i can buy old spares.
I assume i can because the police just take cars off people and break them up when they catch them with drugs or smuggled cigarettes.

Anyway thats the history.

Here are my problems.

I know i need a new battery because once a battery has been dead for 6 weeks its beyond repair.
The exaust is blowing and i think the manifold needs looking at because when i put my hand on the end of the eqaust i could hear the gas escaping.
There is lots of soot in the exaust but i put that down to the blowing exaust and the lack of running.

The stalling is a bit of a worry.
The girl who owned it took it to a local tyre repair place and they said it was the head gasket.
But there is no oil in the water or water in the oil.

If the battery wasnt working correct could this cause the stalling?
What is the common cause of a cherokee automatic stalling or not idling right?

I will post more details when i find them.

um where r u from?

Since you seem to have fuel & spark, I would recommend a compression test & leakdown test to begin with...A compression test will tell you whether you have adequate compression....A leakdown test should help to tell you where the compression is going if the compression test says you don't have adequate compression.
IIRC, a head gasket or cracked head doesn't always manifest as oil in water or water in oil.

Ok so to update this.

I started fixing the oil leaks by replacing a leaky pipe on the power steering.
The power steering is smooth and nice and noise free now.
So oil leak sorted.

Th radiator water was very rusty brown but not sludgy so i replaced the lower radiator pipe.
When i took the old pipe off it had all broken bits of the internal spring in it.

So i cleaned out the coolant system , refilled a little and went for a short run.

The Jeep was running ok but still stalling.

I then sat it to run for about 10 minites.
When the engine got hot (temp guage broken) it started to clank clank clank.
There was also a lot of steam coming from under the bonnet.
I looked and it was escaping from what seemed to be a core plug on the left side of the engine.
I waited for it to cool down and there is now lots of coolant leaking from my head.

I am assuming i have smoked either my head gasket or cracked my head or blown a valve or two.

My question is.

This will be a big job to fix.
I am more the replacing a hose type and fiddling on a sunday afternoon as a hobby.
I am technically competent but by no means a mechanic.

Is it a huge job to strip down the engine and replace the head gasket or is this a job for a garage as they are the pros?

Thanks, Bigwilly

You can do a head gasket yourself but you will need a torque wrench to get the proper settings on bolt tightness. It sounds like you had air pockets that turned to steam and blew a freeze plug or two. They are also called Welsh plugs.
Please give us more info about the Jeep is it a V6 or a inline 6 which makes a lot of difference when asking for advice. Where are you located so we will know where to refer you to for parts and etc...