Me and the '96er ran into a guy the other day who had seen a lot of my same 4.0 engines. He had talked about showing me where the engine would first 'show a crack,' but unfortunately we never got around to getting the hood up. I'm guessing he was talking about the block but I'm not entirely sure. Have any of you seen enough of these engines to recognize a pattern in where a crack would start to show up? I'm at 173k mostly very easy miles so it probably wouldn't hurt to start keeping an eye out for something like this. Lord knows any more oil on the engine probably wouldn't get my attention.

 

He's probably referring to the known head issues on the 00-01 models, well known to crack between 3 and 4. You can usually view it just under the oil cap. As you have a 96, you're probably safe, LOL...

 

He might also have been talking about the exhaust header cracking where the various pipes come off of the exhaust manifold and flow into the single pipe. They often develop cracks there over time.

 

He might also have been showing off his ignorance.