Hi all

Earlier this year my 96 XJ blew a head gasket after a hose split, on the trip as I was moving out of home.
My stepfather managed to fix it while I was where I am, I went home to pick it up and it had this rumble as it idled but seemed ok when going. Couldn't really do much about it at that time.

A few weeks ago it didn't start, think a flooded engine (wasn't me!) and the plugs were checked and fine but cylinder 2 wasn't working.

I've taken it to my mechanic and he seems to think that its a valve issue, but doesn't know what.

Once underway it sounds like its running fine, the mechanic also said he thought it sounded like it was running again. At the same time I've noticed a fairly heavy power loss when taking off and going up hills.

So I just wanted to ask the folks here if they've seen any issues like this, whether it was the valve, keeping in mind that its recently had a head replaced. Any help would be greatly appreciated as mechanic says it'll cost me at least $1600 to fix it.

 

Pull the valve cover and crank the engine over to make sure all the rocker arms and pushrods are moving up and down as should. Maybe it wasn't put back together correctly.