Octavius

Hey Guys, My jeep overheated on the trail 2 and a half weeks ago and i pretty much killed the engine getting it out of the trails. I thought i would be fine once i got it out of the trails and somewhere where a tow truck could come get it. So i got it out, and they took it to the shop, and they said i needed a new engine. I drive an 89, i was wondering which years of engines would fit with mine? i need help, i dont know much about this stuff

tiwvr1

Y do you need a new engine, is it running messed up, or does the shop just want to make money?

trans_am7935

why do you need a new engine, i overheated my old 88 a bunch of times, there was no need for a new engine. did they tell you exactly what is wrong with it? did you warp the heads, blow the head gasket, bust a freeze plug, what is actually wrong with it, then we could give you a suggestion if you need a "new" engine

Octavius

i am really not sure. Its a guy that we know very well though so he wouldnt be scamming us. I mean it over heated really really bad. And it had done it before. I was an idiot and tried to drive it to the shop and it died on the way there and the tow truck came. The engine had close to 200,000 on it, so i think it is just not worth it to fix it, you know?

Octavius

they said the head was warped. We thought i busted the freeze plug, but they ran a compression test but it passed that just fine. The p.o. put the wrong water pump in, so they thought that was the problem, so they fixed that, but it still didnt work. It sat at that shop for 2 weeks and they didnt do much, so we took it to the shop of the guy that we know, and he looked at it and he said i needed a new engine just from looking at it once. He didnt say why though

DFlintstone

200,000 Eh? Just curious, what'd she do? knocken like a Disco? Smoken like Rastafarian? Do we get the gory details?

Octavius

ha alright well, i was wheeling with my buddy, who has a pathfinder. He went up this hill no problem, because pathfinders come stock with limited slip diffs. I didnt know this at the time, so i tried to go up this same hill that was alot steeper than it looked, made it about 3/4 of the way, then started coming back down. I held the steering wheel tight but she started kicking out to the left. Thank god a tree stopped me. so i was sitting there, almost sideways, at probably like a 65 degree angle for about 5 minutes while i tried to get out, then finally, as my friend was hooking up the tow cables to give me a tug to get out of the rut i had dug, we noticed the coolant absolutely pouring out from right behind my right front wheel well. I got off the hill, popped the hood and the coolant container was shaking and whistling like a teapot. It was boiling hot. My friend went and got me some water to put it it, cause my coolant was gone, and i started her up again and made it out of the trail, and yeah then i tried to make it to the shop, stopped at a traffic light on a busy road around 5:30 pm on a weeknight. Pressed the gas, and she didnt budge. Thats about it. :/

odgreen

I drove my 89 for 18 miles with the temp needle pegged above 260. Did the head gasket and milled the head and it's still going today 10k miles later. It had 379k when it happened.

Octavius

holy ***** man, thats crazy. I hope we can salvage this one. Im not really sure though. Theyre closed on the weekends so i wont hear anything until monday

Octavius

this is where the coolant was coming from

CPLSeraphim

I tend to agree with everyone else. The inline 6 engines are just getting broken in at 200K. Theres still half of it's life left. If it is something pretty simple, you shouldn't swap the engine. The good thing you pointed out is that your coolant was going on the ground, that means you didn't blow any gaskets. If you had, it's be in your oil instead. Might be something wrong with the head, but If i were you, I would go with whatever was the most cost effective. If a new engine with 75K runs you 600, and fixing yours would cost you 1000, go with the new engine. Let us know what happens, bro.

Octavius

yeah man, i dont really know. Ha i know you guys are gonna make fun of me but im just a 16 year old, so this was my first car, so i dont have much experience with this. But im learning. Yeah i sure hop i dont need a new one

odgreen

Typical coolant bottle destruction after you get the head or motor done I would upgrade to a cooling system out of a 91 and up xj. I did and very happy I did

Octavius

yeah i am definitely going to do that, cause i have had problems with it before too. Do vents help overheating enough to bother putting them in?

odgreen

Yes sir. I spaced my hood up to help with cooling. It works awesome too