Chrislnow

Hi all, I have recently been through a series of repairs on my jeep and am now facing what I hope is the end culprit to my problems (lol, ya, the end to this problem, there are several others but they can wait).

For starters, the Jeep has had a misfire in cylinder #2 since I purchased it in December. I have replaced plugs, wires, dist cap, and rotor and also put in a new fuel injector on that cylinder, and still have the misfire.

About a month ago, my radiator began leaking pretty severely (I did not see any leaks prior to seeing it running like a faucet) I replaced it the next day. This solved the problem for about 2 weeks.

I was on the interstate in traffic on 228 toward houston when I saw steam begin coming out of the hood, I drove it to the nearest offramp and parked it. It was obviously overheating, but my temp gauge never read over 220?

I returned later that morning and drove it the 4 miles home. It ran fine until the last bit of stretch, where it began to detonate and ping.

The lower radiator hose had burst. I replaced all hoses, and thermostat, started it up, and it began to run hot at idle after a few minutes, shut it off and replaced water pump. After the water pump is when the white smoke started. I guess the old pump wasnt pushing enough coolant to make smoke? There is very little coolant in my oil, and the engine still sounds fine when I start it.

All that being said, I have some questions I would like ya'lls input on.

1. Could a weak head gasket have been the problem with the cylinder misfire eventhough no other symptoms were present?
2. When running, there is smoke (steam?) coming from under the intake manifold. Is this the head gasket or something else, it wasnt there before the overheat.
3. I have never done a head gasket before. All the above work that I mentioned I have done myself. Is this all that dificult?
4. Should I plan to replace the intake manifold and exhaust gasket as well? Are they one gasket or two?
5. The jeep has 213,000 on it, I can get a remanned head for 165. Given the overheat and mileage, would it be wise to go with remanned head over machining the old one? will that make things more complicated when doing the gaskets etc?
6. And lastly, im in the houston area, anyone seen a cheap front drive shaft? Just thought I would throw that out there.

Thanks for the input!

01Grn_XJ

1. Yes the head gasket could have been the problem with the misfire the whole time if it were leaking compression.
2. Yes it is most likely linked to the head problem it could have cracked (don't know how prone these are to cracking) when you over heated the engine.
3. IF you take your time and pay attention to how everything comes off and keep track of parts then it will probably be just time consuming and tedious. (Again I have never done a head on one of these motors so I really don't know if there are any major pain in the **** things about them)

4.Absolutely want to replace all gaskets that you are disturbing when taking it apart. I would do another thermostat too just for safety sake.
5. Personnally you do what you wish but I would say a remanned head (assuming it is complete and not just a casting) for $165 I would check and see what it would cost to get it magnafluxed and decked (machined flat again) and I bet that will out weigh the cost of the reman head.

Again this is all just my $0.02

cdeal28078

One thing about a re manufactured head ( if is a quality one) is you will have a new valve job. Not sure what it would cost to have your old head mag tested for cracks, resurfaced or flattened, and a valve job done to it but $165 doesn't sound like it would cover that work too me.
Are you mechanically inclines? Have basic hand tools including a 1/2" torque wrench? If not you can buy a fairly cheap one to get buy with.
I think with a book on the Jeep, a decent set of tools and a basic working knowledge you could do a head change.
clint

OldMan

Do it yourself.

Take plenty of pictures so you KNOW how things came apart.

Replace the thermostat.

You'll be proud.

bigjustice91

This is what I would do. Replace the head gasket, inspect the head; if it is cracked, replace it in a heartbeat. If not, change the head gasket, replace all the antifreeze, and make sure no hoses, or lines, are touching at all. Also about the miss; my 96 xj had a miss and I changed all the wires, plugs, dist cap, and rotor button but no luck. When I changed the distributor, it was perfect. Just make sure to retime the jeep. If you need help on retiming it, just hit me up. Alot of people out there have said their "own personal way" of timing things; and they never work. Go with the SAE way of timing it.

Hommersimpson

IF it did over heat several times... and with 213 on clock....redoing the head will only buy you some time...Ofcourse the smart thing would be yank motor and rebuild top to bottom have head redone..... You might want to just pull head.. pull oil pan.. inspect bearings and have head checked out for cracks....if bearings are ok.. and head ok just do gasket.. if bearings have copper showing.. then its time to replace them to while you got it down...
Just my opinun... but many many of times ive seen heads redone only to have the bottom end start knocking shortly after...

Chrislnow

Hey all, I appreciate the replies. I agree with yanking the current motor due to having so many miles on it; however I am getting married in two weeks so money for my toy is tight (And thats putting it lightly lol) I figured going with a new head would be cheaper than having my current one machined. Perhaps I need to start calling salvage yards and see what they have available. Ill let ya'll know what happens. Im going to start tearing down this week.

fishtaconc

I agree inspect the bearings first, itll cost about $250 for a complete head job (hot tank, flatness check, magnaflux, mill for flatness), Autozone sells reman heads for $386, also when you pull the head rotate the crank to bring the pistons to TDC, see you can move the pistons side to side (drivers side to pass. side) this will give you an idea if the rings collapsed to a point. Also if you get a jy head, see if they will offer a warranty the jys here will offer a 30 day if pay 30% more.

fantic238

1,3,4,5: yes
2:check the foundry plugs on the block.
6: no

Chrislnow

Well I started taking apart the jeep, pulled radiator....again, figured might as well. Ill take some pictures of the the underneath of the valve cover tomorrow, I have a feeling its going to be nasty.

How difficult is dropping in an engine into one of these? From what I have read, seems pretty straightforward. My last car was a volvo, I wouldnt get near it with a wrench
while on the topic of engines, strokers? There are several places that carry stroked long blocks, aside from upgrading fuel injectors, anyone have experience with other hang ups? I have read about MAP sensor adjustments, but not sure if that applies to my model year.

Chrislnow

Not sure if anyone is interested in seeing this, but here is the progress so far, keep in mind this is probably the farthest I have had a vehicle torn down lol.



I havent posted pics on here yet, hopefully it works.
I was surprised, it was much cleaner under there then I had anticipated!

Chrislnow

ok it worked this time.

Hommersimpson

that is fairly clean.... i got a used engine when we got ours... motor swaps are easy in these.. plenty of room..