Hey guys I have a 2000 cherokee that has 165,000 miles on it. I want to turn it into a rock crawler and spend a good amount of money into it but I think that it might have to many miles/. I dont wanna do an upgrade like this and have the engine fail on my 20,000 miles after i put it on. Would it be worth it??

 

The 4.0's in our XJ are almost bullet-proof if taken care of. My '91 has 278,xxx miles on it and is still running strong. To my knowledge, it has never been rebuilt and I have only ever had to do minor maint. on it.
I'd say to build it, have fun and run it until it dies...then bring it back to life.

 

I have a 4.0l in my 89 cherokee and it has 258,000 miles on it and my father has owned it since 89 mostly did regular maintenance the only issue was at 215k i had to replace thetransmission from the peugot to the AX15. I would say you are fine with the modification these vehicles are very well built and only have the issue of rusting apart for the body and frame if not well taken care of as what happened to my 86 cherokee.

 

Mine had 240k miles when I had to rebuild it.

 

Being a 2000 watch out for the 0331 head (known to crack if overheated), make sure the cooling system is kept in top shape and keep an eye on the temp. As long as the head doesn't crack it should be able to go 200,000 - 300,000 miles easily with proper maintenance, there are even some 4.0L I6s out there with well over 500,000 miles on them.

 

They are right 300k is about the normal max life we see out of a 4.0.One with 600k on it http://www.allpar.com/old/high-miles/richey.php

 

Amazing

 

Mine has 253k and still running very strong. I say go for it, that jeep has plenty of life left.

 

The one with 600k the guy bought it new and took really good care of it is why.

 

Well, I wouldn't worry yet at 165K, that's about half the engine's life. But.. you could spend a little more $$ and stroke the motor while you're at it. That'd give you an essentially new engine, minus the 0331 head worries.

 

I've had over 300,000 on a couple Cherokees, without any real engine problems. Yes, there's the head issue, but that's endemic to your year and isn't going to change if you get one with fewer miles: just take care of it, don't overheat, and replace as necessary. But don't worry about engine longevity at 165,000 miles: I don't think I've ever owned a Cherokee with so few miles!

 

20,000 miles crawling rocks is a lot of crawling.

 

Just plain silly to worry about what "might happen", it's a freakin Jeep, not a guaranteed return investment.
Drive it >
Break it >
Fix it >
Drive some more >
Break it...

 

Daily driver as well