Valve cover gasket replacement is easy.

Take the opportunity to completely clean out the inside of the cover, and possibly replace the CCV (crankcase ventilation) tubes (2 of them) that connect to the valve cover. They get brittle and sometimes clogged over time. Replacement parts not expensive and recommended.

 

Sorry. I have half a gallon left, haha. It's in there, dontchuworry.

I also have Mothers leather cleaner & heavy duty glass cleaner to wash the oil off my rear window (oil leak + half a muffler = greasy greasy window)

As well as an emergency roadside kit my mama gave me for Christmas, lol. Complete with jumper cables, heavy duty flashlight, FLARES! LOL I love the flares. MUD BOOTS..because she knows I'm addicted to it. Emerg. rain coat & other little tidbits. A couple tow ropes. Spare wipers. And a 12 pack of bottled water

 

I'm 5'2 and can barely reach where I put the oil in..lol..it's pitiful. I also wouldn't know what to look at, really.

God, I'd love it if another '92 owner could upload a video showing me where to look. Life would be great, haha.

I live in a town where I don't know many people, and the few I know all work out on the rigs and stay at camps, 1-2 hours out of town, so getting a buddy to check it out is easier said than done. And yea, they charge just to look here. It's awful.

 

The other thing.. I'm more than willing to crawl over/in/under my Jeep and try to learn about her as best as I can, and attempt to fix things myself. But it can get to -30 here, and all I have is a muddy snowy driveway. And 2 small jacks.

 

My auto service technician used to be a cardiac surgeon.....he says he now works half as long but makes twice as much.

 

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/rea...lacement-4426/
http://jeepin.com/features/rearmain
http://go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoRearMain.htm

 

If I were you, I wouldn't sign it off as the rear main yet. Lord knows mine dripped, and I was for sure it was the dreaded rear main seal, but I also read up on other known "leakers" with the 4.0

If your valve cover gasket has never been changed, then change it first. If you can, buy the replaceable silicone gasket, but the cork/rubber works fine WITH a little RTV on both sides. Really easy project, but with you being "Vertically Efficient" as my mother's boss used to say, either have a good bucket or friend to assist you. All it is is unhooking the two top CCV hoses, a few bolts, and viola! There is a really good write-up on the forum that would serve wonders. Good luck!!

 

Jeez, Rustie, You sound like my kinda gal.

 

lol, I was thinkin the same thing...... too bad she isn't down here in Indiana (it's a whole lot cheaper to live here!) I could fix her XJ and in the meantime she could drive one of my three XJ's.... well, 1 on the road and one off road, #1's getting an engine overhaul.... if all else fails their is always the 97 Ram 2500HD 4x4 too....

 

the valve cover is an easy fix just get a new gasket and dont be afraid to use some extra gasket compound the rear main is a two piece seal but you need to drop the pan first the hardest part is getting the pan off and removing the old gasket try using the search function and search for rear main seal replacement When I did mine i got the full list of instructions off of this site. Good Luck.

 

yeah you dont have to drop the tranny or jack up the engine, you can if you want to but i think it would be easier to disconnect the front shocks, the front swaybar and drop the axle as far is it goes, you might have to unbolt the trac bar too, but that should be enough to get the pan out, thats the hardest part of the whole job, there isnt enough room in these things when they are stock, they should have just lifted them from the factory haha

 

This guy is on the right track. You definitely want to pinpoint the location the leak is originating from before tearing things apart (especially the rear main, which done incorrectly will make things worse).

My advice is to to to the car wash, and spray the underside of the engine and oil pan down REALLY well to get all the oil/grease/dirt off (a cleaner called "simple green" works wonders here). Drive it around the block a few times (low speed not highway) to dry it off and to get the oil flowing. Hopefully at this point you'll be able to see exactly where the oil is coming from.

By far the most common area for a oil leak on our vehicles is the oil filter adapter (where the filter screws in). There are 3 o-rings that are known to leak when they deteriorate, and the leak flows to the back of the oil pan under higher speed, making it look like the oil comes from the rear of the engine. It's a pretty cheap and simple fix to replace these. It's also common for the oil pressure sending unit (located on top of the filter adapter with the wires plugged into it) to leak when the sending unit goes bad. That's another option.

 

I forgot to mention the oil-filter adapter. But now that you mention it, I think I remember seeing a thread on here one day where a guy could only find a two piece kit for his adapter, and then someone else chimed in that they combined two of the o-rings into one gasket. Not sure if this right, but if you've replaced one maybe you can reassure/ sign-off this bit of info. I gotta replace mine soon as well... lots of wonderful oil/sludge-crap on the adapter lol.

 

x2, we have a lot of places to leak haha, but i would do this and see where your actually leaking from, but dont let it scare you cause any kind of leak these motors have are not too difficult to fix, the rear main being the hardest, but not too bad

 

Wait... why am I your kind of girl?

Because I own a vehicle and I'm willing to learn about it? Christ, that should be said for every vehicle owner. If you buy something, invest some time and sweat into it, or get on the damn bus.



.......my Jeep is an XJ?! I don't even know what an XJ is, lol.