Looks like I'll be dropping the oil pan on my '98 XJ, 4.0, 4x4, 3" lift. I'm expecting to find pieces o' piston greeting me. Any "gotchas" to dropping the pan, or is it pretty straight forward? Thanks in advance.

 

pretty strait forward, make sure you dont catch the oil pick-up tube on the baffle lip and the front of the oil pan sump.

just drop it strait down as far as possible, then eyeball it after that.

 

If you have or can get your hands on an engine hoist, use it to raise the front of your rig. It makes getting the pan out a lot easier.

 

ha funny coincidence.. im pulling my pan tomorow cuz im pretty damn sure i'll be finding the skirt from the #4 piston floating in there. been havin a loud funky sounding knock comin from cyl 4, listened to a few videos of xj's with broken piston skirts and it sounds dead on.. so ughhh.. haha.

anyway, the more lift you have the easier it'll be, i had to swap pans on my stock jeep and it was kind of a pain but not really that bad; youve got 3" lift so yours should come out fairly easily. if memory serves, the starter needs to be removed.

 

If you can't get a hoist use a jack on the radiator support with a 4x4 or something to the like to get the space for the axle.

 

I did this last year on mine I jacked the jeep up set it on stands let the front suspension droop . I had to unbolt the pass side upper control arm to get the pan out , as others stated above you will have to fanagle the pan past the pick up .

 

That^

 

Thanks, guys!

 

I'm curious: does yours quiet down when you pull the #4 plug wire? I've had alot of mechanics listen to mine, with little agreement on the cause of the noise, so I'm doing exploratory surgery. Mine sounds very much like Way Weird's video of the the broken piston skirt, but the noise doesn't go away when I pull plug wires, so I'm not sure.

 

You may be hearing flex plate noise.

Try this: Engage parking brake, start engine, place tranny in drive, hold brake and give it a little gas. If the noise dissipates it may be loose flex plate/torque converter bolts or cracked flex plate.

If the above proves true, remove the flex plate inspection cover and check the tightness of the four flex plate to torque converter bolts, inspect for cracks in the flex plate, and inspect for elongated bolt holes in the plate.

 

Thanks, Ken. I've had the cover off. The plate->converter bolts are fine, and I can see no cracks. However, I've heard it said that many times the flexplate breaks around the crank bolts, and can't be seen unless the trans is removed.

 

actually its the opposite, the noise gets louder when i pull the #4 plug wire. it gets quieter when i put a load on the engine, and gets louder when the revs are coming down or if its idling.

so i pulled my pan today, (tight squeeze but i didnt remove my starter), and found a lot of metal chunks and shrapnel, floating around in the pan and clogging my pickup tube. peeked up and sure enough, the skirt was broken clear off the #4 piston.

 

Sorry to hear that! What are your plans for the engine?

 

Here's a couple pics of cracked flexplates - around the crank flange - that I captured from the forums.





Did you try loading the flexplate like I described in the post above?

 

Yes, I did. The noise did not lessen under load. I put it in gear and held the brakes, and revved it up to approx 1600 rpm, then put it in neutral and revved it to about 1600 rpm, and there was no difference in the noise between neutral and in gear.