I'm going to look at a 2000 Cherokee, 4.0, automatic this afternoon that I might buy. It's got 56,000 miles. The owner said that it overheated and shut off. She got several different opinions on what was wrong and decided to buy a new Wrangler, so it's up for sale. My question is, other than coolant on the dipstick, is there another way to tell if she did any serious damage to that I6. I've had two Wranglers with that motor and I've never had a problem. The things are bullet proof, but I don't know if they're heat proof! Any opinion is greatly appreciated. I don't want another big project in my garage.

 

may have blew a head gasket. Will it start at all? Is there any smoke coming out the back? Once you figure all that out, you will need to get to the root cause of why it over heated

 

Oh and welcome to CF

 

check spark plugs and look for any white frost on them indicating a blown head gasket. Start it up and listen to it, listen for any knocking or clicking. I have a hard time believing that she blew a 4.0 at less than 60k you could get a heck of a deal out of this!!

 

Thanks. I've been looking for a Cherokee for awhile now. Okay, I went and looked at it. It starts, but runs like crap. It won't drive out of their yard, or at least I'm not driving it. There's no water on the dipstick, but it runs like it's only hitting on 5 cylinders. I agree with you, I doubt she blew that 4.0, but she definitely did something. She said it overheated and then cut off. She said someone told her that was a safety feature, but I've never heard of that. I think it's a head gasket. I didn't look at the plugs. There's also a lot of corrosion an the pulleys and misc. bolts and things, like it's been in the snow. It's a Florida Jeep, so I was surprised. We don't see much of that down here. I'm running a carfax. Has anyone ever heard of the safety shutoff thing she's talking about?

 

I am in florida also, not to many rust issuesAntifreeze is very corrosive (i use it as a parts cleaner sometimes, but not for to long) and that could be what caused that around the pulleys

 

I was thinking the same thing. Have you ever heard of an auto shutoff in an overheating situation? Also, there is no CEL, but it runs like someone disconnected a plug wire.

 

Sounds like you might get a great deal on this if its something you can fix.

 

No sorry , never heard of that

 

Yeah, I can get it fixed, but I'm just wondering if she cooked that motor. It cranks and runs and will idle, but it sounds bad.

 

honestly it may just need a new coil pack when mine when it did exactly that ran on 4 cylinders and the motor jerked and chugged and shock a 150 bucks later and about 1.5 yrs never another prob

 

i have never heard of the high temp shut down on any car. from my knowlege, over heat to shut down BAD. however, i bad plug or wire could net you a good deal on any easy fixer upper.

 

It's a 2000, so there's a good chance the head is toast. I'd consider the cost of replacing it when making an offer.

 

If the current owner will allow do a compression test. The "running on 5 cylinders" could be a bent rod if the motor sucked water. That could also explain the rust.

 

In addition to the compression test, the word on the 'net is that a leakdown test is a little more reliable for evaluating the cracked 0331 head. FWIW.