NewbJeep

Hey, Guys. Long time fan of this site. Everyone is helpful and full of knowledge about Cherokees.
I'm tying to figure out if I should keep going with this Jeep or sell it off and look for another daily driver. Scroll to pics of engine compression readings since that's what I'm more concerned with. TL;DR: Is the engine in good enough shape to keep investing money (approximately $2k).

98 XJ 4.0L Aprroximately 120k on engine and 190-200k on body and trans. Reconstructed title so it's most likely been wrecked by previous owners.
She's been in the fam for 6-7 years. Driven by my brother, sister, dad, now me. My brother put it through the most hell with a crash landing in a ditch and later blowing the engine. His pot head mechanic didn't diagnose why it blew (failed water pump), installed a used engine and re-assembled with all the original auxiliary components... It almost blew again.

Flash forward to me. It'd been sitting in the yard, started every few weeks. I'm back from NYC so I needed a daily driver. I purchased off my dad for $500. I added $3-400 worth of things trying to find a rich mixture before Cherokee Forum user "salad" helped me find the culprit, a cracked header (Thanks, homie).

So, it needs a new manifold, springs, rear brakes, have to find a rumble noise (possibly front differential) plus whatever these engine compression readings are predicting. All-in, including the price I paid, I'm probably looking at $1800-2000.

What say you?

Jeep Driver

It's a whole lot easier to come up with $100 here and $300 there than to come up with $6K or a $550 a month car payment.

Fix it over time.


Compression is pretty good.

NewbJeep

I was thinking the same thing about the car payment. I hate a car payment. The 120 and 130 aren't too low compared to the others? I'm a backyard mechanic so I'm always learning. It's part of the fun as long as my back up vehicle keeps running

Jeep Driver

I would expect #1 to be on the lower side.......right in front of the water pump and gets the greatest fluctuation in temp.


Drive it.

Fred/N0AZZ

If overall condition is good for a 98 it would be worth putting some money into even if you had to do an engine rebuild down the road. They were a good year and rust is the main reason that most are junked or totaled.


At the price you paid all you really paid for was both differentials, trans and transfer case with drive lines if you had to sell.

BlueRidgeMark

Yes, they are too low.

By the book, at least.

It could run a long time that way. And you never know - a ring cleaning might bring them back up where they belong. It's cheap enough it's worth a shot.

I'd say fix it. Get it running reliably and keep an eye open for an engine that isn't totally trashed. Rebuild that as you have time.