rdr8887

For anyone that might remember...here is my previous thread.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/199...heated-171972/

Summary:
Bought friends 94 lifted 4wd. Dead. Did bunch of diagnostics to the motor. Realized it needed a new motor.

Soo...new motor ran great but overheated still. Replaced every part but radiator for the coolant system during swap. Never pressure tested coolant system after swap on new motor. Flushed a pile of rusty water and idled fine and stayed cool for 10minutes while flushing. Old radiator had a ton of rust. Not sure if it was in the donor motor though. Shoulda swapped the radiator too. Also heater core I guess.

Drove 6 miles let idle while it sat in parking lot for 10 minutes. Got back in and realized it was slightly hot. I also think I replaced this sensor during the swap. It's on driver side towards firewall. Made it back but ran warm. 20 degrees above or so. A lot more flushing and inspecting. Never got it right...would idle forever with cold water from hose cycling through but would run warm if left alone. I only used water.

Left radiator plug open to drain and left it. Got cold and we had a couple really hard freezes. Well, it's now march and I decide it's time to get her running. Starts on the first crank after a trickle charge. Idles rough for a second and dies. No start.

No big deal. I'll figure out that cooling problem I had first. Tighten down the drain plug and fill with water. After a few seconds water is gushing out of the side of the block under the manifolds. I cracked the block. Stick tactical cell phone camera down to inspect. Wait. Freeze plug is gone. Hmm. Pull the manifolds off and replace it. Still looked good. I'll just put it in a little tighter. Tapped a couple more in tight and poured water in. Came out the back this time. Ugh. That freeze plug is on the head.

Disconnected the transmission until the exhaust was in the way. Let the motor rock back in its mounts and could reach it enough to put a rubber stop in. No room to hammer without pulling the motor. Installed. Let's pressure test before going any further. Fill with a gal and half with water. No pressure. Weird sounds. Pump faster....thinks about building pressure the fails. Weird sound. Pull oil cap and feel the air when someone else pumps on tester.

Ugh. Haven't drained the oil yet to see if it's all water or what. I think there is probably going to be about a gallon of water in there given how much it's angled in the mounts.

Pretty sure she's dead. Ha. Just thought someone might laugh as much as I did. This will be the third motor in a year. My buddy killed it then I did. The case of the cursed Jeep.

There is good news though. I did realize the brakes are failing. More than pads. Going to be a caliper problem I think. The front end is scary bad. It doesn't have sway bars in the front or rear. So, it's hard to tell what was going on with the limited drive time. But, it needs work.

Good looking Jeep though.

Bustedback

Jeeps are like women. The nice looking ones keep you coming back for more crap because they look so damn good. But a slightly ugly woman will be reliable and never let you down, she will try harder to keep you happy. For every beautiful woman there is a guy someplace that is tired of her ****.

rdr8887

I know right. Lol.

I'm deciding between tearing it down or yanking the motor. The only thing holding it in is motor mounts at this point. It's ready to pull.

rdr8887

Does anyone know what likely happened to the block? Think there is a chance it's just my head gasket? Obviously oil and coolant are combining at some point. However, I'm not exactly sure how many places this is likely to happen. If it's a head I'd like to just replace that. Before I start tearing the top half of the motor down id like or be sure. It still feels like it has great compression when I turn the crank.

Since this happened in a freeze and the head freeze plug pushed out, maybe it's just a head? I'm sure there are others much more familiar with the internal engine than I am.

Turbo X_J

If the block had been filled with water, it's broke.

rdr8887

If I wanted to physically see the internal crack...would those water jackets be below the pistons? I guess so. Too bad the freeze plugs didn't work. I wonder if they ever do.....

At this point this jeep is my learning project. I've never swapped a motor before this one. It's kinda fun. Although I don't like wasting money. Good thing I only spent $40 on the last motor. I bought it for $200 and the guy couldn't get the top two tranny bolts off (reverse torx bit). So, I got a tranny with it. Sold the tranny and the motor washed to about $40. The head was probably dead on it anyway.

Lesson learned. Just because you thought you emptied the coolant system doesn't mean it is. Verify.

Bustedback

Freeze plugs are really just plugs to fill the holes in the block where the casting sand was shaken out of the block after it was cast. They were never meant to pop out in case of a freeze.