I agree to replace the thermostat housing and gasket. Cheap and easy to do. After that, nothing should leak out

 

Alright so i replaced the thermostat, the housing and gaskets but i still have no coolant in the overflow bottle after another fill up. at this point im thinking its a cracked head as i cant find another leak anywhere and i do have some power loss. Should i just buy another engine and swap it? i found this on the local CL and i know we cant post links so heres the description and pictures, let me know what you guys think. He is asking $350 but if its a good buy ill try for $300

Description:
have a jasper reman 4.0 for a jeep wrangler or cherokee. bought it last summer cause i thought mine wasnt going to last long but its still kicking. now have the jeep sold so i dont need it.

guy i got it from said it has about 20k miles on it. i have no paperwork, but it is fairly clean. turns over freely and seems to have good compression.

comes with everything in the pics...alt, power steering pump, ac comp (which is just about seized), fan. needs a new dist cap, and the valve cover has a 2" crack right on top in the front. jb weld would fix it easy if you dont have a cover to put on it.

i paid $400, just lookin to get some of my money back. i spoke with jasper and this engine was built to 1991 - 1995 specs which is the higher horsepower rating.

heres pics:



I know its built to 95 specs and i have an 01 but ill have extra parts from everything thats still good so idk maybe it would work. Either way let me know what you think

 

I'd buy it for $300.

But as a last ditch effort you could run some kind of stop leak through your radiator and see what happens. If it clogs the leak then you can roll it til its uncloged and THEN swap the motor. BUT that motor won't work you would need an 0331 head to use your coil packs or swap the system to a 97-99 type system. I'm not exactly sure what all is invloved with that though.

 

Yeah I've read a lot that trying to patch a crack just leads to further contamination so I'm gonna stay away from that. The reason in thinking about swapping the engine is I don't know how much damage the coolant has done to the internals.

 

Ewwwwww I see an OCOD.

 

Maybe a noob question but what's a OCOD? And also I just snapped this pic real quick on my way to work but does this look like a crusted over crack? This I right through the oil cap between 3 & 4

 

is there a manifold issue? ie crack, leak mines crackd and in traffic i sit at 210 215. soon as i get roolin it goes dwn to 190. hot starts too.

 

No manifold issue. I replace the headers a few weeks ago and had no problems with the intake. The pic didn't load before so her it is. Like I said this is just a quick shot looking through the oil cap

 

anyone have any other ideas on the engine swap idea? not that one specifically but just in general? I'm worried about the internals of the engine at this point if it does turn out to be a cracked head

 

I am having some very similar problems. My 2000 xj is overheating when wheeling and having rough starts and bad idling. So far I have traced the vacuum lines, cleaned the throttle body, replaced map sensor, IAC, ECS, new radiator, tripple efans. It has also popped codes for it running too lean. Have any suggestions? Oil changed last week and no apparent problems with the head.

 

OCOD - orange can of death. A Fram filter. Bigggg thumbs down. I'd keep looking and try and find a later engine (0331 head), that way it'll be a direct swap.

 

Oh yeah I've read about fram. I'll start looking for something else haha

 

Alright guys I am at a loss for words here. I have replaced the water pump, thermostat, thermostat housing, two of the hoses, the radiator cap, and today I finally pulled the valve cover and cannot find a crack in the head. Yet I'm still getting hot starts and may still have coolant loss (I refilled the bottle today do ill know for sure in a day or two). My mechanical fan clutch seems to be fine and my e- fan works fine, there are no visible leaks and I'm completely stumped at this point. My only guess now could be a bad radiator? Also could someone tell me how to properly test the fan clutch? Here's a pic I snapped after cleaning between the 3rd and 4th cylinder and I don't see a crack. Any ideas you guys have or any suggestions are greatly appreciated. I'm starting to lose my mind a little bit with this cooling system. Thanks.

 

I have he same problem with my 1993 xj w when I am running slow on trial. This started after I added a winch which blocked some of air flow . I found out that my electric fan does not come on on all the time. I am thinking about removing old electric fan and clutch fan and adding a double electric fan.

 

Ok maybe I'll try wiring the e- fan on to see if that helps at all. I'm willing to try anything at this point hah