Turbo Supra

Long story, short - I bought a jeep for $700. I'm new to the wonderful world of jeeps. I went to replace the valve cover gasket this afternoon and got a bit of surprise. The jeep was obviously neglected pretty bad.

It's about half an inch thick in some places. So far I have been scrubbing it off and vacuuming with a powerful shop vac. I have the oil holes plugged with towels until I get the big stuff out.

I can now see some of the engravings on the head!

I plan on running 1/3 seafoam in the oil tomorrow for about 20 miles. I plan on running some through the brake booster vacuum. I will then change the oil and filter. I will probably change the oil every 500 miles for awhile.



Thoughts? Advice? Send me a new motor?

CCKen

700 bux! that must be a real jewel.

Pull the oil pan off and clean it as well. You might need a snow shovel to clean it out. If you do pull the oil pan make sure you clean the oil pump pickup screen well. New gasket should be a Felpro one-piece rubber gasket. You'll need some RTV as well to replace the gasket.

Search on Google for procedures on how to R&R a Jeep Cherokee 4.0 oil pan.

Oil filters should be good but cheap. Use FL-1A Filters. They're only around $4.00 and just as good as the better brands. No need to waste money on good filters like Wix or Napa Gold at this point. Don't use Fram filters or you'll be tared and feathered by the members of the forum.

Roler

What year is your ride? It probably wasn't the pride of the lot with $700. You might be wanting to check a few things more.

However:
Some neglected individuals/animals/cars may give you a lot in return for your time/cleaning/TLC. The 4.0 (assuming you have one) is a sturdy engine, and, if not too badly neglected, might render you with a lot more miles (or in my case km's).
If you wanna give it a second chance, start by refreshing all the fluids/oils, do a tune up, clean and refresh your grounds. Good maintenance and gives you a nice benchmark for future reference.
(oh yeah, and investing in cooling system maintenance should not be overlooked).

Good luck with the project

Turbo Supra

Ask and you shall receive. It is a '99 Limited (loaded with outdated technologies, lol). It has 198,000 miles on it. I have started tuning it up and it ran rather well before I took off the valve cover and noticed junk fest.

So far I have completed:

• Spark Plugs
• Spark Plug Wires
• Distributor Cap
• Distributor Rotor
• New PCM (492AC - Some sort of rare PCM)
• Neon Injectors

What's left:

• Valve cover gasket
• Oil Sending Unit
• Brakes are ****ty, I imagine new rotors/pads and a good bleeding are in order

cruiser54

After cleaning out the chunks, Put 5 quarts of Rotella 15-40 diesel oil in it with a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil. Use a Wix or Napa Gold oil filter. Monitor the progress by shining a flashlight into the oil filler hole. About 2000 miles, you'll want to change oil filter, MMO, and filter again.

Roler

Cruiser, just out of interest...is that diesel oil plus MMO cocktail good for cleaning the caked gunk loose? Or better for seals? Or just because it has almost 200.000 miles...

odgreen

Looks like I know who you are.... lol

cruiser54

D. All of the above.

Roler

Awesome!! I knew it!

salad

Agreed, with that much **** you'd be better off pulling the pan. Once you get the bottom cleaned out, including getting the crud out of the oil pump pickup, attack the top with some small scraper and a vacuum to pick up the bits. Only once that's done would I consider something to break up the remaining sludge. There can be properly hardened bits of crud in there that will cause problems if they get lodged somewhere important.

DieselDaze

that was a hilarious unexpected read, good thing I wasn't sipping any coffee!!

OP, btw out of curiosity what would make you choose seafoam??

cruiser54

Hot coffee out my nose tends to burn my nose hairs......

EdZ

I use an old timer's solution... Use a bit thicker oil than normal (like 20w50) and use 1 quart of ATF... The ATF will thin the other 4 quarts back down as well as provide detergents to clean the sludge... This is not a fast process and helps prevent large chunks of the harder sludge from coming loose and clogging the pump intake... With the engine being this bad, I suspect this vehicle will become a money pit to you... It's highly likely that all the other maintenance was neglected as well... Have a smell of the trans oil dip stick... Does it have a burnt smell ??? How about the differential oil and the transfer case oil.... I doubt they have been tended to either... Jus sayin...

CCKen

A 492AC PCM shouldn't be that rare unless they are running out of them. The 492 AC is for 4.0, auto trans, Federal emissions, which is common for the '99 XJ.

Edit: Of course, If I wanted to scalp someone I'd say the part was rare.

skife

4.0 is hearty and will stand up to years of abuse, put a new valve cover gasket on it, change the oil, and drive it.
You've already done a tune up.