thanks guys

 

​​​​​​Fan Clutch: besides the obvious quality issue (rule of thumb cheap fan clutch will overheat your engine under hard load..like 4x4ing) there is one thing that is important to look for. "Fluid Clutch" or "Thermo Clutch" It's easy to tell as one has a smooth "face" and the other has a wound up steel "spring looking" piece dead center on the "face" The fluid style is cheap and a very questionable choice considering the high Temp's it forces the engine to endure. A quick rule of thumb: Good fan clutch is usually around $100.00. Fan clutch is mainly for Northern vehicles to assist in quicker operating temps from a cold start ( for the folks who don't let their engines heat up before driving and quicker heater function). Personally I don't run one at all, instead I have electric fans for cooling my radiator. I let my engine warm up ( mainly to get oil temp. up) I makes a big difference in "hard load" engine temps. That's why race cars and bikes have a warm up lap before the start of a race or even rolling starts. Cold oil puts a lot of extra wear on an engine. I run an oil temp guage and wait until it's warmed up before driving.

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Can you do valve seals on the bench or has to be on the engine.

Had a shop tell me because the valves don't spin on a Jeep its a lot more work.

 

The valves dont spin? I don't know what that means but I am not a 4.0 expert. But saying "jeep" is a pretty broad term Jeep has made alot of different engines

They can be replaced with the head on the block. It is a pain but pretty simple. You have to crank the engine by hand till its at the right spot for each cylinder when the valves are closed. Then you need to have/make an adapter for an air line to attatch to that screws in the spark plug hole to keep the cylinder pressurized so the valve dont drop. some people will shove a bunch of thin rope in the cylinder so if the valve does drop it wont be out of reach. then you take off the rocker and replace the seals. they make tools to compress the valve spring

 

Well it's for the 4.0 and even the fsm says do it with installed. If it's something that can be done on the bench maybe I will

 

On the bench will be easiest but thats only if the head is already off.

 

lol... well in any case, I don't put all my faith in MOPAR branded stuff. I don't believe they're manufactured in the USA anymore. Seems like the quality of their OE-branded parts has gone to the ****ter. So if I'm going to end up with overseas-manufactured parts regardless, may as well not get wallet-raped in the process.

You can do either. If the head isn't already off though, just do them on the engine. If you pull the head just to do the valves, you're looking at the possibility of needing head studs (you can only re-use them once) and/or breaking a head off in the stud, plus you'll need to buy a new head gasket, and removing the head isn't a total picnic to begin with.

If you do remove the head, make sure you have a good torque wrench and have the torque sequence chart handy. Torque sequence MUST be used for both REMOVAL and INSTALLATION to avoid breaking a head stud.

If I were you, I'd just do them with the head attached to the motor. It's much less involved and only takes an hour... two hours tops.

Also, get yourself a good pickup magnet and keep them near the keepers when you remove them. They're under a fair amount of pressure, so it's not uncommon for them to go popping out and flying off in another direction -OR- falling down one of the oil galleys.

When I did mine, there was a good deal of carbon buildup that was keeping the valvestem from wanting to separate from the keepers and rockers. A good whack from a ballpeen hammer to the top of your tool will give it just enough vibration to loosen everything up and come loose for you.

Don't forget to torque the rockers back to spec with proper pre-load on the valves.

 

Lol head is off and nothing crazy or difficult and at the shop. If they give it a clean bill of health valve stem seals will most likely be done.

Was looking for feedback.

 

Guess we're just supposed to look into our crystal ***** and know that ahead of time, huh?

 

Quick question does anyone elses jeep drive differently on random days? Like yesterday my jeep felt like a dog and was kinda slow but today it felt very peppy and quick today.

 

The rope trick works well, I have been using this for years now. Just shove it in until you ball up a handfull in the chamber on the compression stroke then rotate the engine over until the piston comes up against the rope and valves. Then back the rotation up a bit to pull the rope back out after you have that cylinder done and go to the next.

 

I was curious since '97 and up XJ's don't have a heater control valve like '96 and down does the coolant always circulate through the heater core when the heat is completely off?

 

Yes. The heat on all XJs is actually controlled by a blend air door. Vacuum actuated through 96, electronically actuated 97 and later.

 

Thanks that is what I thought. Despite that even in the warmer months I would turn on the heat for a bit. Always kinda figured coolant just sitting in a heater core, for longer periods of time, and not circulating is not the best thing

 

That's right and there's nothing wrong with that either! It help keep the heater core clean too