hey man, nice to read the updates and really glad to hear you got your license... congrats!

Head rebuild kit came in yesterday, 200$. I sure hope it fixes my problems, will be tearing it down Friday and fixing Everything. Flushing the coolant, oil change, etc.

And forgot.... Did a tune up before all these misfortunes happened.

Good luck man

If you start to run rough replace those champion plugs with NGK

x2 champion plugs dont work with cherokee for some reason.

Champions work great until the xj got coil packs the Ngks work better tho with coil packs.

Hey whats up with the HG change?
Also how is that Rustys Tie Rod working out for ya?

rebuild went well! ran into a few issues and still have a few to deal with.... but im stoked on how it turned out and glad i got into the motor before things got worse. ill do a little run down of everything we did. so sit back.... and get ready for a million pictures.

day1-
got all my parts together, fluids and everything.(200$ even for gaskets, and headbolts, and 100$ even for all the fluids)



day2-
drained oil, and coolant, then took the front end off and started tearing down the motor.






yeah... found my problem there. the radiator was FILLED with oil/mud/coolant/water all kinds of stuff came out.

day3-
started taking off the intake manifold, and head.

and this is when the problems started happening... removed all the intake manifold bolts off and the thing would budge, gave it a little pry with a flathead and it literally snapped clean in half. the motor had been getting so hot that it had basically welded itself to the head.


then we got the head off... to find the cylinders filled to the top with green coolant... and what was left of the ''headgasket''

then not really thinking... i grabbed a grinder and cut my exaust manifold off.


so we called it a day..... after all that misfortune.
all the parts getting replaced:


day 4-
decided to head to pull apart to look for an intake manifold, and exhaust manifold. Got super lucky and i was able to find everything i needed plus a few goodies. the intake is off of a 96 zj... and they didnt have the right exhaust manifold, but we found this little guy in the backseat of a grand cherokee. it is BEEFY.
and found a 97 xj and grabbed a few interior parts ive been wanting.

payed 60$ for all of that!
cleaned up the exaust manifold


more to come....

day 5.... and final day.
cleaned up everything, and degreased the whole engine bay and scraped all old gaskets off. Painted my valve cover(+15hp) and then put my new headgasket on(:




degreased my head and sanded all the old gaskets off, and got it back on! test fitted my new manifold... to find out it wouldnt work. (no sensors or cats either)

but got everything back together, the grand cherokee intake fits perfect, a few things didnt line up but it all worked out. put a new theromostat in, and then i put the old exaust manifold on... running this bad boy open header for now do to my stupidity of cutting it off...

from there, i replaced my main coolant tubes and got the cooling system back on, filled it with water... put oil in the motor... primed the fuel rail..... and it fired right up! and man is open header on an i6 loud....

we cut the engine off and ran simple green through the coolant system and more black stuff and gunk came out, and we flushed it a few more times until it was clear, filled it with antifreeze, and let it run for a few minutes and then took it for a spin. it drives great despite having zero back pressure from having no exaust, but no more overheating! i drove it about 30 minutes back to my house and it did great.



overall it cost me roughly 450$ for everything.

and if you didnt notice... my flares are gone! trimming them up when i get time.

Glad to hear all is well now. Good thing you got to learn how to do all this stuff while you had the chance. Lookin forward to that trim!!!

what does the motor feel like when there is no back pressure? This has been discussed a few times but ive never fully understood the arguement. Some people say newer motors dont require backpressure from the exhaust?

Wish I could have heard it. Nice build. Black is the best!

I'll go ahead and say it - I wish I had half the auto work skills you have at almost twice your age. Love this Jeep, I've got a black 2000/2001 XJ too and been watching close.

Keep up the good work!

Glad to hear shes running again bud. May be heading up there in august to see my sister and her baby. Depending on how built the jeep i buy is i may take and do some wheeling.