thegreatgate

Hi, just some background. I know nothing about cars/jeeps/trucks.

I found a clean body, clean interior, 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited with 125k miles on it....It was advertised as having a ticking from the valve....

I go there and like what I see...I call my mechanic and he says he believes he can probably fix it for $250 if it is what he thinks it is.

I buy it for $1500 with the intention of fixing the noise for $250 and having a great truck for cheap. And worse case scenario throwing a used engine in there for total cost around $3,000-$3,500 which is still not a bad deal....

I have it towed to my mechanics house....He looks under the hood...There are a lot of things unplugged....Some of the wires have electrical tape around them...My mechanic basically says it looks like a guy tried to get into the motor and didn't know what the hell he was doing.

He said he is not even sure he wants to touch it...So all we did was put the battery and alternator on it (came without).

So I drove it off for the first time and it had a tick while giving it gas but would go away when not pressing the gas. It was noticeable but not a loud rod knock type tick.

Then after driving it for 10 minutes it cut off at a stop sign...Didn't start for a few minutes and turns...Got it to my cousins for a detailing finally.

But it was not starting and sounding bad....Engine was shaky....Had a louder tick than before.

Long story short the guy told me it had a 2003 transmission and engine in there....I'm not sure they are compatible with a 1999.

So could I put a 1999 engine back in this thing or will I run into problems because the trans is an 03?

It supposedly has the 2003 HO 4.7L motor...

Oh, and if anyone has any tricks that might get it to sound better or start better...It was extremely low on gas, about 8 miles till empty.

Thanks for any responses...I am not sure what I am going to do at this point!