I have owned three cherokees all with the inline 6. My daughter wants a Grand Cherokee for her first vehicle. I have found some nice looking jeeps all with the v-8. I would like some feed back as to the dependability of the v-8 and/or pros and cons.

I really want the inline 6, but she wants the v-8.........

thanks in advance for any and all comments

 

I've got 185k miles on mine, and it hasn't had any engine problems yet. I'm getting ready to do the plenum plate, it's started to leak. Other than that no problems to speak of.

 

My '97 ZJ w/the 5.2L V8 had 178,000+ miles on it when I recently sold it to my son. Besides doing tune-ups & oil changes, the only things I had to replace in the six years I owned it were a water pump, serpentine belt, battery, and a starter. Our '04 WJ w/the 4.7L V8 was purchased new and has 97,000+ miles on it now. It hasn't needed anything other than tune-ups, oil changes, serpentine belt, and a battery.
Both have been great vehicles with dependable engines.

 

my friend has had her 5.2l zj for ten years. she bought it with 220k miles on it. we went and pulled an engine at the jy just to have a replacement when this one goes. well, that hasnt happened!

now she is at 323k miles on it and it still runs like a champ!! jy engine is still sitting in the garage.


i have had a couple v-8 zj's myself. i had to keep replacing trannys, so i opted out of the grand cherokee world.

had one wj with the 4.7 and thought it was a pile. blew the head gaskets at 120k and tranny started slipping at 130k. and the rest of its plastic construction started to go with it. im not a fan of plastic cars!!

 

I Have 4 magnum engines in my fleet and love them. The only "problem" with them is the intake manifold plenum. They can develop leaks after awhile. What that means is they have an internal vacuum leak from the bottom of the manifold. When this happens you will notice high oil consumption. It's an easy fix though. Just a gasket and some silicone. There are also plenum kits available that incorporate thicker plenums that are more rigid than the stock ones. One nice thing about the magnum manifold is that you dont need to remove the distributor to remove the manifold.

 

A place I used to work at had a Dodge mail van with the same engine in it, it had over 400k miles on it and it still ran like new.

 

had mine for 3 years never done any work to it, besides the $80 CPS my uncle installed, the tranny is the anoying part!

 

thanks for the input......i know about the jeep trannys..i have had 1 replaced. as far as belts, w/pumps etc. that goes for all motors.
i now feel better about looking at the v-8's. she wants a red gc and all i found in red have been v-8.

 

I bought my 97 GCL with 84K and I'm just a few ticks from 100K. The only under the hood have to's I've had to do so far is a battery and serpentine belt which I literally just replaced. It goes through about a quart of oil every 2,000 miles.

I'd say when it comes to most vehicles the engines are pretty durable as long as you keep the oil changed and don't red line it all the time, it's all the other things around the engine that tend to fail much, much more often.

I'm sure there are more then a few Chevy 350 engines with over a million miles on them.

 

I have a 94 gcl and its about to hit 240 and just now having to swap trans very dependable!

 

217k on my 94 GC. Going strong, only replaced cps and o1 sensor, of course I only got it 5k miles ago, but PO tooking really good care of it.

 

Check your compression. I bet it is fine and your plenum is leaking.

 

189k on my 96 5.2 ZJ. So far nothing serious as far as mechanical stuff. Added some go fast goodies to the mix also. Looks like I will be doing the plenum gasket tho, starting to smoke the blues on start up and uses some oil between oil changes. To be expected. Perfect time to upgrade the intake!!

 

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Doesn't seem to consume enough oil for me to worry about it for now, if it were to get worse I'll look into this. It's good to know and sounds a lot easier of a fix then piston rings!

 

Compression check won't tell you about the intake manifold leak. Just open the TB butterfly and look at the bottom of the intake with a flashlight. If you see oil, you have a failed gasket.