Hey hows it going. My trail rig cherokee is doing great and I love my 4.0L 6. So now im shopping to replace my 99 Tahoe which is at 288,000 miles. I plan on shopping around for a low milage 2002-2004 Grand Cherokee 4.0 4x4. Any suggestions on what to look out for? I know the 00-01 cherokee 4.0 had cylinder head issues,(weak casting), did this occur on the grand cherokee as well? Hows the transfer cases in these? Any help would be great, Thanks

 

It did, however in the TJ and WJ it was resolved by 2002 or 2003. I'd stay away from 2002 just to be safe. (Later model years are usually better, anyway).

Not sure about WJs but in ZJs the transmissions were JUNK behind the 4.0L. In either case the V8 typically gets better fuel economy than the 4.0L due to the weight of the vehicle.

NP249 sucks the junk. If you can find something with an NP242 you'll be a lot better off, or I think you can swap them in.

 

4.0L I6 WJs had the same craptacular 42RE that the ZJ had with the 4.0L I6. The 4.7L V8 also had a lot of problems (oil sludge, thin block walls prone to cracking, heads prone to cracking, sudden loss of oil pressure, PCV system issues, oil foaming, timing system issues, etc.). Many of these can be mitigated with proper maintenance but an unmaintained 4.7L V8 is a time bomb. I wouldn't touch a 4.7L V8 without full maintenance records and would be leery of them in general.

 

When I was looking for mine I was told to stay away from 99-01 so I bought a 02 WJ sport 4x4 which I love but im thinking bout selling it bc I don't think it will pull my 18ft car hauler with my XJ and maybe a RZR on it lol

 

Wow, seriously? Damn!

I just remembered another thing about the 2002-2004 WJs! I saw this in a thread about power steering upgrades: They use a hydraulically-driven fan instead of a belt-driven one. Beefy PS pump, but you'd better hope that hydraulic drive never goes as it's apparently mundo expensive.