New guy here, looking at a 98 xj and could use some advice.
 

Hi all! I recently looked at a green 98 XJ sport, 180k miles, 4.0, 4 door, 5spd, 4x4. The dude wants 1000 for it but I can get it for 700 if I buy it soon. Details below.

Body and frame were clean, no rust that I could see. (I live in FL)
Power door lock switch is intermittent but the mirror and window switches work.
Doesn't seem to overheat, I confirmed that it has a new rad and thermostat and housing. I let it run for a while and the clutch fan looked strong.
Starts well enough, took a little longer to re-start after I shut it down.
Has a binder full of repair info from the previous owner.

Things that concern me:
I checked the oil dipstick for signs of water and that looked good but it was WAY over filled.
It was smoking pretty good around the manifold and there was a lot of oily gunk around the valve cover.
Heater core was bypassed.
Needs engine mounts, engine was moving a lot when revving it at idle.

The engine sounded pretty good, smooth without any "bad" noises. Exhaust looked clean, no excessive white/blue smoke. The clutch seemed pretty nice, shifter shifted smoothly through the gears and the 4WD selector was smooth.

I'm still on the fence about buying it even though it's inexpensive. It's going to need a lot of work.

Pics below:

https://i.imgur.com/Z98vD3N.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DsvboaQ.jpg

Have you checked over the rocker panels the floor pans and frame rails for rust ?

Yeah I looked under the car and other than the exhaust system, no real rust to be seen. I didn't peel the carpets back on the interior or anything like that though.

All the concerns seem normal to me, except for the oil being overfilled I'd just do an oil change first thing; if you buy it. With the heater core bypassed that shouldn't really be a problem unless you want heat

Yeah I don't need the heat being in FL and all but I do like everything to work if possible. I can fix it but that's extra $$$ and time but not a big deal.

What's the value on a XJ like this? Seems like even ones that don't run sell for much higher depending on where you are.

True, usually XJ's go for about $1000-3000 and that's just what I've seen around my town (Nevada)

$700?! I would snatch that thing up. Rust Free Jeeps like that are as rare as unicorns here in the rust belt.

Yea if it runs good the motors worth 700 bucks in are area.

I bought my '99 a year ago with a blown head gasket because of a bad water pump. I have around $1400 in it total at this point without mods but I see them sell for around $4000 to 6000 depending on the condition and mileage even stock for the year. I would jump on that in a heartbeat and just figure on allowing a little money to do some repairs if needed, if not, you can put toward modifying it down the road. You should be clear on the problem as it began in '99 but look in the oil fill hole in the valve cover and see if you can spot TUPY cast into the head near the rocker arm. It is visible with a flashlight pretty easily and you can see the casting number on the head between the fuel rail and valve cover on the driver side. if it is a 0331 head casting, (you can search for cherokee head problems and find more details if you want to) This casting has a fairly high rate of cracking and failure in which you will not notice a problem until you lose rod and main bearings due to coolant in the oil. Mine was a toss up but I went ahead and put a new head on it when I changed the gasket just to be safe but that was me personally. my head was not damaged at the time but had been overheated a few times and I felt it would be unwise to put it back for that fact.