It turns out that all my coolant loss woes have indeed been the result of a cracked head. There are lots of heads available to put on there and fix it but I just don't get too excited about putting the same part on my motor with the same design flaw as I am dealing with now. I am wondering of it would be better to just build up a 98 or older motor with the good head on it or should I rebuild my original motor and try to find an aftermarket head to put on the top of it. If those even exist. I found some really nice aluminum heads but those are far beyond reality of my budget.

 

What we did recently on my buddies 2000 was replaced the whole long block with a 98 and use the old ignition system and bang done deal haha the older systems run on a distributor the 2000-2001 run on a coil pack which is coil on plug

 

How did you attach the coil pack to the head? I was considering the same thing I might also have a line on a 98 motor. It's all up in the air.

 

You can make brackets that mount off the valve cover bolts.

 

Will be doing the same thing soon. Losing coolant :/

 

correct me if im wrong, but couldnt you use a an '02-'06 4.0L head? and i thought there were a few places that made an aluminum replacement head that was bolt on in place of an 0331 head, but will not crack?

 

There's is a couple places...Clearwater cylinder heads, Alabama cylinder heads, but most (like mine) I'm losing coolant and have low oil pressure like 10 psi during idling when warm so my bearings are probably shot too due to the oil/coolant mixture so it's worth to put in another engine

 

Like this

Oh and you have to use the exhaust headers on the pre 99 engine because it's 2 different sizes. You basically just cut off the old bottom portion and weld on a piece of pipe and put a flange
Can you tell the difference?

 

Perfect. That is what the plan is than. Now to just find a 98 or older motor thats worth rebuilding. I am sure I will have more questions as time goes on about this transformation.

Mine has low oil pressure as well, most likely due to running coolant in the oil.

 

My buddies jeep wasn't overheating he had low oil pressure which caused one of the push rods to bend and fall out of place which throw out one of the lifter. So we just decided to change the engine as a whole to not have any issues later

 

I have fair oil pressure while running at highway speeds, but it drops right off at idle. It does not over heat, it runs at near perfect temp. And it does lose coolant. Just did a head gasket on it not too long ago.

This might be a dumb question but I need to know. Does the motor I am looking for have to be out of an XJ? Can I use a 1998 Grand Cherokee 4.0L motor?

 

That I'm an not too sure of but when we were looking they looked similar but didn't want to risk it