Hello, looking to get a Jeep soon and start having some fun Off-road. I had a question and I know this may not be the right place to ask this but, I figure I'll start here.

I'm looking at getting an 89 Cherokee but there are a few things about it that I'm not sure if they are deal breakers. Upon start up it took a few cranks and when it did fire up it smoked(grey-ish) for a few seconds and then went away. The idle seemed to be a bit rough and throttle response was kind of delayed it seemed. The guy said that he drove it and used it to pull out another truck in the sand and that it just needs a tune up. It smells like it was running rich, which to me could be part of the problem and I'm guessing the timing is off. I am just wanting to know if this seems like it is just a tune up that is needed or, is this going to be a huge nightmare?

 

Sounds to me like it may have worn valve stem seals ie the smoke. I would do a compression test on the cylinders it may need head work. I did pick up a used head from the jy for 35 bucks and installed on my daughters and it works great. She has a 1987 cherokee chief and it has over 200000 miles and it has been fairly trouble free till she overheated it 4 times and cracked the head on the 5th time. It runs at correct temp and i make sure she checks the coolant regularly.

 

If you do get it let me know. We take a lot of trips to the big bear area to go wheelin and also Arrowhead. There are a bunch of us from the forum heading u there Sept 18th.

 

Sweet. Thanks for the info. That was kind of why I was worried about it.

 

welcome to the site

 

Welcome, from Maryland.

 

Thanks.

Thanks.

Yea, I just checked compression and it was reading good so it looks like I will be picking it up tomorrow or Thursday.

 

Welcome to CF.