zjrog

During the time my yella XJ was down, we initially ruled out fuel issues (more later). When we changed a couple things, and had no change, we ran a compression check, 4 cylinders were down, two were WAY down. No oil in the coolant or vice versa.

Gasket was almost gone between 2-3, 3-4 and 5-6. 3-4 was the worst (less than 90 pounds in each).

Programbo

The only thing I really did as far as valves was remove some of the carbony looking crud off them and push down on each one to make sure they were moving freely and seating back into place..They looked ok just going visually.

Here`s a photo of my blown head gasket!

BowtieGuy3

Oh yeah, now there's your problem.... lol

indianajeepman

hahaha its confirmed its a hg did you get your head looked at

ya 8up im waiting for a little to work on my 88 it has been -10 to like 3 degrees for the past week hahaha

98 JeepJeep

what i always do is pour some solution into the runners and let it sit...after a few mins if you have any solution leaking into the chambers around the valves you have issues......Valve jobs are normally hit or miss on all the cylinder heads i remove...seen some with 200k not need it and ones with 120K BADLY need it.........

indianajeepman

it depends on how you drive

coyote121403

I have a 91 XJ that has a number of problems. I bought it for 400 bucks off cracklist and have driven it to work for 6 months. It ran rough when I bought it. it has 287,000 miles on it with original engine. I know I need a new engine soon but I'm building one that won't be done for a while. Did a compression test and 5 cylinders ~ 90-100 psi 1 dead cylinder. Could this be a HG or maybe a busted valve spring? Just need it to run good while I build the stroker to replace it. I've done the HG's on a V8 Tbird before (real pain!) so this shouldn't be hard and I found a rebuilt head for $150 on cracklist if need be.

Throttle Jockey

could be either one, could also be burnt valve or broken ring. you'll have to do a little digging to find the root cause of your dead cylinder. try spraying a bit of blaster in the spark plug hole and then do your compression test. if your psi goes up, you could be lookin at a bad ring or worse a scored cylinder wall. if it doesnt change, look for a problem in the head.

coyote121403

It doesn't seem to be burning any oil. I dismissed the ring because of this. Could that still be a possibility?

jeepgeek2002

love the acting .. but great stuff.. GREAT FIND! Ilove it!

mark

maccheeseboy

hey ya i was just reading up in your convo and seeing some interesting stuff. my 98 i6 cherokee was running rouph and so i changed out some wiring ect and it ran a bit better but the 6th cilinder (the one closest to you when your facing front of jeep from outside) still wouldnt change. i dont have time really for compression checks but i ran my jeep for a bit and it started bubbling from dipstick and overheating and eating my coolant. ive replaced nearly the entire cooling system minus the head. should i give up or make time to replace head and or bring to a garage? btw i live 2 hours from where it is parked right now so i would have to tow it there at the cost of like 200 bucks. help me out here guys.

coyote121403

Sounds like a blown gasket to me... Changing the head on these things is not a terrible feat. "But" I would def. do a pressure check first. If its gonna cost you $200 to tow it someplace that is going to charge you $800 to replace the head gasket, I would just buy the $50 gasket kit, haynes manual, and budget a day and a half and just do it. Just be sure and take pictures and label all bolts in baggies. Also if you can, just do what I did and pick up a cheap rebuilt head from craigslist so you don't have to worry much about machining.

kidkodiak

That was a pretty cool response

ol"blue

X2 on getting a rebuilt head as yours is liable to be cracked. Fix whatever the problem is once and be done with it. Don't just assume it's a blown HG and waste money on that repair to find out it's something else.

SD_Cherokee

Hey guys, just received a free 95 Cherokee, 4L I6 from a friend. Water pump went out on it and he took it in. The news was terrible, water pump, new radiator, hoses, thermostat, blown head gasket, possibly cracked engine block, but would cost $1,000 just to pull it and look at it.

He didn't want to do it so he gave it to me. I replaced the cooling system first. It still takes a heck of a time to start and when it finally does it runs terrible and eventually overheats. It was starting and running perfect before the W.P failure. I have black carbon on the garage floor beneth the tailpipe, I assume where water has been shooting out.

Any ideas? I am beginning to think I will start the H.G. replacement, but wanted to rule out other options. I've got my Haynes manual and time, what do you think?