217,955 miles - should I leave well enough alone?

My '96 XJ has exactly 217, 995 miles on it. It still runs great though, a few idiosyncrasies, but she also winds up nice and does 92.7mph in the quarter mile. 99% of it is still stock, the engine has never been opened.

Anyway, I was thinking, just thinking, about removing the head, replacing the headgasket, cleaning the head and pistons thoughoughly, and possibly bolting on a '99+ intake manifold. I already have a bored TB.

The question is, with nearly a trip to the moon on the ticker, and the engine still running great, should I bother with it? Better to leave well enough alone maybe?

Just curious what your thoughts are...

Unless you're going to upgrade things while you're in there, you're probably better off leaving it alone at this point (coming from an 88 with over 300K on the clock, and no top-end work save a valve cover gasket. Just an oil sump and a rear main seal.)

i am at 308,xxx and still goin strong. ive bored my TB and rustys intake and chopped off the fan. none of i seems to have any negetive effect, so i wouldny imagine the 99+ intake would hurt. unless youve got compression issues the head gaset probably isnt necessary unlness its just for the fun of doing a head gasket.

If it ain't broke ....don't fix it I say.:lecture:
My 88 has 217,6XX on it and I don't even know what its been thru as I bought it with all the miles already on it ......and except for the rattles it runs fine.

leave it alone if there isnt anything giving issues. my last XJ ( a 90 4.0L aX-15) was driven the 5000 mile trip to Moab 2 years ago and turned 250K in the return trip.. i had absolutely no concerns about the rig making the trip.

Hmmm...well, part of the idea was to make sure the inside and valve train are clean, and there fore, most efficient. I always like new gaskets too, just for peice of mind...and don't they make an extra thin performance head gasket? I might try to clean up the ports a little bit with a die grinder as well.

I guess I should do a compression test and go from there...

I say leave it.

If you really want to tinker, search for a decent, low mileage long block and tinker with it. (low buck stroker?) I'm sure that there are many things you could find to do on one while you are "waiting" for the other.

John

If it's running good leave it alone, you'll just piss it off.

My '91 with 336k miles is showing some early signs of head gasket failure after overheating due to idler pulley seizing up and I'm just going to replace it instead of trying to rebuild it.