I know I'm a bit late responding to this thread, but I bought one of these Cherokees with the 0331 head about 1 1/2 years ago. I bought it with 131,000 miles on it and currently have 143,000 miles on it. At first, it ran great, but the oil pressure gauge would bounce from 0 to 40 every now and then but eventually fixed itself. about 6 months into ownership, I started having the standard symptoms I've been reading about on here and other forums. At first, I thought it was the radiator leaking slightly, but it got progressively worse and worse with no visual signs of coolant leaking anywhere. I came to the conclusion that it was most likely a head gasket issue. I finally got the head off and took it to get machined and needless to say they found a few unrepairable cracks. FML! Thats how I come across this info on this forum.
My question is this:
Do I or Should I replace just the head? I'd prefer not to replace with another 0331 head but I want the coils to bolt on like factory and the exhaust ports to match up to the factory HO manifold and gasket.
Is there a way to tell if I will have main bearing issues before I put this all back together? After reading all this info on the forums, I'm concerned that I may have waited too long. I plan on changing the oil before I crank it up and a couple more times after that to try and get all of the sludgy buildup out of the engine. There was a lot of buildup on the springs and rockers. I changed the oil regularly since I've owned it and even ran a couple of cans of Seafoam before doing the oil changes. I've never had any knocking or tapping come from the engine.
Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. I'm sorry for the long post.