87 Waggy spark plug engine problem pictures!!

Last edited:
gajeepguy said:
It's pretty easy w a spring compressor and some rope or air compressor.
Click to expand...

If you use the rope/string/cord method do yourself a favor and buy some of that plastic covered clothesline cord. It makes the whole process so much easier.
 
I have ordered all the stuff (except the rope) to replace the valve seals, and I am upgrading the valve cover gasket to the non-cork Felpro.

Here is a photo of the #2 plug after about 80 miles this week. #1 was wet with oil again, number two had just a little dry black carbon, like it was running rich. No sign of coolant or white stuff the last 2 weeks on the #2 plug. But the #2 plug had an odd internal resistance. Engine did not have a miss all week.

The Autolight platinum plug has a platinum wire core-tip, and nickel outer shaft in the core assy. The #2 plug had infinite resitance from the tip side (nickel) to the top of the plug, while the platinum tip was about 200 ohms. The other plugs and new ones were all about 200 ohms, but the nickel part was the same, 200 ohms, as the platinum tip. Very ODD!!! So I replaced it with a new plug in #2, and checked and cleaned the injector connectors. I have received the new injector wiring pigtails, but have not replaced the 1987 ones yet. They have seen better days corrosion wise and brittleness wise.

IMG_20121202_122323_461.jpg
 
Last edited:
Renegade_Azzy said:
Going to toss this out there... Perhaps your timing chain is stretched enough that you could use a replacement? Changed mine at 268K, and it runs stronger and cleaner.
Click to expand...

I bought the rig at 224,000 miles 7 years ago, so it may be newish already. Cylinders 3,4,5,and 6 work like new, spark plugs after 50,000 miles still looked new, even though the compression is a little low on all cylinders (yet still with in specs). So that is not likely to be the droid I am looking for.:cheers:
 
Valve seals on #1 and #2 cylinders replaced today !! Cylinder #2 seals were the worst, and needed replacing for sure. Photos coming later.

I used 1/4" poly pro rope. Worked pretty well. Almost too easy with the guidance I got. (so THANKS!!!!) 3/4s of the work was pulling and cleaning the valve cover!!!

Also found (and straightened) two rockers that were off center a little, a likely source of some of the odd noises I have heard at times. It seems to be running better, quieter and HOTTER (more power perhaps?), we will see this week!!!

Also, I think I may have excess wear and slop in the rockers. Wondering about possibly replacing just the rods, and or just the rocker assemblies?????

Also I had to bend two of the plates that tie rocker pairs together as they were a little off, and causing a slight side loading on the valve stem where the rocker pushes on the top of the valve stem on two of the 12 valves.

Or is it likely to be Cam and or lifter wear, or all of them??? I did not check every one but I found a couple of loose rockers just as we were finishing up, looser than I would expect to be normal. Probably the source of the valve tick / click noise I have had for 8 years and 50,000 miles since I bought the rig.
 
Last edited:
Congratulations. You are now an honorary member of the valve seal replacement without removing the head club. I'm anxious to hear of the resulting oil consumption/spark plug deposit reports.
 
First off thanks for the help!!! Great little spring compressor tool, and extremely well priced, cheap even....

Well I hope it buys me some time, but the valve guides showed what I think is enough wear to indicate I will need a full head job down the road. I am no expert on the valve guide clearance but I suspect they are at or near some kind of limit. Will be watching the plugs all year next year for sure on those two.

I am sure the new seals were needed, especially #2. You will see when I get the pictures posted.

Are the valve guides replaceable, or do they just use over sized valves on a rebuild?

Oh, and both plugs were wet with oil this time at the tip, not just #1, and smelled of gasoline. They were clean except for the wet / oil slick look. About 80 miles on them since I had cleaned them, and installed one new plug. Still no signs of coolant or head gasket leak.

Also, the engine warmed up faster and hotter at idle tonight (I think). It also sounded a little less noisy. It was already quieter than the last 6-7 years, so hard to be sure yet, too soon to tell. Cold front tomorrow will tell me more!!
 
Ran great on the 75 mile round trip today, but too early to draw any conclusions, other than I must have NOT screwed up, as it did NOT blow up, toss a valve out the block, etc, LOL
 
Put 190 miles on it this week, mostly highway city miles. MPGs are up about 10% :party:, oil pressure is up some too

and the engine is running much quieter. :woohoo:

Even I am impressed so far, LOL.

Note that I also added the Restore additive about 2 weeks ago. I am thinking that the oil seal leak and miss fires may have been leaving some gas in my oil over time and diluting the oil, thus the increased oil pressure this week with the miss fire solved by solving the oil seal leak. All the data points to this conclusion.
 
Passed 550 miles this week, with no engine miss yet. Have not checked the spark plugs yet. Will do that soon and post the updates.
 
Update: Well past 2000 miles and no more problems so far.
 
cruiser54 said:
How are the plugs?
Click to expand...

Have not bothered too look. Too busy driving it, and it has never in the 8 years I have had it, ever run this good :-)

:party:

I will eventually pull and photo #1 and 2, and post it.

Thanks again for all your help on it!!
 
cruiser54 said:
So what do you attribute this "better than ever" running?
Click to expand...

Well, as you know, I have fixed a few dozen things since 2006 on this beast, it is the one I sweated over for 2 years with no FSM and then I wrote the RenX files thread while I debugged it and learned Renix, but the last two problems were a loose injector connector (#2), and #1 and #2 valve seals on their last legs, and a worn out rotor and cap just before I found the last 2 gremlins.
 
Update. Jeep ran great the last 1600 miles, then had a miss fire out the tail pipe Sunday night on this one....got it home OK, 30 mile freeway drive home at higher rpms. Turned off the torque converter lock and drove home in lower gears to keep the rpms up where it did not backfire. Freeway run at 70 mph, 34 miles, 3000 rpm, and then it was OK in the 0-30 mph neighborhood trip to the house. Not the back fire was not a large loud backfire, more like a whimper backfire, early warning!!!!

Pulled the spark plugs, and #2 was pretty cruddy again, like before when I started this thread, except no signs of black oil on any of the plugs. #1 was not as bad as before, and #3 had some traces of crude (It was clean before IIRC). 4,5,6 were good, still like new.

The plugs, Autolite only have 1600 miles on them, since I changed the valve stem seals (on #1 and #2) and plugs on all six.

I am thinking of trying different plugs on the front 3, maybe go back to Bosch Platinum. I am going to add some Bars leaks fiber pellets to the cooling system, in case it is a tiny head gasket leak starting, but I have not lost any coolant in 2 years. Cooling System is still tight and full.

I also plan to add some Restore in case the compression is getting a little too low, try to give it a little boost. The last compression tests were down around 130 psi (280,000 miles). I did find out I was nearly out of oil. Added a good 2-2.5 quarts. Too many jeeps and cars, and I lost track.

It had the old valve train tick back when I fired it up, but I let it warm up and ran it at 3800 rpm for 2-3 minutes and the tick stopped, and went back to the old normal. Will test drive some tomorrow.

Gas mileage was at an all time high the last 1600 miles, about 16 mpg average.
 
Last edited:
Ecomike said:
Update. Jeep ran great the last 1600 miles, then had a miss fire out the tail pipe Sunday night on this one....got it home OK, 30 mile freeway drive home at higher rpms. Turned off the torque converter lock and drove home in lower gears to keep the rpms up where it did not backfire. Freeway run at 70 mph, 34 miles, 3000 rpm, and then it was OK in the 0-30 mph neighborhood trip to the house. Not the back fire was not a large loud backfire, more like a whimper backfire, early warning!!!!

Pulled the spark plugs, and #2 was pretty cruddy again, like before when I started this thread, except no signs of black oil on any of the plugs. #1 was not as bad as before, and #3 had some traces of crude (It was clean before IIRC). 4,5,6 were good, still like new.

The plugs, Autolite only have 1600 miles on them, since I changed the valve stem seals (on #1 and #2) and plugs on all six.

I am thinking of trying different plugs on the front 3, maybe go back to Bosch Platinum. I am going to add some Bars leaks fiber pellets to the cooling system, in case it is a tiny head gasket leak starting, but I have not lost any coolant in 2 years. Cooling System is still tight and full.

I also plan to add some Restore in case the compression is getting a little too low, try to give it a little boost. The last compression tests were down around 130 psi (280,000 miles). I did find out I was nearly out of oil. Added a good 2-2.5 quarts. Too many jeeps and cars, and I lost track.

It had the old valve train tick back when I fired it up, but I let it warm up and ran it at 3800 rpm for 2-3 minutes and the tick stopped, and went back to the old normal. Will test drive some tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Use NGK coppers.
 
The plugs tonight both had the whitish stuff on them, like plug #1 in the old photos below.
No signs of oil on either plug this time. So this time plug #2, looked like plug #1 in the old photos. And plug #1 was only half as bad as #2 with build up on the ground electrode.

Ecomike said:
I have had (still have) 4 good cylinders 3-6, since I bought the beast about 7 years ago, and plugs 1 and 2 would be slightly black and oil contaminated after a good number of miles at each tune up. I replaced the plugs about 2500 miles ago with a full tune up. But I had a sudden miss fire develop this past week, and these are photos of the #1 and #2 plugs.

Last time I checked compression it was on the low end of the OK range. I cleaned the 2 spark plugs and the engine is running fine again, for now. My MPG city on the last tank of gas was 15.6 MPG. The other 4 spark plugs look new brand new.

picture.php


Plug #1 above

picture.php


The following are pictures of plug #2

picture.php


picture.php


picture.php
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

F
Help asap!
Replies
5
Views
322
Unclewolverine
U
Wraith40k
2001 XJ - Plug and coil pack for 4.5l
Replies
2
Views
171
Heavyopp
H
A
95 4.0 RHD (UK) crank no start
Replies
9
Views
420
ahyland
A
T
Daily driven for a year then DOA! Dreaded crank no start. Please help
Replies
17
Views
489
Da XJ nut
Da XJ nut
ruxohsxj
98 xj , crank, no start. No fuel with key , fuel with jump.
Replies
4
Views
393
PNWOLYXJ
P
Back
Top