TerraWombat
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Eastern Shore MD
I picked up an '01 XJ a couple months back on the cheap, but the thing had rod knock on the #1 cylinder. Pulled the engine and instead of rebuilding, I decided to pick up a used engine out of a wrecked '98 XJ w/89K miles from a local salvage yard. I thought I'd be able to drop the engine in within a couple of days, but life got in the way and the project was put on hold for 3 weeks, essentially ending my 30 day warranty from the salvage yard to verify that the engine was alright.
Anyway, skip ahead to today and I dropped the engine in and fired it up after a bit of tweaking with the '00-'01 camshaft sensor (I guess I had it in backwards). The engine fired up, but sounded awful like it wasn't running on all six cylinders. Shut the truck down and ran a compression test on it and I was right. 160-180 psi compression on cylinders 1, 4, 5, and 6, but 0 psi on cylinders 2 and 3. I ran a leakdown test on cylinder 2 and the air was escaping out of the cylinder 3 spark plug hole. I put a sparkplug in the hole to see where the air would then go and the coolant in my overflow tank started bubbling, so I'm thinking blown head gasket, but just want a second opinion. I'm also thinking of just replacing the head gasket, but I'm afraid that the reason this engine has a blown head gasket in the first place is because it overheated, which would mean the block and head would both need to be decked for straightness. Guess I'm just looking for a way to NOT pull the engine out heh.
I should call the salvage yard and raise hell since the receipt that came with the engine claimed it was 'tested' and also provided me with a VIN # of the Jeep it came out of. Had a buddy run a carfax on it for me and last reported mileage was 151,000 miles - so I was screwed on that too. I'm out of my warranty period with the yard, but I'm going to call them and speak my mind, hopefully not letting my emotions get in the way and going off on the guy.
Anyway, skip ahead to today and I dropped the engine in and fired it up after a bit of tweaking with the '00-'01 camshaft sensor (I guess I had it in backwards). The engine fired up, but sounded awful like it wasn't running on all six cylinders. Shut the truck down and ran a compression test on it and I was right. 160-180 psi compression on cylinders 1, 4, 5, and 6, but 0 psi on cylinders 2 and 3. I ran a leakdown test on cylinder 2 and the air was escaping out of the cylinder 3 spark plug hole. I put a sparkplug in the hole to see where the air would then go and the coolant in my overflow tank started bubbling, so I'm thinking blown head gasket, but just want a second opinion. I'm also thinking of just replacing the head gasket, but I'm afraid that the reason this engine has a blown head gasket in the first place is because it overheated, which would mean the block and head would both need to be decked for straightness. Guess I'm just looking for a way to NOT pull the engine out heh.
I should call the salvage yard and raise hell since the receipt that came with the engine claimed it was 'tested' and also provided me with a VIN # of the Jeep it came out of. Had a buddy run a carfax on it for me and last reported mileage was 151,000 miles - so I was screwed on that too. I'm out of my warranty period with the yard, but I'm going to call them and speak my mind, hopefully not letting my emotions get in the way and going off on the guy.