Greetings from Indiana, and my XJ is acting ODD. HELP?

SurfXJSnow said:
ALL of the old plugs we pulled out we're kinda white. Kinda like a beige color. Not on the post, but on the sparking end. I'll pull cylinder 1 plug tomorrow and see what 800 miles from missouri to colorado did to it. Lets say it was the head gasket... how much money am i looking at? Another thing i was thinking was that cylinder 1 may be siezed up? When we pulled the electrical harness off the fuel injector to cylinder 1 we felt little to no difference in the way the engine was running. When we pulled cylinder 2 electrical harness to the fuel injector the engine started getting really choppy. All cylinders are getting spark and fuel though. Tested all plugs and electrical to all fuel injectors and found no problems.
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Head gasket is only 20 bucks if you can get someone to help ya. Need to do compression test first. If a cylinder seized the whole motor would. The crank would not turn. When I did my head gasket I left the manifolds on and use my engine hoist to lift the head and manifolds out of the way. It was pretty easy. If you wanna come up we can do compression test. Mike knows where I live.
 
Stang5lgt said:
Should be kinda white and smell sweet.
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Remove the plug first thing before starting the engine for that day. It may look wet from coolant leaking over night. The porcelin around the center electrode might be dry and have a greenish tint.

Either would indicate a leak from the cooling system.
 
YELLAHEEP said:
'99/'00 model years are bad because they did go to a different head during production and they can either crack, or warp allowing the head gasket to leak.

Jonathan's is a '98 and while not a prolific problem, I've seen several - I wanna strike it up to poorly maintained cooling systems. All it takes is to overheat our wonderful little 4.0's just once real good and that'll start the problems......

That white '96 I fixed, lifted and sold a while back had been overheated, then the radiator cracked so the owner dumped too much stop leak in and caused it to continue to overheat worse. The head gasket went kinda suddenly I think because when her friend removed the head to put a new headgasket on it, there was a silver-dollar sized hole in the top of the #2 piston. Generally, to get a hole in the top of a piston, you gotta drop a valve in there, or suddenly cool it with a fluid leak.......

That silver '00 I just sold had badly bent push rods and a slightly tweaked #2 cylinder piston rod. It's my guess that the head gasket burst and filled the cylinder with fluid and it "hydraulic-compressed" during a compression or exhaust stroke - keeping the valves from opening and thus, bending those parts....... :dunno:
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AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
 
Ended up getting a full engine diagnostic done yesterday at pep boys for 105.00. Believe it or not, they were very thorough and FOUND THE PROBLEM! Compression test came back at 110 to 115 psi on all 6 cylinders (kinda low i guess, but shows there is no internal problems with the rings, rods, pistons and so on. Finally, he checked the wireing harness to fuel injector 1 and noticed something was up. He then tested the voltage BEHIND the harness on the wire and it read full voltage. Turns out, the problem was a faulty fuel injector wire harness/clip. I then went to ABC junk yard here in town, snipped one off an older jeep. Brought it home and swapped it out and BAM! no more rough idle and full horsepower is back! Who would have thought.
 
cheap fix, i hate chasing gremlins
 
turns out the jeep has the same problem as before. took it by franks place today and he thinks its the catalytic converter. seems clogged. you can really feel the "problem" that im having when your slowing down. Just feels really choppy. any good places in COS to get a cheap cat? Mine is currently u-bolted on, not welded so i think i can do the labor myself. dont need some performance cat, just the OEM.

thanks.
 
Definitely not the cat. The more exhaust you try to flow through a partially clogged cat, the worse the higher RPM performance will be.

Which is exactly the opposite you're describing in your PM's. Your saying it's choppy, running poorly at lower RPM's/idle. Starting sounds funny..... Not the cat brutha.

You say you're still getting the #1 cylinder misfire code...... the 'puter isn't lying to ya. It's either a pinhole coolant leak at the head gasket, bad valve, or bad injector. Since you've replaced the spark plug - it's not that, and IIRC, you say you're getting spark at the cylinder....... :dunno:
 
YELLAHEEP said:
Definitely not the cat. The more exhaust you try to flow through a partially clogged cat, the worse the higher RPM performance will be.

Which is exactly the opposite you're describing in your PM's. Your saying it's choppy, running poorly at lower RPM's/idle. Starting sounds funny..... Not the cat brutha.

You say you're still getting the #1 cylinder misfire code...... the 'puter isn't lying to ya. It's either a pinhole coolant leak at the head gasket, bad valve, or bad injector. Since you've replaced the spark plug - it's not that, and IIRC, you say you're getting spark at the cylinder....... :dunno:
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yeah. getting spark at cylinder 1. found out the hard way today when i unplugged cyl 1 wire and cranked the jeep... then picked up the sparking end of the wire without even thinking about it and got a nice shock. :gonnablow
 
fuel pump? anyone? the code im pulling is P0301 Cyl 1 Misfire. i have been researching online for the last 3 hours and have found NOTHING but this........

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=930100&highlight=p0301

If you read in the first sentence "Several weeks ago and suddenly, it began stuttering when I slowed down to a stop." it sounds kinda like what i have been having.

then the last post he says " It was the fuel pump. Only had 17 or 18psi pressure. I changed the pump and it runs like new.

Thanks to all for comments."

so, im wondering if i should do this? I know fuel pumps can be pricey. I was thinking about doing this before i replace a head gasket or get a new cat.
 
Frank Z said:
Did you get more codes on the way home?

FWIW, one of the codes earlier today was for a Cat issue.
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From your place to my brothers down the road from you, to all the way back up here to Monument, No more codes came up. No CEL or anything. It will probably pop back on tomorrow.

You think it could be a fuel pump issue? Read the post i just posted above this one... I just wanna get this thing solved finally before i empty my whole wallet into this problem. So far im looking at about 250 for all the parts ive replaced, and the 105 dollar "full diagnostic engine check" at pepboys.

AHH! I really wanted to do the doorless mod this week, but i refuse to do anything to this thing before i get the engine working right again.
 
Frank Z said:
Nope. Free or you're fooked.
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It hooks right up to the cap on the side of the fuel rail right? The one that looks like a plastic cap that you can remove to drain fuel from the fuel rail?

Whens a good time to come by and check the pressure really quick? I promise not to bother you with stupid questions again like "so, where is the thermostat?" again. To be quite honest, i have learned ALOT about my engine since this problem has started. At least ill walk away from this one with alot more knowledge about engines so i dont ask as many dumb questions. :sure:
 
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