In need of a 3.7 for my wife's '03 KJ Liberty

[Redsnake]

Looks like the engine blew on my wife's '03 Liberty and we're looking at options and one might include swapping a decent used complete 3.7. The patient is an '03 KJ Limited loaded w/ 129K miles. Looks like the valve turned loose on Cylinder #6 and was banging around on the piston. Been tracking a P0306 code for several months and looks like I finally figured out what it was.

I found one locally w/105K miles on the clock and the salvage wants $2K. OUCH!!! If the engine had 50K miles I would consider it, but dropping $2K plus another $1K+ to get it installed seems like too much coin to possibly be back in the same boat 20K miles down the road. Everything else is darn near perfect on the '03 and has been immaculately taken care of since new.

Any suggestions or does anyone know of a good search engine to find a 3.7? Are there other vehicles that I could look for other than just Liberties? I'm a bit of newbie on the 3.7 and most of my experience is w/the 4.0 or Ford 302s.

Thanks.

 

[zluster]

Your in a bit of a pickle, the 02 and 03 engines are limited to just those two years, the only way to make the 04+ work is to swap the complete wiring harness and ECU over.

Use car-part.com to search for engines, prices listed there range from $1100-2200. Looks like a place called "karsense" has one for $1500 with 54k on it and is located in arkansas. Most places will ship or you could take a ~213 mile drive down to them from tulsa.

Just search for engine on car-part and that will get you started in the right direction.

 

[Redsnake]

Your in a bit of a pickle, the 02 and 03 engines are limited to just those two years, the only way to make the 04+ work is to swap the complete wiring harness and ECU over.

Use car-part.com to search for engines, prices listed there range from $1100-2200. Looks like a place called "karsense" has one for $1500 with 54k on it and is located in arkansas. Most places will ship or you could take a ~213 mile drive down to them from tulsa.

Just search for engine on car-part and that will get you started in the right direction.

Thanks for the info. I was afraid the motor would be very limited to do an 'easy' swap. Looks like I'll be searching for an '02-03 Libby motor. Could be we put this one up for sale and take a loss... allowing someone else to fix it and flip or drive it. NADA Book is $8.2K for this one assuming the motor was actually working.

 

[gradon]

Time for the CRD swap. . .

 

[Redsnake]

Time for the CRD swap. . .

If only I were that talented mechanically... I think it's time for an XJ swap.

Does anyone know a website that I could post and link a video (#.mov file) of what the 3.7 was doing while we were working to diagnose it. Right before she blew up...

let's see if this works...

 

[gradon]

If the valve didn't hit the cylinder wall, I don't see why you wouldn't buy a new valve, retainer, piston, HG, oilpan gasket, fluids(<$300 in parts), and pay someone ~$1000 to fix it.

 

[Redsnake]

If the valve didn't hit the cylinder wall, I don't see why you wouldn't buy a new valve, retainer, piston, HG, oilpan gasket, fluids(<$300 in parts), and pay someone ~$1000 to fix it.

I'm not apposed to doing that either. I'm having a HARD time finding a mechanic I'd be able to trust to do that. I'm so used to working on cars myself, I don't know anyone to fix it... when it goes above my 'pay grade' I get at a loss. I'm calling around but these are all 'shots in the dark' type of stuff.

 

[87manche]

find the local racetrack, talk to those guys about what machine shops handle their work. I'd pull the head, take a look at it. if the cylinder walls aren't all jacked up I'd pull just the one piston, replace it, toss some bearings at that con-rod and put it back together when the head came back repaired.

I did a single piston an a Mazda 323 like that, after some advanced timing melted a hole through it. Ran fine afterwards. If you're not comfortable, fix it, make it run and sell it.