Overheated, rattle, dead...

[ZenDragon]

Guys, I feel embarrassed even having to tell you this story. Just kinda wanted to survey the possibilities before I make any decisions. Last night, while doing about 75-80 down the freeway, the trusty old 4.0 overheated. I was sitting there talking to my son and not really paying attention to the temp gauge to notice it was pegged all the way up. Rather suddenly I started to notice a rattling sound, sounded like pinging to me, at which point I saw the temp gauge, and glanced out back to notice a plume of steam coming out behind me. I was in a very bad spot (narrow shoulders) on the freeway and I did not want to pull off on the side of a busy freeway with my son in the car, nor did I want to have to deal with a tow truck right there either, so I tried to push it just an extra 1/8 mile to the off ramp. It died on the way down the off ramp as the the RPMs went down and I pushed in the clutch, at which point I coasted off onto a fortunately empty side street.

Popping open the hood I noticed a lot of steam maybe smoke(?) coming out of the engine bay, but it was fortunately not on fire. The water in the radiator overflow tank however was literally boiling, and it looked like there was smoke coming out of the right side of the head, and there seemed to be what looked like oil on that side of the engine, blown head gasket maybe? On the other side it looked like radiator fluid had sprayed all over the place, possibly from the cap but I couldn't really tell. I am guessing that was the source of the problem, resulting in the depressurization of the coolant loop? It wouldn't start after all that, at all. It turns over, so I don't think its seized up, but it sounds bad.

Anyhow, I had to worry about getting my son home to his mom, so I called a tow truck and had the jeep towed to a local shop (because I am temporarily living in an apartment where I cant do anything too involved here) and have not had a chance to really look at it closely yet. I am just speculating here and hoping that based on what I said, you all maybe can suggest a few specific things that might have happened or that I should otherwise look at (or have the shop look at)? I'm sure they can and would figure it out, but if its nothing too crazy, like taking the whole engine apart, I would rather see if I can fix it myself. I am comfortable in the garage, but I don't have the tools to, for example, check engine compression and such. Or the space to store them for that matter. Gotta love apartment living.

So what do you all think? Possibly looking at a new engine here? Or do you think this is something that could be fixable? Assuming I didn't crack the block or something. Not looking for specific answers here, just any possibilities based on what typically happens in such a situation. Also, when all of this is over with, do you have any suggestions on how to help with the heat issue in the future? Larger radiator for example? Hood louvers, etc? This is AZ, and its probably going to be a very hot summer.

 

[20jeep00]

What year is your xj?

 

[ZenDragon]

What year is your xj?

'95

 

[8Mud]

Just a wild guess, you likely damaged something and the minimum you took years off the life of your motor. OIl seeping out of the right side of the head doesn't mean the gasket is gone, many XJ's do that and it never seems to hurt much.

You may have boiled the fuel in the fuel rail and your motor leaned out and quit.

If the motor isn't seized bleed the air (vapor) out of the fuel rail and do a compression test. Fire it up, take the oil filler cap off and see if it is blowing any amount of smoke out the filler hole. Take the radiator cap off (catch pan as it will overflow) and look for foaming and bubbles coming to the top with the cap off. Check your oil level and see if it looks way over full or worse yet it looks kind of like a foamy chocolate milk shake.

My wife has done that a couple of times to her XJ's with no apparent lasting damage. She usually calls me up afterwards and says, I saw the lights on the instrument cluster, the smoke coming out of the engine bay and then drove home and called you. This is where I slap my forehead and tell her again not to drive it that way.

Just an antidote, my wife once drove an old Dodge slant six through two states that way and it lived. You may get lucky.

 

[ZenDragon]

Well I did get word back from the shop. It was as I suspected, a blown head gasket. However, I decided that rather than spending time and money trying to fix this one, and possibly opening it up to fix that, only to find another 1000 dollars worth of work that I would need to do, I just ordered a new engine entirely. Its technically a reman, but the only thing used is the block and head, all new internals, valve train, etc., machined and surfaced and everything. I am having the shop do all the work, because I don't have the tools or a garage to do it in, and also so I have a warranty on the engine and labor. It was a bit pricey, but better for my piece of mind on my daily driver.

I am keeping the old engine though, its going to go in storage until I have the room to work on it. At which point I'm going to take the thing apart, and if its still usable, do a performance rebuild on my own. Really looking forward to the opportunity to learn about this engine in depth, on something that is not actually in the vehicle!

 

[8Mud]

Bad news I was hoping you dodged a bullet.

 

[ZenDragon]

Bad news I was hoping you dodged a bullet.

Well I'm sure it can still be fixed. But now I can work on it myself, at my own pace, and learn a lot more about my engine in the process. And have a spare for a project when I finally have a garage again!

Now if I can only find a place to store it in the mean time! lol!