The end is near?

XJFang

XJFang

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Wheat Ridge, CO
Happy Freakin' New Year.

The XJ is sporting 240,000+ on the OD. It sounds like it threw a rod today. Unemployeed Santa elves have seemingly taken up residence?

not happy.

not done with grad school.

Attached photo was from near Garden City, KS out in a barrow pit excavated near the Arkansas River from May 2010.
aey7fr.jpg


Perfect research platform for being out in the middle of no-where.
o77v29.jpg

Yes, there is beer in the cooler.
 
oof...yeah i hit 240k this year. i started hearing a really faint tap/knock about a year ago. comes and goes, but i fear that may be my fate soon. i think i found my spare engine though. just have to make a recovery from christmas travelling and hopefully it will be in the storage unit waiting to go in.

what are your plans? rebuild? sell? new motor?
 
altrocker1 said:
oof...yeah i hit 240k this year.
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What year is yours? Mine's a '99

i started hearing a really faint tap/knock about a year ago. comes and goes, but i fear that may be my fate soon.
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Yep, I too had a faint tapping noise, progressively got worse. Especially when the engine was cold. Kept going round and round about it with the mechanic as if it needed immediate attention. He said no. I trust him because he owns an XJ as well.

As to what to do with it? Not 100% sure but certainty will be looking in to new motor or rebuild if possible. Also need to consider the transmission. May need to sell the child. :D

What did you spend on your new engine?
 
I sold the motor out of my wrecked 97 with 138k on the clock for $200.............find a good motor and swap it and be done with it.
 
FlexdXJ said:
I sold the motor out of my wrecked 97 with 138k on the clock for $200.............find a good motor and swap it and be done with it.
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That sounds like a good plan. Will start making some calls on Tuesday to see if it can be done.

Rev Den said:
I call BS.....I heard you fell into a cave and were never seen again.

Rev
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That might be true.

The Jeep though is serious. :(
 
Research on stroking it......


REW'self taught'STER
 
It's easy and only slightly more than a normal rebuild. I justified it to myself as I could put a high mileage motor without any idea of how it was treated and be in the same boat in a year or two. I could have put a LS1 in it and have to modify a ton of stuff. Or I could rebuild mine into a 4.6 with forged pistons, lunati cam, 4.0 rods, decked block and be less than what any crate 4.6 would cost. I spend less than 3k on the motor with a little extra for a few things that I just did since they were out. (starter, clutch and a couple other little things.)


Parakeet
 
4wdParakeet said:
It's easy and only slightly more than a normal rebuild.
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Hi,

It certainly is a consideration, but I'm looking at an outlay of the two things I don't have a lot of: Time and Money. What happens in the next few weeks likely mean it goes to a mechanic for the work. I'm in the last year of my PhD. Granted when I started grad school 6 years ago, I was 'just' getting my Masters. I was beguiled by the dark side, let me tell you.... I love working on my Jeep; I love working on mechanical stuff period. I've been slightly obsessed with vintage watches too, although rebuilding them is slightly cheaper than the Jeep. So I need to consider my options. It certainly is a possibility to buy a block and start to re-build it. I already checked around and there are two I-6's from XJ's in the Chicago area for under $500; both with ~130K on them. The other aspect is this leaves the wife without wheels; getting the kid to daycare sucks on public transportation. Whatever the decision it will be put on hold for a bit, it goes to the mechanic on Wednesday to see what he says and then I start putting serious thought into it then.

I appreciate the ideas and suggestions, I'm mostly looking for commiseration as my XJ is the vehicle I had wanted all my adult life. It has been my ticket to areas in the Southwest US, back country areas of the Midwest and even into the mountains of Mexico that I'd never have seen without it. I don't like the idea that this is potentially the end of the ride.
 
XJFang said:
Hi,

It certainly is a consideration, but I'm looking at an outlay of the two things I don't have a lot of: Time and Money. What happens in the next few weeks likely mean it goes to a mechanic for the work. I'm in the last year of my PhD. Granted when I started grad school 6 years ago, I was 'just' getting my Masters. I was beguiled by the dark side, let me tell you.... I love working on my Jeep; I love working on mechanical stuff period. I've been slightly obsessed with vintage watches too, although rebuilding them is slightly cheaper than the Jeep. So I need to consider my options. It certainly is a possibility to buy a block and start to re-build it. I already checked around and there are two I-6's from XJ's in the Chicago area for under $500; both with ~130K on them. The other aspect is this leaves the wife without wheels; getting the kid to daycare sucks on public transportation. Whatever the decision it will be put on hold for a bit, it goes to the mechanic on Wednesday to see what he says and then I start putting serious thought into it then.

I appreciate the ideas and suggestions, I'm mostly looking for commiseration as my XJ is the vehicle I had wanted all my adult life. It has been my ticket to areas in the Southwest US, back country areas of the Midwest and even into the mountains of Mexico that I'd never have seen without it. I don't like the idea that this is potentially the end of the ride.
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Its far from the end of the ride man, finding a motor is easy and so is rebuilding one. I'd pull yours, swap a salvage motor in, and build yours when you get the cash.
 
FlexdXJ said:
Its far from the end of the ride man, finding a motor is easy and so is rebuilding one. I'd pull yours, swap a salvage motor in, and build yours when you get the cash.
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this is hard for me to say, but I agree with flex. buy a junk yard motor or watch the classified section for a good deal. you can find them all day long on CL or www.car-part.com .

strokers are nice, they sound nice, they have tons of power, but for all practical purposes a stock 4.0 works fine. I'm turning 38's on my trail rig with a whipped out 200k mile 4.0.

fore 'i hate my fat fingers too' wheeler
 
I don't suffer from fat fingers: Any misspelling is a sign of my stupidity.

Anyway... The biggest factor that I'm going to have issues surmounting is time. I'll know more in the next couple of days the way forward with the Jeep. I appreciate the suggestions. I might put out a call for help someday for aid in tackling the suggestions you guys have.

Thanks!
 
I know I said stroke it but the only reason I got to stroke mine was it died at tax return time. If it would have been any other time of the year it would have been a used motor and collecting parts for the next 2 years. I honestly think this is the way to go.

It really stressed me out trying to figure out details on the different builds and kinda ordering parts half blind. Mine was down for about 2 months total from knocking motor to running stroker.


Parakeet
 
Unfortunately, it isn't tax return time, that is at least another 2 months out before I'd see what cash that might return.

So the answer is used motor out of another XJ.

Stroking it is an interesting proposition but after reading through what is required and needed, I think I'm best off sticking to a stock motor for now. Main reason is I'm going to be reliant on a mechanic to do the work for me. I've too much to do in the next two months I don't have the time to do it myself, even if I thought I could do it. Yes skills and time, both lacking.

I've two leads on motors in the Chicago area, both are out of '99 XJ's with about ~100k on their odometer. Based on my recent driving history, this should keep me going for another 5 to 6 years or so. Likely longer as I'll be re-entering the work force sometime after August and will then look for a newer car for a daily driver. Gasoline prices suck, but life without my XJ I think would suck more. Heck, I might pony up dues again.
 
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