did any XJ engines come with RTV on the manifolds

ehall

NAXJA Member

NAXJA Member

Location

Southern Maryland

• Aug 25, 2015

• #1

A friend of mine bought a used 2001, which eventually developed some problems. We think it is not the original engine. One of the clues is that the intake and exhaust manifolds were sealed to the head with ultra copper RTV. That's not surprising by itself, but AFAIK all the jeep engines came with plain gaskets. Need to know for sure

 

shelbyluvv

NAXJA Forum User

Location

29 Palms, CA

• Aug 25, 2015

• #2

All the engines I have torn down have had gaskets. I've never seen RTV used on one from the factory.

 

ParadiseXJ

NAXJA Forum User

Location

Paradise, CA 95969

• Aug 25, 2015

• #3

Same here, I've never seen a manifold...especially a manifold...sealed with anything but a gasket and sometimes with copper spray...but not copper (or any other goop) out of a tube.

It doesn't seem like a totally horrible idea WITH a gasket, but stand alone, I'll keep the gasket.

 

M

mtbxj87

NAXJA Forum User

Location

Bend, OR

• Aug 25, 2015

• #4

definitely not factory.

 

ehall

NAXJA Member

NAXJA Member

Location

Southern Maryland

• Aug 25, 2015

• #5

GM had some engines that did not use a gasket. The surfaces were machined flat and then coated with high-temp graphite dry lube to seal any imperfections. A lot of the donut flanges are coated in graphite as well. Its not uncommon to use Ultra Copper RTV instead of the graphite, its a little lower temp but more forgiving. But I have never seen it from the factory.

 

xeroOTG

NAXJA Forum User

Location

floater

• Aug 25, 2015

• #6

I tore a manifold off a 2001 in a junkyard last year, no copper, just a traditional gasket.

 

T

thanasi85

NAXJA Forum User

Location

Sacramento, CA

• Aug 28, 2015

• #7

No they did not come from the factory with RTV. But this does not mean its not the original engine, all it means is that someone went through the PITA process of replacing the intake/exhaust manifold gasket because of a leak and they thought that adding RTV with the gasket would ensure it never leaked again..

 

T

thanasi85

NAXJA Forum User

Location

Sacramento, CA

• Aug 28, 2015

• #8

I had a buddy who did this not knowing what he was doing and the rtv ended up restricting several of the injector ports and I had to sit there and dig it out with tweezers for him after finding out that was the cause of why his motor was running like garbage.

 

Talyn

NAXJA Forum User

Location

Radford, Communistwealth of Virginia

• Aug 28, 2015

• #9

Yeah, no rtv on the gasket as stock. IIRC the 318 and 360 Magnum used RTV instead of a gasket.

 

ehall

NAXJA Member

NAXJA Member

Location

Southern Maryland

• Aug 28, 2015

• #10

thanasi85 said:

No they did not come from the factory with RTV. But this does not mean its not the original engine, all it means is that someone went through the PITA process of replacing the intake/exhaust manifold gasket because of a leak and they thought that adding RTV with the gasket would ensure it never leaked again..

Click to expand...

That's a possibility. There are a couple of other clues though, AC compressor bracket bolt cross-threaded, transmission missing a bolt on the bell housing, stuff like that.

 

N

notamos

NAXJA Forum User

Location

Fort Collins, CO

• Aug 28, 2015

• #11

Isn't the VIN engraved on the passenger side of the block? I'm *pretty sure* it was when I pulled the motor from my '99.