2000 XJ 4.0 w/H2O in oil

I have a friend who recently purchased a 2000 XJ at an auction with a known "cooling system problem". No details were given. The engine ran fine and the oil looked like it needed to be changed but definitely had no water in it. After driving it for a couple days and having to add some water he noticed that the oil was turning creamy and definitely has water in it now. A couple shops say definitely a blown head gasket, another says no way - that the 4.0's never leak water into the crankcase due to a bad head gasket. Instead their assumption is it's got to be a cracked block. I've only owned my 97 for less than a year and haven't had any problems and I haven't worked on any 4.0 heads so don't know anything about their track record. I know it's not possible to diagnose what's wrong over an Internet Forum but I'm wondering what your experience says about blown head gaskets on these engines. Is it fairly common for them to fail and leak water into the crankcase or is the second shop correct in their assertion that this almost never happens? Any insight would be appreciated as I may get involved in fixing this. I'm OK with changing a head gasket but don't really have time to get into a major overhaul or engine swap on someone else's rig right now. Thanks!

2000 were know to have a bad head casting, many cracked in cylinder 3.

331 head, they crack as was mentioned. Check the part number on the head.
Could be a simple fix of putting a rebuilt older 98 head on there.

The '00 0331 head castings are notorious for cracking on the top between the no.3 and 4 exhaust ports (the hottest part of the head). It seems to be only that year that's affected because I haven't heard of any heads cracking on the 1999 or 2001 models.

I have a 2000 XJ... I'm concerned now.
What are some symptoms of a 'cracked head' ... ?

Bowzer said:

I have a 2000 XJ... I'm concerned now.
What are some symptoms of a 'cracked head' ... ?

Click to expand...

Water in Oil and loss of coolent.

langer1 said:

Water in Oil and loss of coolent.

Click to expand...

That's it? Thanks langer1 I knew about the water, I was wondering if there was anything else.

Bowzer said:

I have a 2000 XJ... I'm concerned now.
What are some symptoms of a 'cracked head' ... ?

Click to expand...

Crap! I have two of em!
Run away...... :repair:

Bowzer said:

That's it? Thanks langer1 I knew about the water, I was wondering if there was anything else.

Click to expand...

They dont generally run too well. You could check the compression and look for screwed up plugs.