98 Cherokee Head Question

I have a 99 Cherokee that has a 98 engine in it. While driving to work yesterday morning every 2-3 miles I would feel a cutout in the engine. Cutout is th best way I can describe it. I kept my eye on the oil and temp gauge and they remained unchanged. As I went on the cutting out started happening more frequently, like 4-5 times at one time now. When I gave the Jeep throttle I heard a hollow sounding clunking noise that only happened when I would give it throttle. I turned around to head back home, I pulled over and now it sounded like a lifter tapping. Still, no change in temp or oil pressure, all good.

I went ahead and drove it back home (around 45 miles) I had major power loss once I got 5 miles from home and the check engine light came on. I barely made it home. Still no change in temp or oil pressure. I get it home and check the code and it says "Misfire on cylinder 3". The oil looks fine, extremely black though. I can hear a sucking noise from the tailipe and the Jeep has a very very rough idle. From what I could see of the coolant there is a little oil in it, hard to tell with the stupid bent neck on the radiator...poor design there! Anyway, now when I start it it will run but has a rough idle and still has the lifter noise sound. I don't want to just replace the head gasket to find out that something else is wrong. So my question is, do you think the lifter tapping noise is actually a cracked head? I will have the head checked when I take it off but I am looking for input to see if anyone had a similar noise when their head gasket blew....????

Thanks guys.....

Sounds like a collapsed lifter to me. Can you record the noise to you tube? How does the plug look for #3?

I doubt the head gasket blew. But when you pull the head you will see. Possibly a piston came apart or the exhaust valve stuck open. You could take a look at the spark plug, but don't force it out. If it has been battered by pieces, you could strip the threads of a possibly salvagable head.

as remedial as this may sound, I had a simialar problem with the cutting out and no temp or oil pressure change. you stated it had a misfire code thrown, have you changed the plugs and wires lately? Mine was a bad plug wire that made it chug and miss at lower RPMS such as highway crusing speed, and then it became more fo a constant miss. It is worth looking into, plug wires are often overlooked and can cause this to happen. as far as if you truely have oil in the antifreeze, that will be a different issue all together. baby step..baby steps...

A compression test will tell for sure. Spark plug #3 may tell a lot.

I'll be pulling the plugs when I get home from work......when I put the engine in I did new plugs and wires and dist cap. So all of that stuff is new.........I may pull the valve cover first and watch how the rockers move.........the first thing that crossed my mind was a wiped cam lobe. Not real sure if people have issues with the Cherokees flat tappet cams and wiped cam lobes but I know they are more frequent now with the oil that is being sold due to the lack of zinc and phosphorous in it......I'll report back later, thanks for the comments.

Jeepm@n said:

Sounds like a collapsed lifter to me. Can you record the noise to you tube? How does the plug look for #3?

Click to expand...

I have twin boys that are great at this kind of stuff and they post to youtube all the time, great idea! I will have them do this for me this evening when I get home.........

So what do you guys think, is it salvageable with a new head gasket or is the noise I'm hearing something major???? Anyone else hear this noise with a blown head gasket???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zQ1cfGJBQY

Compression test results?

winterbeater said:

Compression test results?

Click to expand...

still looking for my compression guage!!! :flamemad: