Crackin me up

Me and the '96er ran into a guy the other day who had seen a lot of my same 4.0 engines. He had talked about showing me where the engine would first 'show a crack,' but unfortunately we never got around to getting the hood up. I'm guessing he was talking about the block but I'm not entirely sure. Have any of you seen enough of these engines to recognize a pattern in where a crack would start to show up? I'm at 173k mostly very easy miles so it probably wouldn't hurt to start keeping an eye out for something like this. Lord knows any more oil on the engine probably wouldn't get my attention.

the only crack i know of is between cyl 3 and 4 on the 0331 head. and it was on the 2000 ish era jeeps.

My guess is he was talking about the header cracking at the 2 into 1 location underneath the intake.

x2

The only time I've heard of engine cracking is the 0331 issue.

The exhaust on the other hand splits like a boy band if you look at it funny.

Header cracking is common regardless of the year. My Renix had header cracks likely due to bad motor mounts.

FWIW, I replaced my motor mounts when I replaced my exhaust manifold. First, it gave the "running" feel, much more solid. Second, I've done a lot of rough driving, snow, rocks, logs etc. over the last 2 years. Not a crack in sight.

I just used stock motor mounts for an immediate different feel. They're cheap enough to replace every year IMHO, and not difficult, an hour project. I suppose a better mount like a Brown Dog with rubber bushings would last longer and feel even more solid.