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2002 Grand Cherokee 0331 head tupy?

Baby Blue

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Cleveland
I'm looking to purchase a 2002 grand cherokee this weekend. Is there anyway I can check to see if that head is a 0331 TUPY? Can you read the tupy stamping through the oil filler cap?
I doubt the seller will allow me to pull the valve cover.
I know that the 00-01 where the main year problems but read here that the 0331 that cracks may have been used in a portion of 2002.
I know many have had good success with the 0331 and put a ton of miles on without cracking but personally I'd rather not take the chance.
thanks!!
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do you know if you can see the "tupy" casting without removing the valve cover? can it be seen by using a flashlight and looking in the oil cap?

the problem is I can to check for the tupy casting before I buy the vehicle but I doubt the seller will allow me to wrench on it to removed the valve cover.
thanks!
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Yes, the TUPY is visible through the oil fill hole with a little panning of the flashlight-- armed with the picture above, you should be able to locate and see it if it's there.
 
Yes, you can see TUPY through the oil fill port, but you don't have to look for it. Just look to see if it has the pedestals to bolt down the coil rail. Hint: it does. All 4.0Ls, 2000 and up have the 0331 head. Any -6 made from 00-06 has a 0331 head from the factory. The only way it wouldn't have a 0331 is if someone swapped in an earlier head and modded it to fit(Coil rail adapter and exhaust port/manifold work)

As far as the cracks: The problem seems to have been with the '00 mod year specifically.(first year the head was produced) While there have been a few later ones play "pop goes the head", mostly, the problem was taken care of sometime in late 2000.
 
yes.. I do realize they are all going to be 0331 after 1999 and to 2004 but it's my understanding that in 2002 and up 0331 head had "tupy" casted in them and that inidicated that it was from another plant which isn't prone to the cracking.
that's what I'm reading anyway.
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Check the door sticker to see when the Jeep was built. Could give you and idea if it was built late 2002 it would probably not have crappy 0331 head like my 2000xj had(cracked at about 98k miles, luckily I caught it within 4 miles of it cracking I believe)
 
could you check the build date on the door tag? I'm trying to figure out what the cutoff is for the date they start using the TUPY heads, so far I've confirmed Dec-02 used them, not sure how much earlier into 2002 it might go though. Thanks
 
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No, that thread doesn't answer my question at all, in fact I came here to ask it specifically because that thread doesn't. I'm not trying to be rude, but if you haven't actually read the thread, or if you read it but you don't understand it, don't link to it. Its misleading to people, and its just bad form.

The consensus is that up until 01', the 0331 casting is bad, and that its good after 03'. 2002 is hit or miss, but obviously there was a date they switched over to the newer "tupy" casting. You might not care, but for guys crawling around the yards, its a lot easier to check the date code on the door if it still has one, than pry the hood open of a front end wreck, and either try to peer around to read the casting, or pull the valve cover just to find out that it doesn't have the casting you want, when the door sticker already had the answer.

Honestly, the date of the changeover question is probably better answered here because the population here is jeep guys, more technically capable than most jeep forums, but a much much larger pool to draw from than the stroker guys, who although technically more savy on the engine issues are a couple dozen at best. I wouldn't be surprised if this forum had members not just with 2002 wj's, but just about every month of 02' wj covered, so the odds of it getting answered here are better than on strokers, and certainly better than me trying to hunt down all 12 months of WJ production in my local yards.
 
My wife took it tonight but i'll check the build date tomorrow. I will say that the tupy casting is very very easy to read. it's litterally right under the oil filler cap.
I'll get back to ya tomorrow.
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Metal man,
my 2002 grand cherokee laredo was built in 4/12 according to the door tag and cleary stated "tupy" on the cylinder head. So that's fairly early in the year.
Hope it helps.
thanks,
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okay, I found a 2002 built in october of 2001 with the bad head, so I think the changeover occured somewhere between october 2001 and april 2002.

I had a theory that maybe the tupy head was started when they changed to the akebono brakes, the jeep I was pulling stuff off of today had the brakes but didn't have the tupy head, although the brakes looked brand new and everything I've read says the brake change wasn't until the spring of 2002, so they might have been a warranty replacement, but the head was original.

side note, i had some guys being really rude and aggressive with me trying to pull the engine while i was still pulling the wj knuckles, I told them they could wait until I was done and take whatever was left, pretty standard junkyard rules, I was wrenching on it first, so anyway I let them think they were pushing me around after I wrapped it up real quick and they went for the motor, I moved on to the next thing I wanted and waited until about two hours later when they had it all the way out to ask them why they were pulling a ticking time bomb that was down for 120k on the odometer, and that most didn't make it to 100, they didn't seem too thrilled when I pointed out to them that before they try to take something from a guy just because he's white, they should make sure they actually want it first.
 
The wife's 02 WJ was built in Nov 01 and had the early style brakes that was updated for a safety recall. Still haven't been able to verify the casting of the head.
 
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