Decided to pull the head

[RamlebXJ]

Now no dirty thoughts! :laugh: This is going to be my weekend project, decided since there was a good ammount of sluge under the valve cover, I'd pull the head and do a general cleaning/new cylinder head gasket job on the Jeep. Question is, I love working on engines, and while this 89 cherokee is all stock, is there any harm I can do giving the heads a mild cleaning/porting.. nothing crazy, just to match to the gasket I'm getting in the head gasket kit. All I want to do is get rid of the carbon build up and possibly any casting slag, build-ups in the ports. Since I'm still using the crimped and smashed OEM headers would there be any abnormal pressure build up? or should I start thinking about a full manifold back exhaust system too?

 

[gradon]

You can heat and pound out the crimp in the dp. Weld any cracks you see in the header.

 

[cruiser54]

gradon makes a good point. The elimination of the crimp makes a difference.

I have match ported or gasket-matched the manifolds and head on my wife's XJ. Mild taper into the port for about an inch at the max. It runs good.

 

[LittleDevilXJ]

What's dp?

 

[cruiser54]

Down pipe. The pipe that bolts on to the exhaust manifold. There is a "crush" in the pipe that appears to be for clearance with the front driveshaft. If you have a 3" lift or better, you can eliminate the crush zone and improve the efficiency of your exhaust system. If you don't have a lift, you can have a muffler shop make you a new downpipe without the crush zone and make it swoop back so your front driveshaft won't hit it while 4 wheeling.

 

[EFR98XJ]

What's dp?

DP= down pipe.

 

[EFR98XJ]

Cruiser54 beat me to it

 

[RamlebXJ]

DP= down pipe.

Thats NOT what she said!

I was going to check the factory manifold for cracks, once i have it out ill see what i can do with it, i might cut the pinch out and weld some new pipe in there. Wish i had a bender, id do a whole new header! Going to start the teardown tonight, ill take some pics of the before n after, might be a bit more than a weekend project.