engine id questions...Eagle?

Some help from the experts needed. So my hydrolocked 4.0 is still running fine but I can't trust it to leave the pavement ever again, so I'm gonna bite the bullit and buy a low mile used motor. I found one locally that allegedly has only 10K on it. Does anyone know how I could verify that milage? Is the vehicle vin on the block, so I could cross-ref it on carfax or something like that? I remember matching #s on old chevys, is the xj the same way? The recycler who has the motor seems to be a reputable shop, but I haven't gone and inspected the motor yet. Any advice?

thanks,
mike

how bad did u hydrolock your engine? ive locked mine before and still wheel it plus its my daily driver. if its running fine, then why not keep it till it dies? the hydrolock took some time off its life but its still not dead and u said its running fine. maybe ive missed something?

kolby

I hydrolocked my 87 when it was six months old, just died from a rollover at 160,000 miles.
Hydrolocked my 88 and all I needed to fix was one valve, that looked like and upside down mushroom. Was two years ago and my compression has actually gotten better, no new noises or oil pressure drop.
I wouldn´t want to write it off, too quick.
Some hydrolock damage can be picked up pretty quick, with a vacuum and compression test. A damaged valve will make the vacuum gauge wag rythmicaly. Low compression in one or two cylinders, could be damaged compressioin rings. Low oil pressure or excessive blowby are also signs. Scratches from a broken compression ring, can often be seen looking in the spark plug hole with a flashight. A blown head gasket usually has some apparent signs.
A cracked or weakend connecting rod can have catastrophic effects, but then again those parts sometimes fail from quality control issues anyway.
Worked the local mud pit for a decade, every race a few would hydrolock, it was rarely fatal for the motor.
IMO, I've seen many more guys lunch there motors, overreving or overheating, than I ever have by hydrolock.

I have to agree that if the motor is still going and didn't pick up any bad habits (like smoking) then it is probably gonna keep going- years ago a buddy of mine drove his xj up to the windshield (really!) following a blazer with 40" tires and 12" of lift into a mini-lake and after the blazer towed him out they pulled the plugs and that thing spit a LOT of water and then a little while later started right up and did 3 more years of rough service before selling it- still running. anyway, i'd be willing to bet that 1/2 the people who think they hydrolocked actually just shorted the ignition and bogged down, which you can do in a mud puddle if you have "the skills"

10K? Depends on how old the rig is. You can run carfax since the info they get would let you know when the last time it went through DEQ was. If this rig is more than 4 yrs old....doubtful that it has that kinda milage. MOST good wreckers will document the milage when they inventory the vehicles.

If you can still look at the rig it came out of, it would be your best indicator.

Vin #'s to my knowledge are not on the motor.

There is a build date code on the passenger side of the block, in the data section near the distributor. All this tells is the month and year the engine was built. It isn't cross-referenced to the VIN, so there's no way to verify mileage that I know of.

Great, a few more votes for the current engine. In my original post regarding this subject, http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=53642&highlight=hydrolock,

a few claimed to have had connecting rods fail several thousand miles later. I had decided that this risk compromised the usefulness of my xj. Of course, I don't want to do an engine swap if I don't have to...

Maybe I should go get a guage and see what my compression numbers are. 8Mud mentioned a vacuum test for valve sealing. Exactly how is that done?

thanks for your input,
-mike

I got a helpful little book with my SUN vacuum gauge. Not really a difintive test instrument, but will give you indications if something is wrong. The needle on the vacuum gauge will pulsate some on a healthy engine, but will wag pretty radically with a leaky valve, mine did, that´s what the book said it would do and I found a bad valve when I tore down the motor. Also had low compression (20 points lower than the others) in that cylinder.
I do a compression test, everytime I change the plugs and write the results in my owners manual (in the back), gives me something to compare with, the next time I go troubleshooting.