Jeep broke down

Hey guys, just wondering if you know what might have happened to my jeep yesterday. I apologize in advance for knowing nearly nothing about vehicles.

At about 1 am yesterday morning I drove it about 1 mile from a bar to our cottage. During this drive it was making knocking noises. After about 2 hours (~3 am) I left the property and drove about 40 yards when it died on me in the middle of the road. It was fairly cold outside (approx 1-2 degrees F) and immediately before the jeep died I was revving the engine pretty high for a cold start. (4-5,000 rpm)

Now the jeep doesn't start, although it looks as though the main belt wheel (not sure what it is called--it comes out of the main engine housing) attempts to turn but doesn't make it more than an inch.

Any thoughts what might be the problem?

btw, I changed the oil about 1,500 miles ago and the oil level looked ok.

how loud were these.. knocking noises..

Why in the world would anyone rev thier engine to 4-5000 rpm for a cold start? Did I read right?Did you say you left a bar? Perhaps the knocking noise was something like fenceposts thrashing your oil pan dude. Or even worse.......were you also high by any chance? that would explain the 4-5000 rpm cold start i guess.......

ya might want to get under there and see if your oil pan failed

majic_tech said:

Why in the world would anyone rev thier engine to 4-5000 rpm for a cold start?

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dude who would rev their engine that high anyways.. cold or warm... i allways keep mine under 2 if i can help it

majic_tech said:

Why in the world would anyone rev thier engine to 4-5000 rpm for a cold start? Did I read right?Did you say you left a bar? Perhaps the knocking noise was something like fenceposts thrashing your oil pan dude. Or even worse.......were you also high by any chance? that would explain the 4-5000 rpm cold start i guess.......

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The idea here is there is a reason you let your vehicle WARM UP! It's not about making the heater blow hot so you don't freeze, it's about making sure the engine warms to a good running temp BEFORE YOU FLOOR IT. This makes sure all moving parts are lubricated and there's that whole metal expansion, warping valve, cracked something idea. Dude, you gotta know better. I think he threw a rod.

did u have an oil pressure light come on, or did your gauge read really low? can't tell you for sure, but my guess is the engines seized. seen it twice before, where you can see the pulleys try to move when you try to start it, and when you let off the key, they move back to where they were. both times it was because the oil pump went out, and they didn't notice untill too late.

hmmmm 1-2ºF, drove for one mile and shut it off. Could you be any harder on the engine?

I'm not trying to lecture or anything, but the more you do that the more you just kill everything in your engine, exhaust, and all the other stuff.

Describe the knocking a bit more. You said it got louder and louder. I'd have to wonder if you threw a rod or somethin, and lost all your oil and didn't realize it and just kept on goin. 4-5K start ups? Holy crap!

Oh and that "main belt wheel" you're referring to is probably the Crankshaft....kinda important. I'd definately crawl under and see what ya see. BTW, what year are we talkin here? How many miles?

And i've gotta ask, how much did you have to drink prior?

i second and third the thrown rod.

my old dodge ram 50 had a slight knock that got a little louder over time. one day sitting in traffic i let out on the clutch to go and all of a sudden the motor dies in about half a second. turned out to be a thrown rod. luckily 3 days prior someone hit me, totalling the truck. paid $200 for the truck and it totalled for $2200, which i got my xj with.

Have it towed 1 mile back to the bar. Maybe some drunk will hit it and total it.

arndog said:

Hey guys, just wondering if you know what might have happened to my jeep yesterday. I apologize in advance for knowing nearly nothing about vehicles.

At about 1 am yesterday morning I drove it about 1 mile from a bar to our cottage. During this drive it was making knocking noises. After about 2 hours (~3 am) I left the property and drove about 40 yards when it died on me in the middle of the road. It was fairly cold outside (approx 1-2 degrees F) and immediately before the jeep died I was revving the engine pretty high for a cold start. (4-5,000 rpm)

Now the jeep doesn't start, although it looks as though the main belt wheel (not sure what it is called--it comes out of the main engine housing) attempts to turn but doesn't make it more than an inch.

Any thoughts what might be the problem?

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The engine won't turn because it's seized, and it's probably seized because a connecting rod has broken and wedged itself in the block. If it hasn't made a hole in the block or the oil pan, the dipstick oil level will still be OK unless there was too little oil there in the first place.
The knocking sound that you heard earlier was from worn rod bearings (now you know why you shouldn't rev the gonads out of a cold engine) and that was an early warning to you that your engine was going to let go soon. The extra 40 yards just finished it off.
Now that your engine is dead, you can let it rest in pieces and replace it with another one (a used junkyard engine would be cheapest). I suspect the block is already trashed so it's unlikely you'll be able to rebuild your existing engine.