2000 XJ cracked head ??

2K XJ 106K miles.Havent really confirmed it but its loosing coolant and some liquid drips from exhaust... It still runs great and never heats up. Anyway, what exactly do they do at the machine shops to "fix" the head instead of replacing it with a different one ? Thanks.

Yep, research the 0331 head casting used on 00-01. If it's like the many others, your's is cracked in between 3 and 4 cylinders.

I'd be willing to bet your title that it's not a cracked head. Try checking the evap. canister. A little loss is normal, but you have a leak somewhere if you're losing enough to be worrying about it. Generally speaking when a head does have a crack that leaks coolant, it will leak that coolant into the oil, turning it milky. Almost every cracked head I've seen has caused the operating temperature to rise as well. Start small and go up from there.

A good machine shop will magna flux the head to find the crack then grind the crack out, stick the head in an oven then weld it up. Machine afterwards of course. Some machine shops do a process called "nailing" that I am not that familliar with but the way I understand the process is they drive pins into the crack to seal it. I have heard that this is a "jb weld" type fix and not recommended but have known people to have this type of repair done without any problems. This information should be enough for you to ask the machine shop what there practices are on repairing cracked heads.

Thanks for the quick replies. If it does turn out to be a cracked head (Im still in denial) and if taken to a reputable machine shop, will the end result be similar to swapping in a different head ?