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Going thru oil

Jeepmedic46

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
Orange, Ma
I bought a 2000 XJ with the 4.0 engine a couple of months ago. The Jeep has a junkyard motor with over 90,000 miles on it. I have a check engine light which I’m guessing is sensor. Today I took it about 15 miles one way didn’t really pay attention to my gauges as it does a lot of sitting due to me having some surgeries. I got to where I was going and the check gauge light went on. I noticed the oil gauge wasn’t registering oil at idle. I put 2 qts in and that is gone. It’s not leaking on the ground. The side of the engine block has fresh oil on it. What would cause that?
 
Looking at your gas and oil records, what is the oil usage per 1000 miles ? How often do you check the dipstick, and why was it 2 quarts low ?

What are the trouble codes for the Check Engine Light ?

Oil can only escape from a few places, what is the source of the oil leak ?
 
Since I’ve bought it I’ve only driven it about 200 miles. I’ve had it about 3 months. No oil on the ground. There was no oil on the dipstick so I added 2 qts to get me home.

I ordered a tester and it should be in by the end of the week. Auto parts stores aren’t testing because of the Pandemic.
 
If its up high I'd say valve cover gasket, down low oil adapter o-ring or sender. It is possible for the head gasket to weep oil as well. The valve cover would be the first thing I'd check.
 
Pressure wash the entire thing really good. You have to have a leak somewhere if you burned two quarts in 100 miles. That’s 1/3 of the entire engine capacity. I just changed my valve cover gasket oil fill plug to stop a leak. The oil fill plug was old and the rubber gasket was hard, and the valve cover gasket was leaking in the back and dripping down the transmission.

I do think it is interesting you burned as much oil as you did and nothing is dripping on the ground. If there was no oil in it I’d fill it up with some cheap oil after pressure washing it (literally what I just did) and cleaning as much of the gunk and dirt off the engine block. You’d be amazed how fast you could find a leak on a clean engine compared to a dirty one.
 
Passenger side has oil on it.

Yep, that's what I thought! Lotsa places fot oil to leak from there on a 4.0- valve cover, diatributor, oil filter, oil filter adapter, oil pressure sending unit...

"High and front" is a good rule of thumb to follow when trying to track down the source of a leak. That is say that leaks typically show up "low and back."

Can't say as I wholely agree with pressure-washing the engine bay to clean it up... first time I did that on my very Jeep/XJ, I ended up frying my crank sensor and had to walk/get towed home. No spark, no fun. 😕
 
Thank you, I never thought about the oil pressure sending unit or the oil filter adapter will check those out when the rain stops.
 
Pressure wash the entire thing really good.


Go easy with the pressure washer! Especially around the intake and any connectors, as that can kill the TPS sensor. Most of the sensors are okay with the washer, but the TPS just seems especially sensitive to water. I typically cover the throttle body with a plastic bag, spray the engine with cheap engine cleaner, let it sit, then hose off with the hose. Might take a repeats for heavy grime.



I vote for the oil filter adapter. If the back of the block is oily, likely the valve cover.
 
A lot of good suggestions offered. Here's something to try. You may have a broken cast-iron compression ring on one or more pistons. When a cast-iron compression ring breaks on a piston, the combustion gases blow through the broken compression ring. This pressurizes the crankcase, which in turn pressurizes the valve cover, via the oil drain holes in the block, and blows oil out. I'd suggest you run a compression test on all your cylinders to see if you have a broken compression ring. If you find one, pull the head and crankcase and piston, re-ring the piston with a ductile-iron compression ring and reassemble. OR, pull all the pistons and re-ring ALL the pistons with ductile-iron compression rings and reassemble.

Best regards,

CJR
 
I am no fan of pressure washing just about anything on a car, the engine area should not be pressure washed. It is hard on paint, and in an engine bay it can do a lot of damage.
A can or two of foamy engine brite degreaser and a garden hose is safer. But still watch out as to getting electric thing real wet.
 
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