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Blown motor? Cracked head? Head gasket?

Cobrajay

NAXJA Forum User
Location
NY
Well, I went wheeling for the first time. A bunch of us took a trip to PA (rauschs creek). Jeep performed great until the end. Somehow all the water i had in the radiator just vanished. Didn't have any smoke or overheating allllll day. I was on the last trail and got stuck on some rocks and I over heated and I waited and cooled down and took off after that. A little while after, I hear a tick coming from the motor. Only ticks when I give it gas. The tick eventually gets louder as I give it gas and when we leave, I jump on the HW and it died and never started back up. I think I blew the head gasket or possibly damaged the head (cracked). I filled up the radiator today and tried starting it but got nothing. I had power and fuel but as far as spark..well....I pull all plugs and two or three of them had water on them. I started breaking down the motor and these are the pics so far.... 9/28/09
jhg.jpg

utf.jpg

jgfr.jpg

ydr.jpg

mn.jpg

hnfed.jpg

:thumbdown:




9/29/09 Water sitting on top of the pistons....lots of water
iujn.jpg

ouin.jpg

iunh.jpg

ergt.jpg

asdf.jpg

ioun.jpg

The cylinder walls are perfect. The pistons are clean. Two pistons are these marks on them. Don't know what its from. I turned the crank and all pistons move just fine. Dropping the heads and the manifold off tomorrow. I hope the heads come out ok. :hang:
 
When I cracked the head on my engine it took about 2000 miles to evaporate a half gallon of coolant. Your pictures show a lot of water in the engine. This leads me to beleave that your head gasket failed but I could be wrong. In any case I think you motor is shot. You should do a complete rebuild on the engine or order a crate motor from Mopar. You may have caused damadge to the crank bearings have you pulled the oil pan and looked at the connecting rods at all? I bought a crate motor form Mopar because I did not want to go through the cost of buying a new head and down the road have other problems due to the water damadge. You could also find a motor from the junk yard for a decent price or craigslist. There was a good show on Trucks spike TV with a 4.0lt stocker rebuild check out spike online.
 
you're lucky, this is what my tick and coolant leak were:
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still ran, just a little rough
 
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