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Bad news in pan, please clarify?

4x4JeePmaNthINg

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Colorado
Hey all,

I recently dropped my oil pan to replace my RMS and oil pan gasket.

I found shavings that I can see have come from my main Bearings, 3 & 4 have visible metal coming out. Other than mains engine "loooks" ok.

I'm trying to find what my best course of action is because this guys thread has got me confused? Is this friggin Normal??? This is a joke right....thats about what I found.

metal flakes in oil pan - Jeep Cherokee Forum
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/metal-flakes-oil-pan-206376/

Otherwise my expectation on a 222,000 99 auto motor was it be needing to be replaced with a new engine.
Is there anything else I should bother quickly checking?

If I bolt the pan back up ,the jeep will run, it ran fine before i found this mess, but I dont want to pull a cap and put it back just to have it cause more damage. Hell I don't even know what would happen if something went while driving.

Any engine/labor cost estimates would be appreciated so I have a guess of what I'm getting into once my head stops spinning.

Thank you
 
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9gBmxlT.jpg
 
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Right now you are running on borrowed time. I see a new motor in your future.
 
The wear on the wear inside of your main cap is not particularly bad, but that metal coming out of that main journal is not normal.

I would pull that cap to try to figure out what is going on. I am going to guess something has blocked off the oil hole in that bearing. I would expect that problem to extend its way down the line and affect the rest of the bearings downstream from there.

Perhaps you could get away with pulling the crank, having it turned and polished and then reinstall it with 0.010" over bearings. A rebuild would be better, but if that is not in the budget at all, trying to just fix the crank should be within reason.

On the bright side, you found this problem before you ruined the engine and found yourself stranded.
 
Sometimes bearing caps are not seated down/bottomed-out firmly before the caps are torqued. If the cap is slightly cocked, there will play in the bearing and the wear will accelerate. If it were my engine I'd just replace all the bearings. Jeep 4.0L engines have incredible life times. I rebuilt my 4.0L at about 384,000 miles and was told by local Jeep dealer that there were Jeeps in my area at 500,000+miles, on original engines, and still going strong.

Best regards,

CJR
 
Neither route would be the same. Pulling an engine, rebuilding it, and reinstalling it is a lot of work and $$$$$. Pulling an engine and replacing it with a reman's one is also a lot of work and $$$$. Bearings are inexpensive. If you can't do it yourself, pay a good mechanic to do it for you and you'll still be ahead in $$$ saved. If that works you're good to go. If the bearings go again you're not out that much in $$$$ and you'll then have to rebuild or replace the engine.

Best regards,

CJR
 
Perhaps there are some difference in opinions here. A few shops do not recommend rebuilding for the money. It sounds like replacement engine is my option.

If I were to throw new bearings at it CJR, I wouldn't be able to keep myself from dropping the pan weekly to make sure everythings ok. Can't afford getting stranded in the Rockies either.
 
Maybe hit up the JYs for a lower mileage used engine?
 
As always the final decision is yours. But many engine rebuild shops have morphed into talking customers into putting a re-manufactured engine in. Why? Because they don't have to warranty the engine. Likewise, they get paid again to reinstall a replacement under warranty. So anyone who can pull/reinstall a reman'd engine can get into this type of business without having to invest in expensive engine rebuilding machine tools. A lot of transmission "rebuilders" are using this same approach; i.e. if you can pull/reinstall a reman'd transmission, your're in the transmission business.

Last time I rebuild a transmission, the repair kit cost me less than $100 with my labor. That was a lot better to me than buying a reman'd transmission. Good luck on your decision.

Best regards,

CJR
 
Perhaps there are some difference in opinions here. A few shops do not recommend rebuilding for the money. It sounds like replacement engine is my option.

If I were to throw new bearings at it CJR, I wouldn't be able to keep myself from dropping the pan weekly to make sure everythings ok. Can't afford getting stranded in the Rockies either.


You should be able to get the information you want out of your oil filter, without pulling the pan. It might be interesting to open up your old oil filter (assuming you still have it) and see what is in the pleats.

Try to find out if there is anyone in your neck of the woods who turns cranks. It involves some fairly specialized tooling and skills, but if you have such a resource local to you I would recommend contacting them and finding out what it would cost to have your crank turned and polished. Get the crank back in good shape and reinstall it with new bearings and you will be in better shape than a junkyard engine. You will be doing timing chain and balancer too, but those are not particularly expensive for these engines, probably less than $100 for both of them.

Don't be intimidated by engine bearings. They are pretty simple. As long as you keep things clean and pay attention to details such as where the oil holes are you will be fine.
 
Put the pan back on and started it up again. Awaiting quotes.

I don't have the tools to pull the engine, nor does attempting bearing & crank under a jeep seem fun.

I don't know much but the pic of one cylinder seams to look like shit no? I couldn't decide if there's a crack or horizontal scratch.... coolant and oil are clean. After looking further it's clear most bearings are spitting flakes.

As for remanufactured there are few I would trust, Jasper being high on the list. A Jy motor would still leave me with a motor I don't know the history of and thats a ways outside my comfort zone.


Pictures/video please !

http://imgur.com/V2UM3M8
http://imgur.com/oDOltp1
http://imgur.com/ayeXeAs
http://imgur.com/r5g7NxX

https://youtu.be/imiKB3v8aC0
 
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No chapter folks near you?

This could be a great excuse for a wrenching party.
 
Those look like bits and pieces of a thrust bearing.

I agree but have no idea why the thrust bearing, or another bearing, would start doing that.
Any ideas why? It's hard to fix a problem without knowing why it occurred in the first place.
 
Those look like bits and pieces of a thrust bearing.

That was my first thought, but if you look at the pictures the thrust bearing itself appears to be one bearing over to the right, and it looks fine. At least in the bit of a picture we can see.

This means one of the non-thrust bearings is getting thoroughly chewed up. That crank journal must be toast.

There is also the question of where else have those little bits of metal gone and what else are they doing wherever else they have gone?

The good news is that he caught this before it got its chance to surprise him in most untimely fashion.
 
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