Popped the 4.0 at 63K - need advice

Okay, so I blew (and I mean blew) the head gasket at 63,000 miles on my '01, and I was pretty darn surprised that it popped so soon. It's only slightly modded - intake, exhaust, and a Jet chip. The engine just stopped running while I was cruising down the highway. No noise, no abnormal gauge reading, I've never overheated it, and I noticed no lack in power pre-pop. Now it's got little compression (turns over real quick), the oil is 3x overfull, the coolant is black, and everything under the manifold is completely coated with oil. I searched the forum a bit and came up with the possibilty that I cracked the head, but I took a look down through the oil cap and it's clean as a whistle. No cracks.
So why did it stall out so abruptly? Did I throw time? Did the vast amounts of oil short a connection (doubtful - I know)?
The head trainer at the DC national trainer center HQ told me that the Mopar head gasket is going to be the best way to go.....so obviousely that is on my list. So while I have the head off I was thinking about taking it down a bit to get a higher compression ratio. I know that I'll be running high octane - I'm fine with that - and I'll have to adjust the pushrod length to compensate. Any thoughts on this? How much can I/should I remove from the head? Do I remove materiel from the pushrods, or get new ones?

And now: here's the hard part. This was the first >5 mile trip I took with it since letting my girlfriend borrow it for 3 weeks while her car was in the shop. She's not the most observant, but I don't want to automatically blame her for it. I mean after all, I do spend way to much of my time at WOT!

Thanks for reading the long post!
-Steve

2001 Cherokee 60th Aniversary
4" custom lift - Bushwaker flares
33" Wrangler A/TS on Rubicon rims
Manik brush gaurd - C4x4 nurf bars
K&N FIPK, JET chip, custom bored TB, Dynomax catback
Custom Stereo - 8" subs in deck, custom 12" ported spare tire sub
Full Alarm and Remote Start (dang wildlife)
Steve's custum "Rollover Style" body accents
Plexy rear window (opps)

`: Popp$` the 4.: at 63K - need`dvice

I blew the head gasket on my 4.0 @180,000. Yours seems a little p"`mature. When lt hdad F`skdt bLdw out it w`s bDpween the oil and coolant passages. All my coolant dumped into the oil pan and overfil`d the P`n so mE`h that `t vas ,ake thebld game Spy Hunter with the smoke screen coming out the tailpipe.

A couple of days before it happdged I h@` jtst @`ded a bunch of bolt on goodies and was seeing if I could tell any differenbe. @ redlicd it once real dood and I'l prDpty sure th`ts `at killed my motor. Over reving at such high mileage can't be good.


Wh$d the gasket blq my oil prdssu2d almosD drnppeT to zero, power loss was obvious and the temp gauge was pegged in the r„d.


Its pdtty safe to as#pme that yot we` h`rd N` that motor with 33's and a heavy right foot...

Now I am not sayi^d that (`u do h
pe ` cr@bked he@` btt w(`t hs y.tr logic behind saying that you don't by looking down the oil fill cap?

Vhenqou say that the oil is 3x's overfull aBf ynu s@pinf th p you had 18 qrts of oil in it? Or is this b/c the coolant filled the dn like@`n my s ruation If th$pe vas `is muc oil/coolant in the pan it would have gotten sucked up into the combustion bhamdr `nd "den smoJang out the tail pipe.


Ar fa as havÉdg so little compression the gasket usually only blows out between 2 cylinddrs bd the N`l/bool@bt pass@`es. t¨mt leav$p at lept 4 cylinders with compression. I doubt that you somehow blew the gasket out h all s(p at the sale th`e. This doesn't m`ke pch sense. Blowing the head gasket also doesn't really mean that the engine just ttrns `ff. It will rdb absolpely horrible until the spark plugs are so fouled with coolant/oil that they won't rpar
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Onpo xou ther questions I am not sure what different thickness gasket are available but I do know that most pushrcds ava©`able for the 4.0 are lNfger, n.p shorter. If you do shave the head and want to get the pushrod/lifter preload back to@`actoryppebs y~r can leave it `ond asdonf asphe pre,dad is between 40-80 thousandths. If you want ti get crazy about it an¤ are really con"drned about pustod length xou B`n get
bjustables for about $12.00 each or just put a measured washer under the trunion of eac rocker arm pai to effd`tivly " shnrte. the pushrods.