Head gasket, or...?

[JBurian]

I have a '94 Cherokee, 4.0L 6 cylinder, and AW-4. It currently has 283,000 miles and until a week ago was running well. Now, it started putting out lots of exhaust smoke (light-colored, smells just like exhaust, not sweet like coolant). Pulled the plugs over the weekend, cylinders 2-6 were beautiful, cylinder one seemed wet, oily. There seems to be a miss until load, and also after it has warmed up, it stutters and surges while under constant throttle, which lessens if I get on the gas. Plugs, distributor, wires, etc, were changed a couple of months ago; coil also. I haven't had a chance to change the fuel filter yet, but will be trying that in the next few days. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[birchlakeXJ]

Compression test. Pronto.

The compression spec for the 4.0 Jeep is 120-150 psi, with no more than a 30 psi variation between cylinders. Perform the test "dry" on all cylinders. If any are low, add a tablespoon of oil to that cylinder and perform a "wet" test. See if that changes the compression.

Good data = good decisions.

Let us know what you find.

 

[old_man]

Sounds like a stuck ring or two. Like the man said, do the compression test. If it isn't great, run a can of BG44 through the gas. Heck, I would do it anyway. I run a can every 10k miles in every vehicle I own.