Hello, new member and new XJ owner (Pic Heavy)

[SteveO86]

Hello everyone! About 6 months ago I bought a 2000 Cherokee Sport for $100 with the intention of fixing and selling it to make a couple bucks. When I bought it, I knew that coolant was disappearing and after a little research I discovered it was likely to have the 0331 head crack. Well, after a little wrenching, I confirmed the crack and grabbed a TUPY head from an 04 Wrangler at the local salvage yard. Well, now that's fixed and I drove it around for a bit, and for some reason I still haven't listed it for sale... I've come to really like this thing.

At this point I don't know what if any mods I'll do to it. So far, I have installed a decent $500 stereo, new General Grabber AT2 tires and tinted the rear windows. I just developed a radiator leak, so I'll be fixing that and probably replacing all the cooling system parts with the exception of the water pump that I already replaced. In the summer I will probably rebuild the engine as the coolant in the oil pretty much wiped out the bearings. I sit at almost 10 PSI oil pressure at idle so I know it's not ideal.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my story...

 

[the_weirdo]

Welcome! I wouldn't stress about the 10psi oil pressure at idle until you try a new pressure sending unit or verify the measurement with a physical measurement. If it truly is 10psi at idle I still wouldn't be too worried - mine has been at 10psi idle for the last 5 years. She just keeps on trucking.

 

[SteveO86]

Welcome! I wouldn't stress about the 10psi oil pressure at idle until you try a new pressure sending unit or verify the measurement with a physical measurement. If it truly is 10psi at idle I still wouldn't be too worried - mine has been at 10psi idle for the last 5 years. She just keeps on trucking.

Thank you! I've been driving it for the past few months with that pressure. I will admit that I am only using the dummy gauge and haven't actually connected a pressure gauge to the engine yet. But this 4.0 seems to be running okay. No valve tick and plenty of power, I just try to make it a point to not red line it or drive it too hard. It has a small leak at what I am assuming is the rear main, so while I'm in the bottom end in the next couple of weeks I may replace the pickup tube and/or the oil pump. As you'll see in the pictures below, I got this Jeep and the sludge in the top end was insane! So I'm sure that I haven't cleared that all out yet.

And here are the pictures I promised in the first post, but didn't work out...

Towing my new to me XJ home...

First wash and ready to tear down...

What I found under the valve cover...

Torn down and waiting for the new head...

New to me head with new valve seals...

Playing in a little mud to test the 4x4...

A nice $40 DIY tint kit from precuttint.com...

On my way to mount and balance the new tires...

And the leaking coolant I discovered today...

 

[flash2pablo]

Welcome to the forum. There is a ton of information on this site regarding any questions you might have about the cherokee.