Project "Blue Cross"

[johnsxj]

***WARNING- MY WRITING ON THIS THREAD MIGHT GET A LITTLE "J.P.ish" SORRY IN ADVANCE FOR ANY OFFENCES***
O.K. all the magazines come up with stupid names for their projects so I thought I would follow suit. Just bought a 1997 Cherokee Country (thank's again for the lead Frank!) for fairly short $$. How short? $550 for a well loaded high mileage rig with next to nothing for rust Heck, the only power options that don't work are the mirrors and front speakers Sounded like a good deal but there was a catch. Let's just say this Jeep is like some of my exes...... pretty good looking body but a messed up head and could use some medical attention. Hence the name Blue Cross!

Biggest issue:


Yep! That motor ain't sounding happy! Could be minor, could need to get another engine.

At least she ain't THAT ugly:




That's the worst of the body work!

And here's the worst of the rust:


Stay tuned as I try to get patched up and running good on the cheap!

[Kurt]

Love that engine

at least it's all ONE color

[jquader]

Needs a new rubber band.

And thanks for the laughs.

[johnsxj]

So tonight I gathered up my "special" tools :music-tool: , did some tinkering, and came up with some interesting numbers....
Mind you, these are all cold engine numbers. I didn't want to tee-off the neighborhood with the noise this thing makes

Cranking compression:
cyl 1 - 80psi
cyl 2 - 60psi
cyl 3 - 120psi
cyl 4 - 100psi
cyl 5 - 150psi
cyl 6 - 160psi

Next it was time to hook up my uber fancy leakdown gauge set (I've REALLY gotta post a pic of this homemade piece of ironmongery up!)
cyl 1 - 16 2/3% leak down mostly @ the intake valve
cyl 2 - ditto
cyl 3 - 16 1/4% mostly @ the intake valve
cyl 4 - 15.4% mostly @ the intake valve
cyl 5 - 11.8% from what I can tell all thru the piston rings
cyl 6 - 12.5% ditto again!

On all cylinders where it was leaking past the intake valve, I'd loosen up the rockers while the air was flowing to see if there was any change (no joy on all counts )

Now I get to pull the head and see how bad things look. Actually, I started in on pulling the head and was making great time for only using hand tools and working by the light of a Dairy Queen light bulb. The freakin' thing would be off and sitting on my work bench right now if it wasn't for the connector on the fuel rail With all the tools I own, the one thing I don't have is a set of those different sized plastic rings to unlock the tabs on the dreaded "quick connectors"

I know the engine had overheated before and a new head gasket was put on (see Frank's thread in the wanted section. yes, it's THAT Jeep I bought!) I know the rockers are nice and shiny and there's no crud on the head but God knows what I'll find with the valves and cylinder bores. With 214K on it, I'll probably be just as well off to find myself a used '91-'98 motor to drop in. The real trick is actually FINDING one for less than an arm, leg, and my first born. At this point I'd like say a very big THANK YOU to the "Big O" for having pushed a bill that wrecked havoc on the used parts industry :teasing-knob:

And with that I'll leave it for another day except for a handful observations.....

Don't know who the last owner's mechanic was, but there IS a purpose to the ground lines that were left disconnected.
Installing a USED exhaust manifold is a ticking time bomb (counted at least 3 cracks so far!)
When you can remove the 3 bolts for the air box and the 6 bolts holding the radiator support without ANY snapping, you know everything else on the Jeep will come apart without much of a problem

[johnsxj]

After a nice long day on the trail with a bunch of great people (and watching Ryan flop on one of the first real obstacles ) I took the long way home through Fitchburg and plopped $10 on a nice little set of plastic rings for the quick connectors . I think I spent more time trying to open the package than I did popping the fuel and AT cooler lines

I don't know who Blue Cross' last physician was but I think they got their degree from some 3rd world country and was paid by one of those cut rate insurance companies you see advertised on cable television

Just about EVERYTHING under the hood was a case of "treat the symptom, not the cause"

It probably overheated due to a bad radiator. There's a nice shiny brand new one installed but YA NEED TO FLUSH ALL THE CRAP OUT OF THE COOLING SYSTEM BEFORE YOU PUT IT IN!!!!!!!!!

Ya take the head off to replace the gasket. Fine, TAKE THE TIME TO CHECK THE HEAD! IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO DO! (actual tech tip here...) I was able to confirm my leak down findings by turning the head upside down, supporting it on a couple blocks of wood so it sits level, then with the plugs installed pour some gas into the combustion chambers, let it sit for a few minutes, then look to see which ports gas is running out of. Sure enough cyls 1-4 were leaking bad and there was even a dribble out of cyl 5 didn't see a drop out of cyl 6.

The head is off and sitting on the work bench. O.K. TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO CHECK ALL THE CYLINDER BORES!!! The exposed bores were looking pretty dang good. Heck there isn't even a real lip at the end of the ring travel! Started to think that I might just be able to slap another head on her and call it good WRONG!!!! Spun the crank to look at the rest of the bores and there's some real nice scores down the wall of #2 That explains the uber low compression number!

So my diagnosis on the engine is complete and our worst fears are confirmed. Blue Cross is gonna need a heart transplant. Maybe there's a Jeep laying in a motel bathtub full of ice somewhere that's missing it's engine...... Off to Craigslist I go!!!!!

Tomorrow I'll take some pics in the daylight

[Frank]

John : Would a 93 YJ with a lower knock be what your looking for ??? Let me know. Sorry to here that Ryan ! welcome to the club. FjR68

[johnsxj]

O.K. here's some pics....

My wonderful leak down gauge kit


Some crud that fell out of the water jacket in the head


Checking the valves (look at the moisture in the ports!


This engines kiss of death. Cyl 2 had some good pre-igniton going on! Really chattered right where the rings seal at ignition.


A WTF moment. This METRIC tapered nose bolt was used for one of the manifold fasteners!!!

[johnsxj]

Well, tomorrow I take a little drive to NH for an engine. Found this one http://nh.craigslist.org/pts/3061469211.html It has 138k and for $250.00 the price ain't bad (plus I'll have some more spares for MY Heep)

[johnsxj]

Well my niece Hannah saw her Jeep for the first time today and loves it She'd definitely related to me... "Uncle John, can you put bigger tires on it? I don't mean big like YOURS, just bigger than what's on it now."

Hmmm...... The rear springs are shot anyhow and I do have a set of very low mileage 30"s sitting in the garage.......

[Frank]

Bonding : At an early age. Whats an Uncle to do ? FjR68

[smileyfish]

Very low mileage, if you want a full size spare I still have the other one. Btw looks good j.

[ZAEDOCK]

This is a cool find! I would take rot free w/ toasted engine any day over the reverse.

Did you pick up that engine?

[johnsxj]

Ended up not going with the CL engine. Guy said it was a '96 which it ain't . It's also an unknown motor. Mike White from JF still has the motor from his old XJ "Lucy" and I'm buying that one for real short $ (all of $75 and a 10 mile drive ). This one is high mileage but at least it's a known motor that I've heard running. Plus it's an NVH block which tend to wear much less in the bores thanks to the coated pistons and such

[johnsxj]

Besides the engine, one of the other mechanical issues was what appeared to be a shot transmission mount (and the nickel & diming begins thought I) Glad to say this ended up being a NO BUCK fix Turns out that somehow the two bolts had loosened completely out one was gone and the other was sitting on the crossmember No biggie except that it meant pulling the crossmember and I don't recall EVER pulling an XJ crossmember without at least one bolt snapping in the uni-body. Lucky me, all the bolts spun right out without a hitch So after rooting around in my hardware pile for a bolt that would fit, the mount is nice and tight again

Tonight I also picked up a new heart for Blue Cross Mike White's Jeep "Lucy" went to great trail in the sky a little while back. Before her burial her organs were harvested so that other Jeeps might live and Blue Cross turned out to be a perfect match. The fact that it's complete sans AC pump and stat housing for $75 didn't hurt I've already got the top end torn down and the bores look to being in decent shape, did the gas trick on the head to check the valves some are a little weepy. I can try lapping them or I'll just assemble the other head I've got and use that

[Frank]

John : There is one for sale on another site with an auto and a 231 let me know if that one is to far gone. FjR68