Radiator went bad,took it one step further!

[bigdee]

Radiator crapped out on my Grand Cherokee so after pulling most of the front end to get to the radiator the 4.0 engine was staring me in the face. So I decided to pull the motor and replace it too. Long story,short story the Jeep had almost zero oil pressure when I bought it so I bought a salvage engine to replace it....that was 5 years ago and thousands of heavy miles later! That engine just kept going and going so I never justified the point of all that labor. Funny thing is I turned it into a quest to see how far it would go but 80k miles is probably enough of a gamble. My wife thinks I'm crazy because it was running like a sewing machine. Just hope salvage engine is OK...the warranty on it expired 4 years ago!

 

[MTboatguy]

I had a CJ7 with the 258 6 and the only thing I ever did to that engine would put a new valve cover on it, when I finally got rid of it, there was over 1/2 million miles on that rig, just kept going like the energizer bunny.

 

[Scott Danforth]

I would have flipped your old engine over and found what was the cause of low oil pressure before an unknown salvage motor

my first car was a Gremlin with the 258. you couldnt kill it

 

[Grub54891]

Did you check the oil pressure with a manual gauge?

 

[bigdee]

I would have flipped your old engine over and found what was the cause of low oil pressure before an unknown salvage motor

my first car was a Gremlin with the 258. you couldnt kill it

Almost positive it was a spun cam bearing because there was bearing material in the oil when I first bought it. Salvage engine is not unknown and is in good shape, I fully inspected before buying from a reputable yard that specializes in Jeeps. It was hot tested. I also used a bore scope to look into cylinders,done a leak down test, pulled oil pan and replaced RMS and measured bearing wear and crank end play. VIN check shows one owner and all maintenance done by dealer. Motor came with 12k/1year warranty. I had my pick of 4 engines and all of them were the same price.This one had the highest mileage but inspected better.

 

[bigdee]

Been very busy so I have not had much time to work on this. Bell housing bolts were frozen and had to grind off which was a real PITA with the tight space. I have new engine in place and waiting until I have the time to re-install accessories,AC lines and compressor,alternator,power steering, exhaust, etc,etc. Being 70 this turned out to be a little tougher than I thought. My wife has been wanting me to recruit help but I made it this far. I told her I may be slow but I go far.

 

[bigdee]

Been a little slow with the update but she is up and running! Started right up and runs great,no codes!

 

[bigdee]

UPDATE......FIRE!!!! Car had been running great. Went outside to pull car into to garage because of cool weather in mornings and battery would not rurn engine over fast enough to crank. About 1/2 revolution and click,click,click. I tried 5 or 6 times before giving up,the battery was 5 years old so I planned on going out the buy a battery next day. Was watching TV and about 30 minutes later dogs started barking so I looked outside to see the jeep on fire. Well the car was pulled right up to the garage door and the flames were coming out the grill and windshield. Problem: car was locked and driveway runs uphill. Had to unlock door with key, turn ignition, press brake and shift to neutral. Windshield busted while I was doing this and brake fluid reservoir busted when I pressed the brake. Other problem is I'm 70 and still had to push car away from the house. First thing I did was burn my hands when I touched the hood so I bent down and pushed the bumper and rolled the car uphill away from the house.....to my amazement it was very easy to push.
Now the sick,sick feeling of losing not only the car but all that work was in total vain. I have to wonder though, what if that car cranked and I had pulled it into the garage! I have no idea what the cause was but it had to be related to that battery. Maybe it backfired through the throttle body or maybe the starter caught on fire.

 

[Grub54891]

Dang, glad you didn't get hurt, and saved the garage and house. I had a friend that happened to, did all the work only for it to go up in flames. Not a jeep, but still pretty devastating. His was never figured out why. Yours may have been because of a weak battery, possibly caused the solenoid to stick and you did not know it at the time. Constant power to the starter would make it heat up and start a fire.

 

[bigdee]

Dang, glad you didn't get hurt, and saved the garage and house. I had a friend that happened to, did all the work only for it to go up in flames. Not a jeep, but still pretty devastating. His was never figured out why. Yours may have been because of a weak battery, possibly caused the solenoid to stick and you did not know it at the time. Constant power to the starter would make it heat up and start a fire.

Yes, that was my theory too. When I tried to crank it the motor would spin till it hit the compression and stall and the starter solenoid would chatter each time. It may be possible this chattering welded the contacts closed causing the starter or wire to overheat. Thank heavens I was able to get it out of park and push it away from the house. Insurance totaled car and will offer some compensation...... but I sure do miss her.

 

[gm280]

Yes, that was my theory too. When I tried to crank it the motor would spin till it hit the compression and stall and the starter solenoid would chatter each time. It may be possible this chattering welded the contacts closed causing the starter or wire to overheat. Thank heavens I was able to get it out of park and push it away from the house. Insurance totaled car and will offer some compensation...... but I sure do miss her.

I followed along with this thread and I am very sorry to hear about this situation. But you are not hurt or any property damage to the house and garage. So that is good. I read you stated that the insurance company totaled it out. If you really want to, you could buy it out from the insurance company and rebuild her. I realize that would be a lot of work, but it can and has been done lots of times. JMHO

 

[bigdee]

Thanks gm280. She is to far gone to rebuild...everything under the hood is (except the engine) is destroyed. Fire department hosed down the inside on top of dashboard so that probably took out the electronics. If dry extinguishers were used it would have been better. Engine was completely filled with water through throttle body and valve cover because all the plastic was melted/burned away. Fire inspector said it started around air breather because that was where most of paint was burned off hood but I disagreed with him. All the plastic parts,filter ducting,plastic power steering reservoir, plastic brake reservoir,hoses etc were in that area and fed the fire. Dang blame plastic!!! If it was a car built before the seventies it may have survived.

 

[gm280]

Thanks gm280. She is to far gone to rebuild...everything under the hood is (except the engine) is destroyed. Fire department hosed down the inside on top of dashboard so that probably took out the electronics. If dry extinguishers were used it would have been better. Engine was completely filled with water through throttle body and valve cover because all the plastic was melted/burned away. Fire inspector said it started around air breather because that was where most of paint was burned off hood but I disagreed with him. All the plastic parts,filter ducting,plastic power steering reservoir, plastic brake reservoir,hoses etc were in that area and fed the fire. Dang blame plastic!!! If it was a car built before the seventies it may have survived.

Sorry to hear that bigdee.

It does remind me about a friend I use to hunt with. He too drove a Jeep. And one morning he arrived late to the hunting woods. The hood on his jeep was well burnt. I ask him what happened. This is really a good one. He said that the gas fitting going into the carb was leaking gas. So he thought and thought how he could fit it. Now understand he wasn't very mechanically inclined and thought using some epoxy around the threads would seal it up. So he mixed up the quick setting epoxy and put it all over the threaded area and gas line as well (his words). However, the temps were so cold that the epoxy wasn't setting up like usual. So he decided to use a lighter to heat the epoxy up to get it to set up and caught the entire engine on fire. Not that bright of a person in my mind. Here's your sign!

 

[JoLin]

Geez, bigdee, that stinks! All that work down the drain. I feel for you.

(my first thought was that you pissed off the mob, but the incendiary device malfunctioned. I must be watching too many movies lately)

 

[bigdee]

I just reviewed it on the security cameras (had not thought of that till now) and got sick all over again. It was blazing pretty good before the camera picked it up but it does appear it started on passenger side and traveled across cowling/firewall to drivers side where it really intensified.