4.0 liter question

R Q

R Q

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Location
Charlotte
Looking at a '99 XJ for sale cheap. It runs fine but on longer trips it overheats and was diagnosed by a mechanic as a head gasket.
Not having any experience with the 4.0 is this common? And is it as simple as just pulling the head and putting in a new gasket? I know the head could possibly be warped or cracked too so that would be a gamble I guess.
It has 230k on it.
Any info is appreciated.
 
If I were going to buy that I would take the head to get it checked before putting a head gasket on. How good are the radiator, water pump and thermostat? Is the fan working correctly.
I bought a 99 that had a cracked radiator. The main reason they were selling it but also before that when you turned on the A/C it would squeal really bad. I assumed A/C compressor was bad. Put in the radiator and it still over heated. Pulled thermostat housing and replaced thermostat. Well when I pulled the Water Pump and all the Impellars had rusted off and were just churning the water. I paid $500 for the XJ and then the water pump and Radiator were less than $200. Sold it for $3300.

Good luck. Hope its something simple
 
its notorious for those radiators to get gummed up. also people that try to service xjs like to break off the mechanical fan shroud. without it the fan is useless. i would check for those 2 things and any obvious leaks and if you want to put 5 minutes into it then change out the thermostat and see what that does. unless they have completely ran the crap out of it and pegged the guage id doubt the headgasket is blown.
 
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