Rebuilding a 4cyl

GotWood

GotWood

Sayer of Fact
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Location
Maiden, NC
Ok, I'm pretty sure the 4 banger in the yj is headed south quick. I have a lot of blow by into the air cleaner and it is kinda yellow and snot-like. The antifreeze is kinda brown. The throttle body is very oily. I know the ideal thing would be to drop a v-8 in and be done, but that is not an option due to funds (or lack there of). Best case would be putting on a new head gasket and that would fix the problem but I know it won't be that easy for me.
What would be the first steps in determining the extent of my problems and going forward. Compression Check? What will that tell me exactly? If I pull the head and have it magnafluxed, will that tell me most of what I need to know? The motor has 170k on it and it does still run, and it doesn't smoke but I need to fix it right but don't want to go through the trouble of half assing something that doesn't work.

What do you suggest?
 
If an engine swap(V-8,4.0,etc) is not an option, then I would recommend purchasing a remanufactured long block. All the work is done(except changing engines), and it will be warranteed.
 
Price is a def problem in a new engine. I could rebuild it for a fraction of the cost.
 
GotWood said:
Price is a def problem in a new engine. I could rebuild it for a fraction of the cost.
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Have you actually priced a reman? I would think that in the long run it would be cheaper, especially since it has a warranty. BTW, I am running a 2.5 in my YJ with 245,XXX miles and still strong.
 
GotWood said:
Price is a def problem in a new engine. I could rebuild it for a fraction of the cost.
Click to expand...
Also, when you tear down the old engine, you do have to have it hot tanked, magnafluxed, and possibly bored, if there is too much wear on the cylinders. Those costs really add up.
 
About $1500. The engine still runs good and will pull 70mph down the highway. Pulling the head and magnaflux/gaskets would cost me less than $200
 
gasket kit, tune up, degreaser and new fluids. drive it. :D

might do a seafoam flush too. if you have a compression test that will determine if you need new rings, but with 170k, you may be ok. when you have the head off of it, check the cylinder walls and make sure they still have the cross hatch in them, if it does and there aren't any bad wear spots, you'll be ok. get the head freshened up at a machine shop with a valve job and that'll get you a few more miles out of it. last head job on a 4cyl for me was about 250 bucks total. if its still running it cant be too bad.
 
That's what I'm thinking. There are no check engine lights on and it runs good, just seems to be throwing a lot of oil out the top.

What is causing the oil to come through the pvc into the air cleaner? Like I said there is a snot like substance on top of the air filter.
 
Brown coolant isn't necessarily a bad head gasket or anything wrong with the motor unless it has oil floating in it. Just old. Excess oil in the air cleaner etc could just be a stuck PCV valve. I'd check the PCV valve and replace (unless it's pretty new) and do a coolant flush, and tune up. When you pull your plugs to do the compression check look at them. They should be light brown. Black and oily is burning oil, white is running lean, black and dry (carbon like) is running rich. If the plugs are just brown, check the gap and replace if needed. 170k doesn't seem like a lot of miles for even a top end rebuild if it's been taken care of. The yucky stuff in the oil fill cap could just be moisture in the oil that doesn't get hot enough to evaporate if you don't get it hot every time you start it up. (I.e. start up, drive to store 1 mile down the road shut down, start up drive 1 mile to work shut down etc.)
 
Ok, but this damn thing has no pvc valve. I have heard of people putting a pvc in line, any idea of what I have??
 
On hwy 150 going to moresvill there is a place in Lowell or Lowesville what ever its called. that has cheap rebuild kits for older fords and Chevy’s not to sure about jeeps. It might be worth checking out its near a trucking place I think the trucking place is called bloom. From what I heard is you get all the gaskets and new pistons and rings every thing you need for a compleat rebuild all for less than napa or outher chain stores.
 
when i rebuilt my 22r i had right at 1200 bucks in everything but i everything was new, i had right at 450 bucks in machine work done too. once you get into the motor you will start seeing you need this and that and some more and trust me the little stuff adds up, so a longblock might be your best bet cause whatever you might think it will cost to rebuild it go ahead and play on spending more.
hope this helps
 
do a leak down....it'll tell you a lot more than a compression test.

but like everyone said...start checking stuff. it could be a lot of little..very simple problems, or it could be the engine going. you won't really know until you tear into it and check stuff.

hope for the best for ya, it sucks when something comes up and cash is tight
 
Yea, I think I am going to go with the full tune up first to see what happens. I'm gonna pull the plugs this eavning and see what they look like. Just got the water pump off.
 
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