Hey all, i just pulled my valve cover off my 01 XJ. Cleaned up the roughly 7.5 tons of sludge the PO left for me, (especially around cylinders 3/4) I don't see a crack in the head, but there is either condensation, or coolant at the back of the valve cover itself. Is this a telltale 0331 sign or am I over thinking it?

 

your over thinking it.... the crack is on the bottom that is facing towards the pistons and not able to seen by removing the valve cover.

 

Its not always on the bottom side. Ive seen it plenty of times on the top side right in plain sight. Do you have any whitish gunk around the top of the valve cover/ on the oil cap? If you have coolant under your valve cover thats not good. But, it could have gotten there when you took the valve cover off. Did you remove the top rad hose to get the valve cover off or did you just move the clamp out of the way.

Have you noticed loss in coolant?
Have you noticed a rise in oil levels?
Loss of oil pressure?

 

Your 0331 sounds like it is on crack with the whitish residue.

Not a good sign.

 

I just moved it aside. There is the typical vanilla pudding crap on the valve cover but nowhere else. Even if the head is fine, I think it may be good to trow a tupy in for peace of mind i suppose.

 

That doesn't sound good then...

Yes you could go with the tupy.. But if mine goes I'm going to put a 0630 in. You would need to buy the right gaskets, and since the 0630 head doesn't have the bosses for the coil pack you would need to figure out a way to mount them. Which wouldn't be too hard. Either way I'm staying away from the 0331 head altogether.

How many miles are you at? I'm at 162k on my 2000. Previous owner never had any issues and I'm the second owner. So I'm crossing my fingers. I just had the vc off to do the gasket and everything was fine.

 

Ordered the 0630 head today! will see it thursday, and hopefully be installed no later than friday!! my 01 xj has 174k. my 89 has 170k and absolutely no mechanical problems (or crappy head) should i just get intake/exhaust for 96 or 01? I'm not sure when the intake was tweaked on the HO motors...

 

Yeah your gonna want an exhaust manifold gasket from a 96 or older.

Keep us updated! Do you plan on doing the head yourself or are you going to have it done? I did my friends tj.. It too was a crackhead. It's not that hard of a job. The hardest part is probably lifting the head out. That sucker is heavy!

 

I don't particularly trust a lot of mechanics I deal with on a daily basis. Instead, i'm doing it with a friend of mine. figure he could use the experience. Plus a workout from lifting the head...so just to be clear, say for kicks, i get a 95 manifold gasket. will the 01 manifold bolt up to that no problem? or will there be some mild to moderate porting involved?