Hey, new to the forums here.

I recently bought a '98 Cherokee Sport for $450 bucks in fairly decent cosmetic condition (I've seen similar Cherokees go for almost $2k).

I've recently been spending the past week repairing and fixing the Jeep, trying to restore it back to stock mechanical condition before digging into a general interior cleanup and doing various upgrades.

Last night I focused on getting the Jeep to run (it ran when I bought it, although it badly needed a flush and fill, a thermostat, and a battery; it didn't come with the latter). I replaced the thermostat and the t-stat housing gasket while also taking a wire brush to remove the rust that had coated the back of the housing and the block where the housing mounted to it. After completing that simple 15 minute job, I started to refill the radiator with coolant. Here's where I finally found out how I bought my Jeep so cheap.

After filling the radiator with about one gallon of prediluted 50/50 antifreeze, I started the engine to circulate the coolant so that I could add more if I needed.

I started the Jeep and immediately it started to overheat and after about five minutes, coolant started boiling out of the radiator and white smoke was pouring out of the exhaust. I shut the Jeep off and restarted it once more, letting the engine run for a maximum of five minutes to make sure the idle was still smooth and possibly if any of the previous symptoms would cease. The engine was idling smooth and oil pressure was consistent and held about the middle of the gauge, but the smoke didn't stop. I shut the engine off again and checked the tailpipe and the ground beneath it. A small bit of engine oil was on the tip of the exhaust pipe and a there was a light coating the of ground beneath it. It wasn't blue/gray smoke, that I'm sure off.

Other things to note after the engine was shut off: the overflow bottle was bone dry and the radiator appeared to be full after only one gallon of coolant was put in the radiator. The oil wasn't milky white, but it had the same appearance of coffee with milk added and had lost viscosity.

I'm thinking that the head gasket is blown, maybe somewhere away from the cylinders/pistons. It couldn't be a cracked block or head because the engine held good, consistent oil pressure and didn't miss. It ran way too smooth.

I would love to hear any input on that above issue.

Also, the NSS, like so many others, has went bad. However, I think it may be the root cause of my Jeep not wanting to start. I bought a battery, a cheap (n)Ever Start Economy model that honestly almost didn't have enough CCA to keep the Jeep running (I actually wound up having to jump it). I sort of knew that from the start, though, not wanting to invest a lot in a battery without knowing the definite outcome of what the Jeep would do when I attempted to bring it back to life. Anyhow, last night, the Jeep refused to turn over in park and would only work when I would drop the transmission to neutral then back to park after it started running.

I returned the crappy Never Start today and tried to use a good quality Adavance Auto Parts in-house brand battery from my dad's '72 Cutlass Supreme. It had enough CCA to do the job, although it was too tall to shut the hood, but now the Jeep doesn't want to start in any gear, park or neutral.

Again, leave me any thoughts on that.

I don't want to give up on my Cherokee. I know if I could just get it to run and clean it up, it wouldn't give up on me. I'm hoping the head gasket is the only issue. I really would hate to have to replace the entire engine.

 

Any ideas? I hate to be the guy who bumps threads, but I'd really like to hear some insight on this so that I can deal with fixing my Jeep.

 

You know the NSS either needs replaced or at least cleaned because of the non-start issue in P, but starting in N. Search for a thread or write-up detailing this.

It sound like you have a cracked head or a bad head gasket, so pull the head. If its the head, avoid the late '99-2001 cylinder head (0331) as they are notorious for cracking. If your oil pressure is OK, count your blessings and replace the head gasket and possibly the head.

Do you have a good JY close by? Pull your own parts, buy a pulled engine (for the head), buy a wrecked XJ, etc for the parts if need be.

If you buy the proper sized battery, it will have enough CCA to start and close the hood.

You got a "parts car" price on the XJ, so you shouldn't be surprised that you need to put a few $ to make it a good ride.

 

Really stupid to say avoid them when a simple replacement head will fix the issue, and all motors of any kind can overheat and crack a head, but yes late 99 thru early -01 had a weakness issue between clyinders 3 and 4, this is no reason to avoid these jeeps.And yes it sounds like a bad head gasket, and even though you dont have a 0331 head the replacments and from 2002 -2006 heads are great for a 99 -01 . good luck.

 

It would be really stupid to use one if you knew they had a problem.

 

Thanks everyone who chimed in.

I'm considering replacing the head anyway along with all of the associated gaskets. A new head is about $125 bucks from what I'm seeing so that's not unreasonable. It'll give me less to worry about later down the road.