2000 Cherokee Classic 4.0 L. Last week I check oil, the dipstick looks like chocolate milk. Ok, I assume its a headgasket and the local mechanic agrees, without doing a pressure test. I give him the job, he takes the head off, sents it out to the shop to get serviced. He said the head looks good. He puts the head back on, I go there to pick it up, pay the guy im on my way.
He changed the oil too, and the following morning I check dipstick, its chocolate, figuring theres still some antifreeze in the motor. I change the oil and notice that the antifreze bottle is going down to empty and NOW the oil dipstick is WHITE. It seems like the problem is worse than prior to taking it in.

OTHER THAN THE HEADGASKET, is there any other way ANTIFREEZE can get into the oil pan??? Is there an o ring gasket or seal behind the water pump where the block is.

 

head gasket or cracked block

 

Gasket or cracked head.

 

Head is especially suspect on a 2000 as they had the 0331 that was prone to cracking.

 

I'd grill the mechanic who said he had the head checked. As Donnie_K said, you will have the suspect 0331 head which will almost always crack. You can pull your oil cap and probably see some antifreeze on the underside of the cap and between the #3-4 rockers directly below the cap.

 

I have the identical problem 2000 cherokee , been going through a jug of antifreeze every 3 - 4 days, did a presure test to find the leak , dripping stopped , checked the oil level today and its really high, so i drained the oil put fresh oil in and still notice that its milky, Is there anything that i can do , i already bent a push rod and had tore the head apart a couple months ago , put everything back together and still a leak , is there a temp fix that i can doo to get by for a while or is the 0331 block just weak?? What can anyone recomend??

 

Total rebuild on the engine with a *new* head (not 0331 type).

This goes for the OP too.

 

^^

Antifreeze in the oil screws the bearings. It's common for bearings to fail shortly after this sort of problem...people blame it on "all that compression from my new head and valves". That isn't the problem- antifreeze contamination is.

 

Cherokee John has a great thread on the issues of the 0331 head, look it up if you want a lot of info on it!

 

Buy a brand new casting from Clearwater Cylinder Heads. I can't say enough good things about them.

 

not the block, just the head

 

I couldn't have said this any better!

If any of you have driven more then a few miles with anitfreeze mixing in to the oil, you will most likely have to do a full motor rebuild including a NEW 0331 TUPY head. (build dates from 6/99 to end of 2001)

Stop driving if your antifreeze and oil mix.

 

^x2

i bought my 2000xj with a blown head gasket, they checked it at the shop and found 3 cracks...make sure the machine shop checked it more than just visually. CCH was awesome, had the head to me in 2 business days, and they send you the return label, so all you have to do is thrown the old one back in the box, slap the new label on, and give it to any ups driver! they also dont charge the core up front.i think you have 2-4 weeks to get them the old head back before they charge you the 100$ core charge

 

I feel your pain. I JUST swapped my head out this past weekend because of the same issue. Chocolate milk EVERYWHERE. When I pulled my 0331 head off I cleaned it and inspected it really good. Even used a magnifying glass for a closer look and found NOTHING. But there has to be something wrong with it and it is one of those things that probably only opens up when the Jeep gets up to op. temp.

Anyway. I got a head from the yard off of a 97 (0630) I think is the casting number. Works GREAT! the only thing I had to do was rig up something because of the ignition rail since the 97's use a distributor. Other then that it was a pretty straight forward job. From start to finish for me was about 7 hours. This includes drive time to the auto parts store to get a few things that I over looked like a 12 point socket to get the head off and back on.

The head from the yard cost me a total of $70 head gasket kit was like $170ish new coolant, new oil, oil filter, new head bolts and I went a head and swapped out a new h2o pump as well so that was like $30-40 i don;t remember

Good luck!

 

Hope you did not pay too much to that mechanic. Maybe, if you are lucky, he will give you your money back Certainly sounds like a cracked 0331 head. Here is the Cherokee John thread...


https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/00-...erview-118922/