survailencewagon

she is throwing no codes... none.

and I did a compression check twice
110 110 108 118 110 110
front to back - seems pretty good to me, but I dunno what it's supposed to be

then I got my valve cover re-gasketed and actually tightened all the bolts (some time some one before me loosened the back three - made a really mess)

strained all the engine oil then dropped a magnet in the bucket, no shrapnel
did find some debris from the bottle brush tree in the yard though... pretty sure it blew into the bucket

eventually i'm gonna get this whole engine clean on the outside... but it's a lot of work. once the durn things clean, i'm gonna coat her in blue chalk or something and let it idle till it runs out of gas... see who's drippin

still don't know how much pressure my fuel rail should have, or even what it does have... even renting a fuel pressure tester is out of the budget right now

once I start up my new job, i'm ordering the lower gasket set, and the main bearings
and see if I can hustle somebody for an oil pump... I might try to re-con mine (some times I get lucky with things like that, and it shouldn't hurt if I have new one in the box)

the oil pressures been weird since about a month after I got her... it would drop some after she warmed up, and raise with the revs
then over time it started to drop more and more
still raises with the revs (until just recently)

now it idles with 0 on the pressure guage, and doesn't climb much with the revs
when I took it out to test drive it after I got it running, I didn't getting going over 40
so I don't know if it'll drop to 0 in 3rd(4th maybe)

97jeepxj40

So next step is to verify oil pressure with mechanical gauge. This should tell you whether you have a faulty oil pressure sender unit or whether you have bigger engine issues.

I wouldn't spend/do much more with that motor until you have done that. If oil pressure is good, no need to worry about bearings etc for now.

survailencewagon

good thinkin, should I not drive it at all until I've done this?

97jeepxj40

I wouldn't but that's just me. I wouldn't drive it until I knew why a load of coolant came out of the exhaust, why it leaks coolant at all, and why there is no oil pressure. If you do drive it, it will likely get worse and become terminal if the long term damage is not done already.

survailencewagon

well, the puddle out the back might jose's gas... I got cheap stuff cuz it was that or run out in the middle of the desert

and the coolant leak is up fron where I cracked that hard pipe that goes back through the fire wall

so... I went out and found my pressure sending unit, now to test it.
how is this gauge set performed , and can I test the sending unit electrically?

for better or worse, this ol jeeps all I got to get me around this great big town... she cant die

97jeepxj40

You'll need a mechanical gauge. Once you have this you remove your oil pressure sending unit and screw in the mechanical gauge in its place. Run your engine and see what oil pressure you get.

You're hoping for better numbers than your sending unit reports to you on the dash.

survailencewagon

I would buy you a beer if I had the $$ to ship it all the way over there

i'm on this test right now, i'll let you know what I dig up

what do you think of the results of my compression test?

97jeepxj40

from the book:

pressure range 120-150 psi
max. variation between cylinders 30 psi

How did you do the test? Wet/dry? Hot/cold?

survailencewagon

which book is that? I don't have the Chilton bible, I wish I did...

so my compression is low, but in the variation range... not bad for 15years of hard miles.
I dunno what you mean by wetdry hotcold. I just pulled the center off the distcap and screwed thguage in 1 plug at a time, three cranks, move to the next plug

it's always hot here... it was low 90s yesterday, everything was hot to the touch, but I didn't let her sit and idle before the test

this is the guage I found, think it'll work?
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...0663&ppt=C0103

Gunmetal97

Before you read this, you should know that I have nothing to say pertaining to your problem.

With that out of the way, I would just like you to know that our XJ's share a name. What does your Bernice look like?

survailencewagon

almost exactly like this

did you name her after the skynard song?

Gunmetal97

Clean as hell!

survailencewagon

one day i'll put a picture of her on here.. but yeah she's that model and color
the one in the pic isn't mine, it's missing some lights, my lift and the smashed fender

Gunmetal97

Nice! Mine is gunmetal with every option under the sun! And no, I didn't name her after the zeppelin song, it was my grandmother's confirmation name

survailencewagon

alright,
I fixed the whole issue appearantly

the pressure sending unit was toast
I tore it out, found the sealant was junk (where the plastic meets the brass)
and the hole leading to the diafram was full of black hard goobers
the hillbilly in me said '$50 for a new sending unit cuts into my beer money'
so I resealed the sensor to the diafram with bluegoo sensor safe gasket seal
let it sit and dry completely
then I grabbed my can of electrical parts clean and a few qtips
and cleaned out the hole where the sensor lived and diafram (took a little time)
but once it looked pretty clean I put just a little of the bloogoo on the back end of the threads and put the little guy back in

let that dry too

another half a turn on the sensor to seat it tight
and turned the key
she started on the 1st crank, she still read 0 pressure on idle, but I let her warm up
drove her around the block
no ticking or clunking or coughing
none of the sounds that would mean no oil pressure

turned her off and let her sit long enough to watch some cartoons and have a sandwich

turned it on again, the guage went to 35 at idle
took her out and drove to the bank and got some groceries
3rd gear, 15000/20000 revs, 45psi on the guage

drove around for 3 hours or so, consistant reads for psi/revs
hit all the speeds I usually hit (I keep off the highways here, since I rarely need them)
ran the old girl hard and fast and even jumped some curbs and swung the tail through some corners



I might have only bought time, but I don't think so

yessur, that's how it went