Isn't that what u do when u r young?.......go to school, take classes/courses, learn from mom/dad.

 

Nope not everyone ... my Dad taught me ****e. He knew zippo about anything mechanical. I broke everything and had to fix it all on my own... and that was before the internet, forums, google and all the other quick resources we have now.

I had to go to the library and research and read. If you were lucky you have a local parts store in your town and they had Chilton or Haynes manuals.

Now I bring out my tablet, google the problem and go to work on it.

Huge difference.

JR

 

Then.......now....... what's the huge difference?.......u still have to learn how the correct the problem either way.

If I'm reading between the lines correctly, the OP knew something was wrong, ignored it (if it ain't broke, don't fix it attitude) and sure 'nough, it broke. There may be several lessons learned by the OP in this thread.......or maybe not.

 

Exactly why the OP has caught some heat.

 

Yes, looks just like that, but not nearly as much foam as that. I had maybe about 8oz if not less of that nasty foam crap

 

Levlons is out in riverhead, take iron pier beach east and go down about 1-1 1/2 miles.

 

Thank you!
No, I have no evidence of coolant in oil, looks just as clean as ever.
No, I do not have any unexplained coolant loss
Yes, water pump went bad, but god knows what happened to this thing before I bought it.

The guy who sold it to me definately knew there was something funky going on with the coolant... too bad inexperienced me didnt bother to check before I bought it

 

In that case I'd flush it out with cascade and water, then refill it with plain water and drive it for a while. See what happens.
You might want to add a bit of TSP (tri sodium phosphate) to the Cascade. Hardware stores usually have it. Powdered cascade btw, not the gel stuff.

 

If yours looks like that picture, that's rust.

I've never seen "chocolate milk" that color.

This is more indicative of lack of cooling system maintenance, not a blown head gasket or cracked head.

Yet.

 

Yet.
Next oil change im planning on pulling the cover and taking a peek down there. I am more than mechanically inclined to change a head myself, it is only a matter of aquiring one and making a bracket for the coil (if its an older head), and changing it before something does decide to crack.

Considering the coolant, I am releived to finally see that I am not getting oil in the coolant, that it is only just rust (nothing to be happy about, but I'd prefer rust over oil any day), or so you guys say (and I pray to god you are correct)

Thank you for all your help guys! I will put pictures up of what the junk looks like (which is something I should have done in the first place)

Food for though: If 0331 heads are known to crack, shouldnt there have been a recall? Or maybe there was, but at that time I wouldve only been 4 years old.

 

Since I am a old man with years of experience let me give you some "grand-fatherly" advice.
1. Take care of your cooling system first
2. Your head may not be cracked...the majority do NOT crack
3. After cleaning up coolant send a oil sample to Blackstone labs.com. This test will reveal if head or gasket is leaking

A personal story that may give you some hope; 3 years ago I bought a jeep for a song b/c the seller thought it had a cracked head. The coolant looked like yours and it was mysteriously disappearing. To top that, it had very low oil pressure (4psi). I flushed the cooling system and tested the oil and found NO coolant in oil! Coolant was still disappearing somewhere but could not find out why. Shortly thereafter the water pump impeller broke and after replacing the water pump guess what....no more disappearing coolant! I can't explain the low oil pressure but after 40k miles driving all over the place I don't worry about it.
In summary I got a bargain because someone assumed the worst.

 

Re 0331 heads cracking: The earliest examples do it around 60,000 miles. Most will do it from 93,000 to about 180,000 if they're going to.

An overheating episode, just one, can make them crack at any time.

Well out of warranty. Not a safety issue. No recall.

 

Mine cracked around the 50K mark. Do I get any awards for being on the low mileage list?

The coolant system was dealer maintained religiously (the original owner was was wife's mother). Fortunately, she is very good with keeping an eye on the fluids, and noticed the coolant drop on the first day or two. Took it to the dealership who put a tupy head on it, and changed the oil. She's since given the Jeep to us, and it's now at 70k. Knock on wood, no other issues. I just finished putting new rear brakes, cylinders and the driver's hard line on it.

I love this Jeep, I hope it runs forever.

 

Well nothing lasts forever. But I've heard the TUPY is supposed to be good.

 

So if I were to go for a new head as preventive maintnance, what would you recommend? A 99-97 head or a newer TUPY?