Well, looks like the old girl needs a heart transplant.

The heater valve disintegrated on the highway back in September. Before I noticed anything, it PEGGED the temp gauge, getting so hot she wouldn't run at all. Not frozen up, but wouldn't run.

Cooled her off, and she'd start and run, but of course, the head was cracked, so I got another one from J&C Cylinder Head Exchange on ebay. I've bought from them before, and had a great experience.

Only problem was, all they had ready-to-ship was an 0331. My other car was down at the time, too and I was having to drive a rental, so I went ahead and got the 0331 head rather than wait two weeks for another 0720.

While I waited we fixed the damned leaking oil pan gasket and filled each cylinder with WD40 to check for ring seal. It was good.

Got the new head on. Good news was it ran great-ish (more on that later). Bad news was the block was cracked. it was leaking coolant on cylinder #1 ... right below that head bolt with the lower torque spec.

Put Barrs stop leak in it, and it stopped most of it. Found some of those stop-leak pills GM made for the Northstar engines, and that got the rest of it.

Of course, the heater core was now stopped up. flushed the heater core and the 1 year-old radiator.

Noticed the 1 year-old water pump was leaking. When we were replacing it, we looked inside the water jacket at what we thought was a small crack, and it is HUGE!!!. Buttoned it back up.

The Jeep ran fine-ish. It's noisier now, especially at startup. I put a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil in it, and it quieted down a lot, but it's still noisier than before.

It also runs bad at startup. I let it warm up for 30 seconds before driving off, and by the time I'm halfway down my street it's cleared up, and will run perfectly until it's been sitting shut off for a couple of hours again; then it repeats the run crappy at startup thing.

I've experienced this before; the last time it cracked a head. When it was parked for more than two or three hours, coolant would seep through the crack into cylinder #2, making it run bad on startup. As soon as all of the coolant was out of the combustion chamber, it would clear right up.

I don't think this new head is cracked, I suspect the head gasket is blown. My suspicions are deepened because it's running hot. It doesn't overheat, but under load, the temp goes up and up. I took it out of overdrive and drove down the highway the other night at 3,000 rpm. Within 10 miles, it was just about in the red. Put it in overdrive and drove back at 65mph, and it slowly cooled down to normal.

It's possible the radiator is still partially clogged up, and with a new one being a hundred bucks, my radiator guy said it's not worth having him mess with it, so i'm just gonna replace it and see what that does.

The LAST time it overheated and cracked the head, it blew the head gasket almost immediately after the head was replaced, which I suspect it has done again. I'm thinking the last time it overheated, it warped the block. With the block being cracked, the noise it's making, and the oil use, though, I can't see pulling the head and replacing the head gasket again.

It's also using oil; about a quart every thousand miles. It ain't leaking anymore, so it must be passing it out the cylinders.

And so I need recommendations for remans. I still need to decide whether I want to do a long block or a short block.

I could just do a short block and put that 0331 head on it, but there was a noticeable change in driveability with that head. I've taken the same highway to work every day for the last 14 years, and with the 0331 head and driving 65 mph on cruise control, it is downshifting on even the slightest uphills. My gas mileage is down fro 18 to 15 because of it. I wonder if I'd be better off getting a long block and just selling the 0331 head.

Any advice and recommendations would be appreciated.

 

100% swap out with a junkyard engine and if it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

Find a local automotive machine shop to work with.
If you walk in the door and all the guys have gray hair you know you are in the right place.