Well there ya go Dave.! That takes the need for the micrometer out of it. Very cool. I am sure that will confuse the hell out of our OP, but, maybe not.

What it means is when you tighten to 21ft lbs, you watch the turns from zero lash to 21 and you should be anywhere between .020" and .060".

I think if she goes with the 'new' clearwater head that hasn't been milled, and a factory .040 (or is it .045?) head gasket, everything else factory, there is a chance it should be close. Chance. Then again, Mopar lifters are $$$ and anything else, which they are all the same company no matter who else, may be different enough to warrant checking. she and her partner could take these steps.

 

Below are parts and tools beyond what might be in your tool box that I found helpful in removing and replacing the head on an XJ. This applies to 2000 & 2001 4.0 engines and should be useful for others. Adjust as it suits your needs and preferences.

* SAE ½” 12 point deep socket - for removing most head bolts
* 1/2" 12 pt x 3/8 drive x 2" L torque wrench adapter such as Proto J5116 – for access to and properly torqueing some head bolts. Crow foot wrench may work
* 9/16" 12 pt x 3/8 drive x 2" L torque wrench adapter such as Proto J5118 – for access to and properly torqueing some manifold bolts. Crow foot wrench may work
* 3/8” male to ½” female drive adapter
* Torque wrench suitable for 20 ft. lb. (20 ft. lb. is not at one end or the other of the useful range)
* Torque wrench suitable for 110 ft. lb. (110 ft. lb. is not at one end or the other of the useful range)
* Fuel line disconnect tool such as OTC 6509
* Gasket set: Mahle HS5713A. Includes all needed gaskets and seals. (Original head gasket stock replacement is 53010587AA / Victor Reinz 54249: Compressed thickness 0.043")
* New cylinder head bolts: Mahle GS33414
* Exhaust manifold studs (recommended and most replacement heads do not come with these) quantity 2: Chrysler 6036193-AA
* Exhaust collector to down pipe bolts (if needed, existing are typically very rusty): Chrysler 6505754-AA
* New spark plugs: NGK ZFR5N V-Power
* Engine assembly lube
* Loctite 592 or similar pipe sealant

 

Here are some head removal tips from my experience. Adjust as required for your situation and personal preference.

* Cleanliness at all steps of head removal, preparation and installation are important to help ensure a good outcome. Take precautions to keep contaminates out of the engine.
* Clean engine exterior thoroughly prior to doing any removal. Pay special attention to getting gunk off areas around the valve cover and head to block parting lines.
* Move, remove or disconnect all items needed for head removal. Consult factory service manual. Don’t forget to disconnect bolts at exhaust manifold to the down pipe connection. Secure wiring harnesses and related out of the way with tie wraps, bungee cords, etc. Note: it is not required to remove the hood.
* Left rear head bolt, #14, should have a ground strap attached. Remove ground strip. Loosen bolt, pull up and wrap tape around the shank such that it is held up to clear the engine block during head removal. Typically this bolt cannot be completely removed due to limited clearance to the cowl sheet metal. All others should be able to be removed completely.
* Avoid dragging lifting straps under head to lift it off the block. This can pull debris and head gasket residue onto the top end of engine and into oil return holes. Instead use a chain and bolts inserted into any of the larger bolt holes in the head, such as for coil pack.
* I found it useful to use two lengths of chain attached across the head/manifold assembly for lifting during removal. If an overhead hoist, block and tackle or similar is not available a lifting aid can be fashioned using a piece of steel gas pipe, Unistrut or similar material that will support 100+ pounds. Position it under the chains and from side to side across the engine bay. It helps to choose a chain with link size such that the shank of a coil pack bolt (2000 and up) or other fastener will pass through. Use of hardware store bolts of the proper size will help prevent damage to any bolts you plan on reusing, such as coil pack bolts. Use washers as needed under the bolt head.
* Loosen head from block/head gasket by tapping on the head with a mallet.
* With two people, one on each side of the lifting aid placed under the chains lift head/manifold assembly up and guide out. With two people this is rather easy.
* Try to avoid dragging head across the block during removal to help prevent block surface damage – lift it as straight up as possible.
* Placing a bit of grease around the top of each piston at the cylinder wall can help trap debris that would otherwise get between piston and cylinder wall. Place rags in each cylinder during work. Cover block when not working on it.

 

Haynes manual I have has all this but I would like a link to the FSM so I can take a look at it. Today we're spending some time cleaning the engine before we start opening things up. I think we should have started cleaning long ago, but things are still together enough that we can get some major gunk off.

The post about the lifter preload did confuse me at first read, so I'm going to look more closely at it and figure it out.

Thanks for the list of tips, third coast! We have almost all of it (not the manifold bolts/pipe bolts). All those tools (except the fuel line disconnect) were in my garage - my ex husband is a mechanic and left all his spares in the garage. Bet he didn't think I'd eventually make use of them!

Again - thank you all so much for your help!

 

Go to cruiser54.com for the FSM.

For the lifter preload, you tighten up the pivot bolt until you just can't spin the pushrod easily with your finger, then mark the bolt and the pivot with chalk or paint. then turn the bolt down until it's torqued to 21lbft. Use the chart to see how much preload you have on the lifter as indicated by where the marks wind up. It amounts to .007" for every 45* rotation. The preload should be anywhere from .020" to .060", .040" being the middle of the range. Less than .020 and you run the risk of popping the snap ring out of the top of the lifter and any more than .060 and you may crush the hydraulic valve on the bottom of the lifter plunger.

This should be done with each cylinder at TDC. Start with the timing marks lined up at 0* on the harmonic balancer on the compression stroke (both valves closed on their base circles.) and do cylinder #1. Then turn the crankshaft 120* in rotation and do cylinder #5, and so on in the firing order. You can just mark the balancer at roughly 120* and 240*. you don't have to be spot-on, just close. If you want to be REAL close, use a pair of dividers set to the radius of the balancer and mark it every 2 divider spans around the edge. You'll have to go around twice to get all 6 cylinders when setting the preload.

I got lazy when we did my head and just tied the fuel rail back out of the way and didn't disconnect the fuel line. Just pull the injectors out so you don't damage them. You'll need new o-rings, but why not.

 

Thanks again for all the tips. I wasn't feeling well and Saturday was a bit of a bust, but yesterday we made good headway. Got the intake manifold and half of the exhaust manifold off before. Those bolts are no effing joke! My partner wasn't sure about taking everything off together, but we're hoping to clean it all up, bolt it all together, and put it back in one piece.

We noticed that a piece of the intake manifold is broken - there are like little fins on the top that kind of cover access to the bolts. Literally shaped like a shark fin, and one of them is broken. I googled the heck out of it and can't find anything useful. I didn't get a picture before we covered it up for the night, but does anyone know what I'm talking about and if it's a big deal?

 

I can take a look at my 2000 later today. I don't recall exactly what you are referring to. What you ran across is likely not a problem.

Regarding those manifold bolts, now you see why I suggested removing everything together as an assembly. Sounds like you are making good progress.

 

The "shark fin" like features you mention on the intake manifold are likely casting stiffening ribs. The photos above of my 2000 is at the front of the engine bay by the power steering pump attachment points. If any broken ribs on yours is OK or not depends on how much is missing and from where. They would typically be part of the casting design for structural support but sometimes they are there to facilitate in the casting process.

A couple of FYI's: while you are looking at the photos:

You may note that I like to label things. It helps ensure parts go back where they belong, especially if you work on the project a bit at a time as I did. Taking some photos as you go can also be useful.

The dished washers under the manifold bolts are important. (lower left corner on bottom photo between exhaust and intake manifolds) Don’t lose them. I have not found replacements available. They allow the bolts to provide proper clamp loading between the aluminum intake and cast iron exhaust manifolds as they expand at different rates as they heat up.

When you take out head bolt 11, visible on the lower left corner of the top photo you may notice a bit of antifreeze. This bolt by design breaks into a coolant passage. That is why you add pipe sealant to this bolt on installation. During install I put a small dab of sealant down into the threaded hole in the block to help ensure it gets where it needs to be and not cleaned off the bolt as it is threaded in.

If the aluminum and fiberglass insulated heat shield is still on yours don’t toss it. You will see it on the bottom photo under the fuel rail. This was added on later models reportedly in part to help prevent critters from building a nest directly on top of the exhaust manifold and leading to a fire hazard.

 

Photo showing how I removed the head

 

Photo after head was removed. I was concerned about having stuff drop down into the oil return and lifter openings in the block so I taped those off until I was ready to clean that area. That might be a bit of an overkill but especially lifters have very tight clearances that must be kept free of foreign material. I placed a bit of grease around the piston to cylinder bore area and put rags in each cylinder once I started cleaning the block surface. In my case the engine only had 62k miles so I didn’t want to do anything to cause more problems.

For removing old head gasket and carbon residue I recommend use of Gumout Carb and Parts Cleaner and a single edge razor blade. Hold the blade at a low angle, apply carb cleaner and remove the residue a bit at a time. It is slow and tedious but you want to get all remnants off to prepare the block for a new head gasket without gouging the surface. There are a variety of approaches you will find on YouTube, etc but some of those, such as using power tools with wire wheels or abrasive wheels risk damaging the surface and leave behind hard bits of abrasive or wire pieces that can cause internal engine damage.

 

Very cool third coast - thanks for the pics! We took last night off because it was a gazillion percent humidity and storming. We're labeling the heck out of things too, we've been working on this over two weekends so far. My parter and I should both have a four-day weekend, so we're planning on hitting this engine hard.

The fin-shaped thing that broke off would have been under that heat shield (which our engine doesn't have). I might sneak out there later today and grab a picture. We're being really mindful of not letting things fall in places they shouldn't be - most openings have been covered or plugged, and the entire engine bay has been covered with a plastic sheet while we're not working on it.

I truly appreciate all the tips and advice you all have shared. Believe me, I'll probably have more questions! I have been planning on buying a head from Clearwater but it looks like someone has been in here before and I'm wondering if they didn't already replace the head. I think I might wait and see what's in there - if the head isn't cracked and it isn't an original 0331 (like it's a Tupy), I might leave it in there.

 

One clue is the Clearwater head does NOT have 0331 molded into it. There also was an Alabama head at one time and I know nothing about that one. If you do buy the Clearwater head, one thing I'd like to mention. It is drilled for a rear temp sensor as well as the front one in the thermostat housing. Mine was plugged and painted over, but not tight and started leaking 2 days after I installed it. I absolutely FREAKED!

 

Here's a picture of the TUPY head showing it's markings. Notice the 0331 in the upper part of the picture. The Clearwater head does not have that 0331 marking. You'll have to research the Alabama head to see what that shows. Maybe I will do that just for my own edification.

Okay, their website is for sale.

 

So the head is off! Head gasket blown by cylinder 6. The head is filthy but at first glance there are no cracks. It's also not a TUPY, so we're going to replace the head. We found antifreeze EVERYWHERE - puddles in the rockers, pooled inside the head on cylinders 4, 5 and 6 (we had misfire codes for 5 and 6). While we're waiting for the head and other stuff, we're going to clean the heck out of everything. I have two questions: if antifreeze was getting everywhere, should we worry about the cam and the bearings rusting? And when cleaning the head, do we clean the water jacket thing (area around the cylinders) out? It's nasty and filled with crap and I'm afraid to even clean the top off because all that crap might fall in there.