Leak Down Tester?

[Hudson]

Valves wouldn't affect the coolant loss. But with the sludge in the valve cover the gasket or head its self could still be bad.
Get it off. Have the machine shop check it. All you can do really.

Will do. I'm going to work on pulling it as soon as i get home from school. Been soaking the manifold bolts in Kroil for the past two days to loosen em' up.

I've heard that the manifold bolts are a pain in the ass to get off. (at least the ones on the bottom.) Any advise/pointers to remove them?

[ct67_72]

Will do. I'm going to work on pulling it as soon as i get home from school. Been soaking the manifold bolts in Kroil for the past two days to loosen em' up.

I've heard that the manifold bolts are a pain in the ass to get off. (at least the ones on the bottom.) Any advise/pointers to remove them?

Be a small handed contortionist. They are a pain. I have only removed one, sort of. Sucks. No better advice lol.
Did you ever compression test it? Just curious. Oh, or remove the rocker and leak down test it again?

[Hudson]

Be a small handed contortionist. They are a pain. I have only removed one, sort of. Sucks. No better advice lol.
Did you ever compression test it? Just curious. Oh, or remove the rocker and leak down test it again?

I'll take a yoga class so i can learn the right technique to get those bolts out.

No, i haven't done a compression test on it. I drained the oil and never did it. Should i leakdown the rest of the cylinders before i pull the head?

[ct67_72]

I'll take a yoga class so i can learn the right technique to get those bolts out.

No, i haven't done a compression test on it. I drained the oil and never did it. Should i leakdown the rest of the cylinders before i pull the head?

I would. At least you would be aware of potential issues in other cylinders.

[Hudson]

I would. At least you would be aware of potential issues in other cylinders.

Just pulled the exhaust manifold and the intake manifold off.

Those bottom bolts were not as bad as i thought they were going to be. Just used two extensions, and a swivel, and a socket and felt under there, put it on, cracked it loose with a hand ratchet, then used an air ratchet and buzzed them right off.

I was prepared for something way worse than that. Header even has the notorious 4.0 crack starting to form in it. I'm just going to weld it up.

One more question.

I've never removed lifters and push rods from an engine.

Do i simply just unbolt that bolt and lift it all up? There is nothing special to it? I don't want to mess anything up.

[ct67_72]

You wont pull the lifters. Just the rockers, then the pushrods. Like I said, just make sure that you keep track of them and they go back on the same place.

[Hudson]

You wont pull the lifters. Just the rockers, then the pushrods. Like I said, just make sure that you keep track of them and they go back on the same place.

That's what i meant.

The lifters are on the bottom of the engine in the 4.0, correct?

Those never need replacement or what?

Will do. I have a cardboard box all lined up. Just need to finish up some school work before i can continue forward on the jeep.

Thanks for all the help by the way.

[ct67_72]

No problem. The Lifters ride the cam and push the push rod. Only change them if they are bad or your changing the cam. So no worry there.

[Hudson]

No problem. The Lifters ride the cam and push the push rod. Only change them if they are bad or your changing the cam. So no worry there.

Pulled the head off.

Head gasket looks fine. At least from what i can tell. I don't see any huge parts of it missing.

I'm assuming it's normal for coolant to be in the lower end of the engine. I set it on my bench, and am going to degrease it to hell and back looking for cracks.

If i don't see any cracks, and my headgakset looks fine, i'm going to be super confused as to how all that milkshake stuff got on my valve cover and even more confused on where all my coolant is going.

Just went back out there and spun my crankshaft some more. The 3rd and 4th cylinders literally go together in pattern. They would fire at the same time. Is this normal? I don't know. I made a video of it, and it's uploading to youtube now. You can see in the first picture that they're both at the top, and then when i crank the shaft, they both go down at the same speed, come back up at the same time, etc etc. All the others go at different speeds.

I'd assume if this wasn't normal i'd have more of a problem than unexplained coolant loss, but i can't be sure.

[ct67_72]

You need to take the gasket off the head and look at both sides carefully. Look for any signs that a coolant port and oil port were sharing.
Also you will never see a crack in the head. It needs to go to the machine shop and be pressure tested.

[Hudson]

You need to take the gasket off the head and look at both sides carefully. Look for any signs that a coolant port and oil port were sharing.
Also you will never see a crack in the head. It needs to go to the machine shop and be pressure tested.

Gave it to levines in Danbury. I guess they have a machine shop capable of testing heads for cracks.

They're going to call me tomorrow quoting me on how much it will cost to pressure test it. What do you think is reasonable?

If it's something absurd, i think i'll just throw the money towards another head instead.

I was thinking about offering this guy like $80 for his head.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jeep-cylinde...5c9374&vxp=mtr

He says "Head was sent to machine shop and was magnaflux to check for any cracks or damage. None where found head is in great condition."

Would you trust that or just buy a re manufactured one?

Says it just needs to be "shaved". Any clue on how much that would cost? I might be able to take the cheap route out here.

[ct67_72]

Needs to be pressure checked too. If it was at the machine shop already why wasn't it decked then?
I wouldn't put a head on without pressure testing it, and it would have to go to the machine shop anyway. It's usually not too expensive, 40-50$ and done first to make sure the head is ok before any other work is done.

[Hudson]

Machine shop called.

Heads cracked.

[ct67_72]

Welp. there ya go

[Hudson]

Head is on order and I just bought all new gaskets.

Another question i just thought up;

How do i install the push rods and rockers again? The lifters will all be in different positions, and won't some of the valves have to be open? Do i need to get each piston to the very bottom of the cylinder when i put the push rods and then rockers back on?

Or am i over-thinking this?