Long sigh.

"gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee" (gogmorgo)
08/20/2018 at 21:08 • Filed to: None

Well I guess I need to say this to follow up.

The Comanche I was so excited about, as it seems so were some of you... Well as you can see its back in the driveway with the hood up. Things are, well, not so good.

I don’t remember where I left off. Saturday I got the water pump and radiator install done, and filled the cooling system. It took the full rated capacity so I figured it was good. I’m pretty sure it was full, at least. It started rough a couple times during the burping process, and then it didn’t want to start at all when I tried for a test drive, but it was late so I called it a night.

Sunday morning I put new plugs, wires, cap, and rotor on, then drove it to the gas station. It was still not the greatest start. It almost immediately started pushing out coolant, but I expected that, as I’d left the overflow hose off due to not wanting to suck the musky nasty from it back into the cooling engine. It died twice on the way there coming to a stop, the first time I started it back up on the key after ~10 seconds, but the second time I just clutched back out in second and bumped it back to life. Just before I got to the gas station, the temp gauge pegged itself, at which point I knew something wasn’t right, at all.

I got it going again after topping up (good news, the gas gauge seems fairly accurate) and drove home, but didn’t make it. I coasted over to the side of the road, and left it there for a couple hours. Then I came back to this:

I have a new head gasket set coming, and hopefully a bolt set (we’re not positive on this, I’ve ordered a set for a “2.5L ‘96 Wrangler”... whatever that is, because I couldn’t find a listing for a ‘91 MJ.) and I’m about to start the tear-down.

As much as I want it to only be the gasket, I’ve got a gut feeling it’s far worse than that.

I has a sad, Oppo.

:’(

DISCUSSION (25)

Aremmes > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/20/2018 at 21:27

Kinja'd!!!

shop-teacher > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/20/2018 at 22:05

Ruh-roh! Good luck with it!

Tristan > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/20/2018 at 22:16

At least it’s super easy to work on. Get that head resurfaced and magnaflux’d.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/20/2018 at 22:21

Never seen contaminated oil look like almond milk. Usually just chocolate.

DavidHH > Tristan
08/20/2018 at 22:34

And: Check the surface of the block for warp-age . Also carefully clean the surface with fine Emory cloth on a sanding block.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
08/20/2018 at 22:51

Freshly changed oil and distilled water with a flush product in it. The oil hasn’t even had time to get dirty yet, it ran for 15 minutes tops since the change.

Kinja'd!!!

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > shop-teacher
08/20/2018 at 22:54

Yeah. It hasn't even been fighting me to come apart, like the rad was. It wants this. It knows.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Tristan
08/20/2018 at 22:59

I’ll see what it looks like. Because of where I am it’s a bit of a struggle to get to a machine shop. There might be one 50 miles away that’ll do it but I’m thinking I’ll be headed 200 miles into the city for an actual automotive machine shop.

But so far, yeah, it’s come apart easy. In about an hour and a half I only have the pushrods and the head bolts left. The most difficult part has been un clipping the injectors from their connectors. It’s getting dark and I don’t want to leave it outside overnight with the head off so I’m going to set the valve cover back on and have the big unveiling tomorrow. I won't have gaskets till then anyhow. Bolts are Thursday.

Tristan > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/20/2018 at 23:45

Ouch! I thought you were closer to civilization. Maybe a very close inspection and a straight edge/feeler gauge?

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Tristan
08/20/2018 at 23:57

It was about 12 hours of driving to go get it, in the second nearest city. It might have only been ten to the closest and back. I’m actually very central to civilization. And by that I mean I’m very between it. But also I'm in the Arctic watershed. So there's that.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/21/2018 at 00:01

AMC 2.5, puking uh... white... stuff. Yeah. We’ll go with that term.

Probably looking at a plugged coolant channel. Usually it’s the simple FUBAR’d head gasket (these love weird head gasket failures.) Look at your valve cover; tells me you’ve got pooling going on. Coolant isn’t draining back. It’s possible some jackass years back put a bottle of “STOP LEAK” in it and that’s just now coming home to roost. But this is fixable. These heads don’t crack easy. Nah. You gotta get out the backhoe for that.

Tristan > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/21/2018 at 00:11

I grew up in very rural Minnesota. I can totally relate.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks
08/21/2018 at 00:19

Stop leak wouldn’t at all surprise me, given what the rad looked like.

I'm not sure what you mean by the coolant not draining back. It seems to be flowing okay, as is the oil. Apart from the co-mingling thing. There was definitely oil in the coolant, too.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Tristan
08/21/2018 at 00:28

I've been through some pretty rural parts of Minnesota. Seemed pretty densely populated to me.

Tristan > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/21/2018 at 01:16

lol... Yeah, compared to central Nebraska or Eastern Oregon. Still had to drive an hour minimum to do... Anything.

pip bip - choose Corrour > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/21/2018 at 07:14

bugger

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Tristan
08/21/2018 at 08:26

Or western Manitoba, where a tornado can spend three hours on the ground and only knock over a single grain bin.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/21/2018 at 08:59

It’s a whole thing with the self-bleeding system on these. The reservoir should look like a milkshake from hell and then some. But I bet it doesn’t look as bad as the valve cover. The difficulty bleeding’s a big hint to me too. Coolant’s flowing fine, but not getting everywhere it needs to.

Tristan > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/21/2018 at 09:10

That sounds like heaven, honestly. I'm not a fan of population.

CaptDale - is secretly British > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/21/2018 at 12:03

*cough* Chevy 350 swap *cough*

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks
08/21/2018 at 16:34

I had no issues burping the cooling system, if that’s what you mean. It took the full eight and a half quarts almost immediately.

The reservoir is super murky, but the radiator was junk, and there won’t be coolant transfer to the reservoir or back if you can’t hold pressure or pull a vacuum in the system.

The coolant I drained out yesterday had oil in it, but there wasn't much coolant in the system at all when I got it so it's hard to say if that's new or not. There wasn't coolant in the oil when first got it either, but it's tough to get coolant into anywhere when there's almost none in the system.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > CaptDale - is secretly British
08/21/2018 at 16:35

*cough* fuck you swap *cough*.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Tristan
08/21/2018 at 16:46

Kinja'd!!!

This was one of my favourite days back home. There’s nothing quite like having hundreds of square miles to yourself.

CaptDale - is secretly British > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/21/2018 at 17:10

*cough* thanks for the offer but I don’t know how that works as a swap *cough*

Tristan > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/21/2018 at 21:10

There’s nothing like the peace and tranquility of not having another human for miles and miles.