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132,000 miles on the 97 TJ 4.0. Low miles if it were highway miles but there are plenty of wheeling miles on it as well.
Over the past couple of yrs (and only a few thousand miles in those yrs) I've developed a progressively stronger tick/rattle/knock..... Initially it was at a cold start up and I attributed it to piston slap which is pretty common. It got worse. I noticed that my hill climbs on the freeway turned my jeep into a uhaul truck in the slow lane and I could hear what I thought was a exhaust leak so I replaced the manifold with a JBA header. #5 exhaust was in fact cracked but not severely. Not to mention it didn't help the noise, or performance..
Soon after the knock started to turn into an inconsistent sound which sounded more like a rod knock instead of piston slap or injectors. I figured I didn't want to throw any money at diagnostics/mechanics to do band aid repairs and since she's nearly 20 yrs old I decided to just get a rebuild.
I thought about a stroker for some time now and did heavy research. Actually built a 4.6 a few yrs ago when the noise 1st developed but chickened out due to a lack of confidence being my 1st build and sold it for what I put into it minus time for sourcing parts, driving to the machine shop etc.. (PITA!)
I've read that MANY strokers fail at less than 20,000 miles and I don't want to be a statistic to that fact. I'm not a desert KOH racer and I prefer to drive slow on the trail. I just wanted more highway zest remembering how she was when I first bought her. A rebuild is in the 1500.00 price range while a stroker is about 4000 aftermarket and around 2300 built yourself. With the extra money I'll throw an Atlas at it figuring gearing is equally as important if not more than hp/tq on the trail.
Anyways, I opted for a rebuild. It's getting bored 0.030 over, new everything except the crank which is getting reconditioned for 1625 after taxes.. Drop off and picked up long block. I called the shop yesterday to see how it was coming along and what if anything did they find. The found a cracked piston skirt, with the cylinder wall scratched up and 2 worn cam lobes. I guess my OCD was legit. I'm glad I took it in when I did because I do a lot of desert gold prospecting and wouldn't want to be stranded somewhere with a thrown rod or busted piston...
I googled "jeep cracked/broken piston skirt" and was rather amazed that it's a pretty common issue from 95-2000 4.0's. Why? No idea but if you start to develop an obvious rattle, knock, piston slap type sound at cold start up and it seems more than your "normal" characteristic you might wanna get it checked out. Just say'n.
Over the past couple of yrs (and only a few thousand miles in those yrs) I've developed a progressively stronger tick/rattle/knock..... Initially it was at a cold start up and I attributed it to piston slap which is pretty common. It got worse. I noticed that my hill climbs on the freeway turned my jeep into a uhaul truck in the slow lane and I could hear what I thought was a exhaust leak so I replaced the manifold with a JBA header. #5 exhaust was in fact cracked but not severely. Not to mention it didn't help the noise, or performance..
Soon after the knock started to turn into an inconsistent sound which sounded more like a rod knock instead of piston slap or injectors. I figured I didn't want to throw any money at diagnostics/mechanics to do band aid repairs and since she's nearly 20 yrs old I decided to just get a rebuild.
I thought about a stroker for some time now and did heavy research. Actually built a 4.6 a few yrs ago when the noise 1st developed but chickened out due to a lack of confidence being my 1st build and sold it for what I put into it minus time for sourcing parts, driving to the machine shop etc.. (PITA!)
I've read that MANY strokers fail at less than 20,000 miles and I don't want to be a statistic to that fact. I'm not a desert KOH racer and I prefer to drive slow on the trail. I just wanted more highway zest remembering how she was when I first bought her. A rebuild is in the 1500.00 price range while a stroker is about 4000 aftermarket and around 2300 built yourself. With the extra money I'll throw an Atlas at it figuring gearing is equally as important if not more than hp/tq on the trail.
Anyways, I opted for a rebuild. It's getting bored 0.030 over, new everything except the crank which is getting reconditioned for 1625 after taxes.. Drop off and picked up long block. I called the shop yesterday to see how it was coming along and what if anything did they find. The found a cracked piston skirt, with the cylinder wall scratched up and 2 worn cam lobes. I guess my OCD was legit. I'm glad I took it in when I did because I do a lot of desert gold prospecting and wouldn't want to be stranded somewhere with a thrown rod or busted piston...
I googled "jeep cracked/broken piston skirt" and was rather amazed that it's a pretty common issue from 95-2000 4.0's. Why? No idea but if you start to develop an obvious rattle, knock, piston slap type sound at cold start up and it seems more than your "normal" characteristic you might wanna get it checked out. Just say'n.
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