Killed the Titan

[AlexTJ]

The story: So last Thursday night I decided to do a little mudding. After getting high centered (I guess a huge truck on tractor tires had been through this run previously) I had another TJ try and pull me out from behind.

As I was gunning it and looking backwards I didn't notice my oil pressure gauge hit zero (from what I soon learned was a blown valve cover gasket). With the exhaust note and all I didn't hear the "you're an idiot" chime and the white smoke is what tipped me off to look forward.

I immediately shut it down but I'm not sure how long it didn't have pressure for. We pulled it out, checked the oil, and restarted it carefully. It
immediately got pressure again so I figured we'd try and limp home. 500 ft later the pressure goes out again. I shut it down and we checked the oil again. Hella smelled like gas.... So the rings are probably shot

Naturally, this being a tiny Kansas locale, the entire town had already shown up to watch me and a friend go through their municipal mud pit and one very nice guy (the one who owned the truck on tractor tires) trailered the Jeep and took us back home.

The point: I now have to rebuild my titan stroker, honestly its something I've wanted to do since I joined this forum but I was hoping to have some money saved up first.... I will be taking it apart this weekend and will post all the casting numbers and what-not I find so I can see what's really in there.

Also as this will be my first engine rebuild, anyone have any tips? I will be following my 97 FSM and my haynes guide for the process.

[SilverXJ]

Your valve cover leaked out all the oil?

As for what you will find its anybody's guess. I have been down that road and ever thing they told me that was in it was a lie. Its pretty much the bottom of the barrel parts. Your deck clearance is most likely crap for quench.

The only usable items will be the block, rods and crank. I don't know what cam they used on yours, but they don't know either. Check the bearing wear to see how the crank is. Maybe the head if they didn't screw up the valve height too much. I'm sure the timing set is just a single roller.

[AlexTJ]

Good call on all that, Silver

And yes it actually did, puked it up onto the intake and into the muddy water. I didn't believe it at first but my first few searches of the block didn't turn up anything else and it was a tight ship before that. I bet the RPMs I was pulling didn't help either

[AlexTJ]

Anyone have any recommendations for good gaskets?

[SilverXJ]

The Reniz\OEM\Mopar Performance MLS head gasket and Felpro for the others. What did you find so far as damage?

[AlexTJ]

Nothing yet. Tearing it down on Saturday

[AlexTJ]

Just did a compression check.

All cylinders have at least 130psi and all but one are in the 150-180 psi range. Cyl 3 is only just above 130. The gauge I'm using is iffy, its a rental and you have to hold it just right for it not to leak. On the first stroke all cylinders jump to 90 psi except 3 which hits 70-80. By the second stroke all cylinders are within ten of their peak psi.

Here's what I remember: Cyl 6=180psi, Cyl 5=160psi, Cyl 4=150 psi, Cyl 3=130psi, Cyl 2= 180 psi, Cyl 1 = 160 psi

All the spark plugs were clean and healthy looking except for cylinder 6 which was fairly black. But remember I did have horrible misfire before. I'm thinking the gas in the oil maybe from the misfire, which occurs at all rpms when in closed loop, and is probably from the crack in my exaust manifold just before the O2 sensor. In other words I'm pretty sure it's been dumping fuel cause the pcm believes it was running lean.

I'm going to change the oil now and run it to see what happens thats causing the pressure to drop. Then I'll fix that valve cover leak. I might do those in reverse order.

[SilverXJ]

which occurs at all rpms when in closed loop, and is probably from the crack in my exhaust manifold just before the O2 sensor.

If it was dumping fuel it wouldn't be to just one cylinder. Could be a stuck injector or something on the spark side.

[AlexTJ]

Oil was clean. Engine is good (other than a slight tick in the upper end that I haven't identified yet). The oil pressure sensor had gone out so I got it replaced under warranty. Now I just have to fix the leak and a busted Ujoint and I have my DD back. I'll check on the spark for cyl 6, but I'm sure the rest of the misfire is from the crack because after we welded it up once it went away for about three days lol.

[AlexTJ]

Cylinder six does indeed have a stuck injector. How common is that and why does it happen?

[the_wrench116]

Cylinder six does indeed have a stuck injector. How common is that and why does it happen?

did the injector have a filter in it? if not maybe dirt. well really small dirt they can hang up sometimes.

[SilverXJ]

Injectors can become stuck. I purchased a set from a salvage yard and the majority were stuck. They sent me a second set and they were suck as well. Sent the second set off to be cleaner and they all came out good. I believe mine were stuck from just sitting with fuel in them as there was still fuel in the rail they sent then in. And it stunk. Dirt can also clog them but injectors have a basket type filter on the input.

[AlexTJ]

These were brand new accel injectors so it must be like random dirt or something. What ever it is I didn't notice it when I swapped to a 99 intake a couple months ago

[Biggrnjeep97]

These were brand new accel injectors so it must be like random dirt or something. What ever it is I didn't notice it when I swapped to a 99 intake a couple months ago

Not to be a buzz kill, but I spent years at mopar dealers learning the hard way, that just cause its brad new doesnt mean its brand new. Not saying its not dirt but it could just be a bad injector.

[AlexTJ]

I tapped the injector with a hammer and an extension and the misfire went away lol