Jeep Strokers

https://youtu.be/hTiIcPru4yo

I don’t know if that link works or not, but I made a youtube account just to post this video haha

https://youtu.be/YcaBQNZsYTk

Ran it with the valve cover off and it seems one is really pumping some oil

An engine stethoscope might help locate the noise. My engine sounded like a diesel when I got it and I was able to use a long pipe to locate the noise to #5 and #6 pistons. The way the noise changes when changing rpm and when it is hot or cold gives some good clues too. I can't help beyond that. Good luck.

I was talking to a guy at work and he thinks possibly a cam bearing walked out or spun. In my head that makes sense as the oil pressure is very high, the back push rod shoots oil way up and the front is barely any, and then the sound is like the front end is starving of oil. I have the cam saver bearings or whatever they’re called with the groove cut on the outside to redirect oil flow or something like that so I’d think it would have had to walk out to clog.

I dropped the pan and there was a surprising amount of sludge, but I didn’t notice and can bearings walked out, the pick up wasn’t clogged with sludge, all the cam lobes looked good to me from what I could see, the cylinder walls I could see looked good, and all it did was further confuse me as I still can’t find the issue.

Alright, time for an update. Pulled the motor and brought it to a new machine shop because I had lost all faith in the last shop. A little back story, I had blown the headgasket on my 4.0 and taken the head to them to have it machined and checked. Got it back with a shave (he couldn't tell me how much they took off, but claimed it wasn't much and wouldn't make a noticeable difference), new valve seats, and new valve seals. About a year later the headgasket blew again so I figure the block surface must be warped some. Pulled the head again and could see light around the valves with a flashlight down the ports so I took the head back and asked them to fix it since there was less than 10,000 miles on the head refresh. Dropped the block off with them and long story short on that go around, they gave me some other remanufactured head because they couldn't get my valves to seal, they broke a piston pressing them on and complained about the price of the piston they broke, and they called me to ask how to install the cam bearings which were the cam saver bearings they had ordered for me. So this is when the stroker started. Flash forward to this summer, pulled the engine, oil blockages in the oil galley and partial blockage in the pickup tube. (The guy at the new shop thinks the rotella may have just gelled up or reacted with the break in additive I used, all the bearings looked okay except the rear main bearing and rear cam bearing had a touch of blistering from lack of oil) So the oil blockage was my terrible sound, but that is not where the issues stop. Every single exhaust valve leaked and every valve stem was .020-.040 high. Now it is all back together and better than ever. I can definitely tell there is more power with things sealing properly and running smoothly, but there still seems to be a few issues. I believe my other issues have to do with the tuning and not the hard parts of the engine.

Excellent! thanks for the update!

Curious if the bad valve sealing corresponded with the strange compression numbers you saw or if all of the valve seats were bad?

blay127 wrote: ↑August 21st, 2020, 8:32 am Excellent! thanks for the update!

Curious if the bad valve sealing corresponded with the strange compression numbers you saw or if all of the valve seats were bad?

A good valve job is not only critical but often the most overlooked aspect of a good engine build regardless if it’s a street or race engine.

I port a lot of cylinder heads. But if my valve and valve seat preparation including contricency isn’t within specs, all the time spent doing the porting was a waste of time.

The basics of any engine is piston ring seal, and a good valve job.

blay127 wrote: ↑August 21st, 2020, 8:32 am Excellent! thanks for the update!

Curious if the bad valve sealing corresponded with the strange compression numbers you saw or if all of the valve seats were bad?

If the valves aren’t sealing then compression can’t build, so if it wasn’t the entire issue it was probably most of it at least.

So currently I think the main issue I have is that when I start it up and go to drive it I’ll pull off slowly and the AFR will lean past the gauge then catch itself then lean again, then go back to normal. Idle is like 14.6-15.0 and then cruising is like 14.5-15.1 from what I’ve seen. I don’t know what the deal is with the leaning all the way out right at start up, but to me the other numbers don’t sound dangerous. I’m sure a good tune would help a good bit.

So the tune on the factory stuff is pretty crap from a tuners standpoint. My tuner told me that these post 90's Multi-point Fuel Injection systems from Chrysler aren't a perfect match to the 80's era designed engine. So what we get is the engines running lean at idle which is normal. And at WOT they run rather rich, which is why you can throw a timing chip in, or add some timing from a tune, or boost it and they respond well to it. Part of the running rich issue at WOT is the poor flow design from the L head (side-draught). A cross-draught head would correct this due to higher cfm rates, but that's also why you turbo or supercharge it and the engine wakes up even more.

If that's what your tuner said then you need a better tuner.

I'm more than willing to listen if you have more information on this. I am in this for performance gains like everyone else.

Did you ever figure this out? I have a clegg stage 2 & it sucks. I also have tried everything. Runs warm & lean, no power. Its embarrassing, my wore out stocker would have smoked it.

barh wrote: ↑August 17th, 2023, 11:56 am Did you ever figure this out? I have a clegg stage 2 & it sucks. I also have tried everything. Runs warm & lean, no power. Its embarrassing, my wore out stocker would have smoked it.

Stock ECU + Stock Fuel System = Stock Power, regardless of displacement.