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View Full Version : Jeep 4.0L Head Removal, Repair, Replace



steph74
04-18-2011, 08:12 AM
So this is it....
I took a last good look at the engine bay
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/e6e97271.jpg?t=1303131543

Then started draining fluids (coolant and oil)
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/351d8941.jpg?t=1303131543

Then started taking details pictures of vacuum connections, hoses, and stuff at different angles. Labelling plug wires, injector wires, connections etcs.... I passed on labelling the vacuum harness but that is because I changed it before and I have a good diagram of it.... and I am lazy too

First step
off the air cleaner assembly:
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/e5e60d28.jpg?t=1303131716

Then the fittings on the rocker arm cover
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/e9eea180.jpg?t=1303131716

and the valve cover itself
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/204067a3.jpg?t=1303131716

Yuck.... apparently the cover has a precured gasket that is reusable.... well I didn;t read too carefully and since the gasket set had a new one I removed it... oh well
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/8be9bba0.jpg?t=1303131716

then off the rocker arms and the push rods
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/e15358b8.jpg?t=1303131716

They have to be put in the same exact position so I used a box to store them:
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/282f17af.jpg?t=1303131716

Then off the fuel rail and injectors... don't forget to label ;)
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/e25e4352.jpg?t=1303131716
unbolt the rail and rock it up and down gently while pulling.
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/ccfbcc6f.jpg?t=1303132046

you didn;t forget to relieve the fuel pressure before you tried to remove the injectors right ? (this is done easily by opening the gas tank cap and pushing down on the little valve just before the regulator)

Anyway off the throttle body and the heat shield plate.... The books recommended to disconnect the throttle cable. I didn;t because I have a manual so less cable (and I couldn;t figure out how to disconnect the cable)
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/dd2d3b81.jpg?t=1303136083

then unbolt the manifolds.... exhaust and intake on my year model share the same gasket and they have to be removed together.... top bolts are easy... bottom bolts are... well let's say that you need to be creative with wobbles extensions and small hands and arms....
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/91f0034f.jpg?t=1303136083
look at this thing.... some bolts were completely lose and the rearmost stud was missing...

And I didn;t take pictures of that but you have to losen the power steering pump, remove the belt and unbolt the bracket from the intake manifold....

Did I mention you need a good manual ? this is the Haynes...well used....
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/761cc9fb.jpg?t=1303136083

Then get to the left side of the head and remove the 2 bolts that are holding the A/C compressor to the head,
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/e944598a.jpg?t=1303136083

and also the bracket that is there I think to hold the coolant system hoses away from the head....
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/a335ae32.jpg?t=1303136083


You are almost there....

Unbolt the head... 14 bolts, they are on tight.... I used a long cheater bar
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/6d40da1f.jpg?t=1303136083
Remove the ground strap from the rear bolt, unplug the coolant temperature sensor

Then remove the head.... it is heavy... be smarter than me, get someone to help you lifting it off so you don;t break your back....
I left the rear right bolt in because well you can;t really pull it off because of the lip on the firewall...
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/ef76a389.jpg?t=1303136083

and admire your work....
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/ccee75e2.jpg?t=1303137440

Take a break... I started putting the head back together...
new valve stem seals, new studs
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/93e897a5.jpg?t=1303137060

All cleaned
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/6f70b8d7.jpg?t=1303137060
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/eee4056a.jpg?t=1303137060

Then put everything back together in the exact inverse order you removed it.... (that is the stupid instructions from the book lol)

This is the gasket set I used. came with head gasket, valve cover cork gasket, throttle body gasket, thermostat housing gasket, EGR valve gasket, exhaust/intake manifold gasket and valve stem seals
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/619cb33c.jpg?t=1303137060

I didn;t take pictures of the reassemble just the parts that gave me trouble ;)

Trouble one:
Lining up the head on the gasket.... it is heavy, it has to come in at an angle, the gsket keeps sliding.... all in all, almost 2h of bitching....
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/3f2ee33a.jpg?t=1303137060

then remember when i said that the rear most bolt didn;t fit ? I should have applied that to myself... after finaly lining up the head, I realize I didn;t put the bolt in...
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/76eb07cf.jpg?t=1303137060

did it again, with the bolt tapped in
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/05c3314f.jpg?t=1303137060

Put the bolts back in... after checking you can reuse them once... so since there was no paint on them, I decided to reuse them and save some money (or not but let's be crazy and take risks)
Bolt number 11 (the right front one goes through the water jacket so you have to use some thread sealant. Book recommend locktite 592... couldn;t find it so this is what I used
http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stephaneb74/59a02f45.jpg?t=1303137440

Head is on, bolts are torqued... I rented a torque wrench from o'reilly
Step A 23 ft#
Step B 45 ft#
Step C 110 ft# for all bolts except #11 (the one sealed 100#)

Put everything back it is fairly easy...

lessons learned the hard way:
-don;t forget to put the valve cover in before the thermostat housing
-don;t forget to put the thermostat in before you torque the thermostat housing bolts
-put the belt back in and tighten it before you put the air cleaner assembly because you need to reach the back adjusting bolts on the power steering pump.
-using vinyl gloves as baggies to keep the bolts together is a bad idea... bolts falling in the fingers are more frustrating to retrieve...

Refill the coolant and oil and start it

All in all, it was a nice learning experience, there is always that split second when you try to start it where you hope you put everything back properly and the engine is not going to leak or stuff...

As far as I could see I made only one quickly fixed mistake in my vacuum connection that made the engine run like crap and die as soon as I was letting off the gas.

With time, basic tools and a lot of patience, I would say that anybody can do it

Chex_Mex
04-23-2011, 12:12 PM
great writeup, good pics, i've been thinking about doing this here soon. thanks!

4x4Dalton
04-23-2011, 04:04 PM
Great write up Steph. Thanks bro alot of people will use this for up comin projects I bet.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

bluedragon436
04-24-2011, 01:21 PM
I know I will def. use it for when I do build my budget stroker!!

hookedonxjs
04-24-2011, 01:42 PM
:yourock:Sweet article Steph with lotsa pics. I love your cheater bar and your honest admissions of things that went wrong putting it back together I seem to always have brain farts on all my repairs too. Hey man wheres the baret?

steph74
04-24-2011, 04:15 PM
Thanks all

I overlooked a couple of things and I wish i didnot.... (or maybe it is best I did whatever...)

Apparently the lifters are easy to change/check and replace.... I should probably have done that as like in all these motors they are super noisy.

Torquing the manifold is as difficult as putting the bolts back in ;) I did not torque the bottom bolts because my wrench didnot fit without a couple of extensions/U-joints and with that the torque reading is wrong anyway

I lost my adaptor for the torque wrench by the time I put the valve cover in.... so i didn;t torque the bolts.... just checked them after a week and some were quite loose.



So far nothing is leaking (finger crossed lol) and it seem like it has a little more hump in the acceleration at low gear.... like I said, it stopped some of the noises, brought some new ones... the engine sounds good, maybe a bit of tapping (some might say kncking lol) soun like a diesel kind of...

Mudderoy
04-25-2011, 09:14 AM
Thanks all

I overlooked a couple of things and I wish i didnot.... (or maybe it is best I did whatever...)

Apparently the lifters are easy to change/check and replace.... I should probably have done that as like in all these motors they are super noisy.

Torquing the manifold is as difficult as putting the bolts back in ;) I did not torque the bottom bolts because my wrench didnot fit without a couple of extensions/U-joints and with that the torque reading is wrong anyway

I lost my adaptor for the torque wrench by the time I put the valve cover in.... so i didn;t torque the bolts.... just checked them after a week and some were quite loose.



So far nothing is leaking (finger crossed lol) and it seem like it has a little more hump in the acceleration at low gear.... like I said, it stopped some of the noises, brought some new ones... the engine sounds good, maybe a bit of tapping (some might say kncking lol) soun like a diesel kind of...

Someone can correct me, but I don't torque anything except mains, rods and lug nuts. Everything else is as tight as I can get it without busting my knuckles, stripping the threads, or breaking off the head of the bolt. :spongebob:

steph74
04-25-2011, 09:27 AM
I don;t know about that Tony, ,but the book gives torque values for pretty much everything ;) and some are pretty low... I mean "as tight as I can get" for me can be pretty close to 100# and that clearly is a lot for some stuff...
It was even giving 2 different torque specs for the rocker arms cover depending on the gasket... one for RTV, one for the original precured gasket (and they were almost doubled 28 and 55 if I remember)...

But usually when I don;t know, I go by the book... or I tend to trust the experience of the people on the forum.... so yeah I am also curious to know if what Tony says is correct or not ;)

By the way, if anybody knows what would be the torque for a cork gasket... now is a good time to display it ;) lol

4.3LXJ
04-25-2011, 11:03 AM
The reason for torque specs is to get a proper stretch on the bolt. It is not a mater of tightness, but the bolt stretched a little bit to accommodate changes in temperature and gasket materials over time. Each size and hardness of bolt has a torque specification that allows it to be stretched a little without being compromised.

modestmar00xj
04-25-2011, 01:00 PM
good work man! lots of info and pics!

mud-dog27
05-21-2011, 08:32 PM
nice write up, when i get off my lazy but and the weather isnt so miserable......living in BC that would seem to be 90% of the year but eventualy this will help when i go to do my cam swap and its good to know the head comes off rather easily....i was getting mixed input that it would hang up on the firewall but unless i missed it you had no such issues

steph74
05-23-2011, 11:17 AM
naw you missed it, it does hang a bit on the firewall.... nothing major though especially if you have a buddy that comes to help you, it is all a matter of moving something quite heavy but there is room to remove and put it back

and yes, I will not say it enough.... it is EASY to do ;) if you take your time

7urtle
06-12-2011, 04:47 AM
how long did it take?

steph74
06-13-2011, 11:59 AM
I did it over 2 days but It is my first time doing something like that and I had to go slowly.

And I am not counting the time I spent taking care of the donnor head.... cleaning it, etc...

I guess it is OK for me since it is not a DD... so it can stay parked forever :0

Moncheche
06-26-2011, 08:36 PM
Well done! I cut the stud off of number '14', the head bolt next to the firewall so I could torque it correctly.

My jeep is still on jackstands, I'm waiting for the block heater to come in before I put the manifolds back on.

Great work with the write-up and the photos.

cheap jeep
10-20-2011, 06:06 PM
Good write-up.I have changed valve stem seals on 3 different engines without removing the head,but not on a Jeep.

dagr8tim
10-20-2011, 07:57 PM
Good write up. I'm amazed how clean the underside of the head and the cylinders were. How many miles?

steph74
11-03-2011, 10:12 AM
well the head was a donor from the junkyard and I cleaned it before obviously.... I scrubbed it really good.
The cylindes well I am glad you find it clean because I was wondering at the time if they were or not as it was my first time looking at inside an engine... they looked a little grainy to me but nothing major... I had a couple of crap inside one of the cylinder that I picked up.... I do not know really if it is all original, but the jeep is a 89 with over 200K miles... the donor was same year with 150K...

If I were to do it again, I would try to have a closer look at the lifters and actually pick them out... but as I have said before, it is a project and I am learning a binch with it ;)

XJScarlet
01-14-2012, 07:09 PM
Due to circumstances out of my control I didn't get the head pulled on my Jeep. A huge thank you for the write up, VERY useful. We both live in Utah, if you want to hone your skills and help me with mine......... ;)

prerunner1982
03-21-2012, 06:27 PM
Nice write up, will probably be using it soon as well...


Also, no further than you moved the intake away from the engine couldn't you have left the throttle body on the intake? Same thing for the injector rail... if it is only pressed into the intake as long as you were careful not to hit the tips of the injectors could you leave it connected?

I and trying to make this as easy as possible.

robertpetit57
05-15-2012, 09:49 AM
Good write up, I actually was in the middle of doing one of these when i found your article. Very informative. I had only one difficulty, getting the #14 headbolt to torque.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43275272@N08/7203296970/in/photostream

I thought that having a crowfoot wrench would solve the problem, but finding a 12 point crowfoot is probably imposible. Here's my solution:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43275272@N08/7203297290/in/photostream/

I took a 1/2' extension and a combination wrench and with the help of a die grinder and welder, I had my 12 point crowfoot wrench. And the result is a fully torqued head without resorting to cutting off the threaded stud. Which would be a teltale for someone who was looking at the car at resale time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43275272@N08/7203297712/in/photostream/

I'll try to post some pictures of my Cherokee in the near future, it is plain stock for now. There is a lift and off road accessories in it's future though. I'm also currently working on my 1985 CJ-7. Here's a picture of the wife driving it at "The Badlands" in Attica, IN.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43275272@N08/7203359978/in/photostream

Bob Petit
NW Indiana

Mudderoy
05-15-2012, 03:48 PM
Good write up, I actually was in the middle of doing one of these when i found your article. Very informative. I had only one difficulty, getting the #14 headbolt to torque.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43275272@N08/7203296970/in/photostream

I thought that having a crowfoot wrench would solve the problem, but finding a 12 point crowfoot is probably imposible. Here's my solution:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43275272@N08/7203297290/in/photostream/

I took a 1/2' extension and a combination wrench and with the help of a die grinder and welder, I had my 12 point crowfoot wrench. And the result is a fully torqued head without resorting to cutting off the threaded stud. Which would be a teltale for someone who was looking at the car at resale time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43275272@N08/7203297712/in/photostream/

I'll try to post some pictures of my Cherokee in the near future, it is plain stock for now. There is a lift and off road accessories in it's future though. I'm also currently working on my 1985 CJ-7. Here's a picture of the wife driving it at "The Badlands" in Attica, IN.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43275272@N08/7203359978/in/photostream

Bob Petit
NW Indiana

I know it's a Wrangler site, but I'd like to see some CJs there too.... http://www.WranglerTalk.com/, xjtalk's sister site.

nvygun
01-08-2013, 12:05 AM
Nice write up great and will be really helpful when I go to replace mine this week. I also found this post on youtube that people might find helpful when hanging there head or replacing there head gasket. http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29I5fNAv-8M

OldFaurt
01-14-2014, 07:53 PM
Yes, Carp Happened! But in the end, you accomplished what 99% of automobooble jockies wouldn't even try...
You on the other hand, have proven that yes, in a pinch I CAN DO THAT!
I don't know what experience you have with mechanics, but you did a great job,
Saved yourself a differential full of bucks (To be applied to additional goodies) & next time,
it will be a piece of cake!

I applaud your well produced journey & it's outcome!