Hey everyone! My story begins around this time last year, when an "old" friend of mine (who can no longer crawl under vehicles) bought this '02 liberty from one of his acquaintances in Colorado. He paid $650, and had to trailer the Jeep home because the engine was half torn apart from what we suspect to be another case of the valve-seat flu...
The Jeep sat in Colorado for at least a year, then spent another good part of the year in my friends yard until we had some time and a wild hair to tackle it. I think we got encouragement from an LKQ that had recently opened In my area, and they had roughly 10 of these KJ's at that time. Long story short - we grabbed an engine out of a 2002 based on the premise that only 2002 engines would work in 2002's. only to install it, and learn that it, too, suffered the valve seat flu. when I pulled the dr. cylinder head, of course it ruined the piston. off to LKQ again. pulled a cylinder head only to find it's damaged too - incredible! We ended up using a rebuilt eBay head and an eBay piston, which was installed with the engine in the vehicle.. pain in the butt.
after a couple of months, he ended up selling the KJ to his sister in AZ... except about 30 miles away from home, the engine threw a rod through the block, and then just last December he got tired of staring at it and told me to get it out of his sight.
SO. free jeep in good shape, new tires, 4 wheel drive.. just needs an engine... how hard can it be?
Long story short, I ended up getting an engine from a 2004. it was very cold when we pulled it. I pulled the crankshaft to replace the tone ring and found a gouged main bearing and broken lower timing chain guide. got new bearings and used the guide from my old engine and everything went back together smoothly and I put the engine in... only to find that the flywheels are different and there was a ring on the back of the crank. 2 hours later, it was finally in for good.
Long read, but the Liberty is running good for now. still need to register and insure it before I drive it much more. not sure how long I will keep it, but at least till spring.
p.s. is there any way to post pictures that aren't miniature?
The Jeep sat in Colorado for at least a year, then spent another good part of the year in my friends yard until we had some time and a wild hair to tackle it. I think we got encouragement from an LKQ that had recently opened In my area, and they had roughly 10 of these KJ's at that time. Long story short - we grabbed an engine out of a 2002 based on the premise that only 2002 engines would work in 2002's. only to install it, and learn that it, too, suffered the valve seat flu. when I pulled the dr. cylinder head, of course it ruined the piston. off to LKQ again. pulled a cylinder head only to find it's damaged too - incredible! We ended up using a rebuilt eBay head and an eBay piston, which was installed with the engine in the vehicle.. pain in the butt.
after a couple of months, he ended up selling the KJ to his sister in AZ... except about 30 miles away from home, the engine threw a rod through the block, and then just last December he got tired of staring at it and told me to get it out of his sight.
SO. free jeep in good shape, new tires, 4 wheel drive.. just needs an engine... how hard can it be?
Long story short, I ended up getting an engine from a 2004. it was very cold when we pulled it. I pulled the crankshaft to replace the tone ring and found a gouged main bearing and broken lower timing chain guide. got new bearings and used the guide from my old engine and everything went back together smoothly and I put the engine in... only to find that the flywheels are different and there was a ring on the back of the crank. 2 hours later, it was finally in for good.
Long read, but the Liberty is running good for now. still need to register and insure it before I drive it much more. not sure how long I will keep it, but at least till spring.
p.s. is there any way to post pictures that aren't miniature?
