My Accidental Build

so the history behind this car was a purchase out of necessity. our previous car was a little corolla and it got hit and totaled. so we got this car quickly to get back on the road.
we got it with already higher in its mileage life, roughly 195,*** on it and a check engine light for an oxygen sensor heater circuit that had come up with the previous owner when someone stole a cat off the thing and i had fun figuring out what the issue was with that... when they stole the cat they cut the wire with the harness and i could not find a liberty the same year in the junkyard the same year (i guess theres different connectors at the end and different wire colors).

Right away I got to repairing the wiring down there and once that got sorted I started down the list of maintenance that was long overdue and needed
Started with a trans service. The fluid was new but I wasn’t sure if they had put atf +4 in it so I did it


I also did a diff service, and oil pan gasket.
I wanted to eliminate all the leaks I could.
I don’t remember exact where in the timeline it was I just know it was early on that we learned the heater core was leaking… so I pulled the dash and replaced the heater core and ran the wiring for a rear view camera while we were at it.

Few weeks later took the front grill off and had a buddy polish the headlights and fog lights for me
At this point I had starting doing all the over suspension work as well
New ball joints
New bushings in the lower control arms
New upper control arms and new rear upper control arm all from moog
I also started looking into a small lift for it and went with the rusty off-road strut spacer and poly block




It went in great but about after a week or so I had this annoying squeaking in the front which I originally thought was the coil spring rubbing on the frame and I had just got the new upper control arms so I didn’t want to go buy jba ones
So I decided to take it all apart again
And this is what I found
The washer from the strut assembly was slightly rubbing onto the lift spacer….. what I get for being cheap
But I took a grinder to the washer and solved my problem.
So at this point I had fixed all the oil leaks, done all my maintenance I was ready for do other little mods and get some new tires for the lift

Installed a new steering wheel, xtrons android head unit (I didn’t want to change the OEM look)
At this point the flaws of the worn engine and trans were starting to show themselves I had an oil consumption issue. No leaks, new pcv valve and every 1500 miles was down a quart of oil
And I had to start topping off the coolant every month.
No overheating, i had already done dealt with a garden hose effect with the cooling system
Heater core was first then the radiator and coolant hoses with a new thermostat, then the water pump started leaking. So I knew I was at the point of cut my losses and get rid of it or ride it out as long as it last and fix it. We decided we liked it and to ride it out want fix it.
So we kept nursing it along and the trans started to develop a noise that i can only describe as a mosquito buzz.
I didn’t a bunch of reading and what I ended up doing was removing the cooler lines bypassing the cooler (just for the test) and the noise went away..

so It was time to replace the oem stock cooler

After replacing the cooler I got the rig a new set of tires
She’s on a set of cooper 267/70R17
On stock limited rims

She stays like this for a while
things are decent. Old age gets to everything unfortunately and the A/C system developed a leak in the condenser and one of the pressure lines so that was next

After this things aren’t going well for too long….

So now the really big things.
I’m driving the car one day for about 45 mins I get to my destination and turn it off run my errands for about 15 minutes go out to start her up and she starts and stalls, I crank her over again and starts misfires and stalls, third time she cranks I hear a pop and step out to see a puddle of oil

The right side has sent a rocker arm through the valve cover…
So tear down beings the next day


I didn’t take to many more pictures as this project started and of the tear down of the engine as I didn’t expect to ever really make a post on the forum about our jeep but I figured what the heck why not.

So as of now I have a replacement cylinder head and had both reconditioned and tore the block down and sent everything of the the machine shop
The engine was very tired the oil rings were all caked with carbon and oil deposits and the cylinder 5 pistons was cleaner from it being the cylinder consuming coolant, and also upon looking at the rod bearing for that cylinder it wasn’t looking too hot it was beginning to scratch the crank

I’ll take more pictures as I start the process continues. Any tips and tricks or recommend things to address while
I’m this far in
I did get all new lifter from jeep
And gasket sets from fel-pro

I was looking at jba headers but I’d honestly don’t want to fork over the money for a new set.
But we’ll see I don’t know if there is any power gains or if they’re worth the price

Fair play to you mate for having the perseverance. Great journal.

JBA headers will not do anything at all for you unless you sink a lot into the motor , not worth it
Save up now for a real lift since you;; be needing it in a few months , Rustys , RRO, Rough Country are all bad way to lift for the long run

Ok so I rebuilt the engine and went on its maiden test drive home (25miles) and saw a few drops of oil.
I crawled under and saw oil at the bottom of the bell housing to block brace and assumed it was an issue with the rear main.
So I went to the parts store picked up a new one and was getting ready to pull the trans the coming weekend.
But it turned out to be a bit worse.
I lifted the vehicle to change the oil after it’s first 100miles and I saw oil at the edge of the head so I started looking around with the mirror and the oil passage under the intake manifold on the left side head was leaking oil back down along the bell housing. So the engine had to come back out and apart again. I’ll come back and update with pictures

ok lets sum up how the rest went down...
i ended up taking the engine back out and yes oil was coming from the valley. oil was coming through the headgasket at the oil passage.
the i had the head machined again just for ***** and giggles reinstalled the heads and took it on another test drive....
and found oil dripping down by the bell housing again.
i thought ok maybe residual oil so i pressure washed & rechecked and found more oil...
i pulled the trans this time and found the rear main also to be leaking. it wasn't pinched it was not damaged or missing the spring inside it was just leaking.
(felpro btw) so i got another felpro seal.... and it leaks still.... not alot but it does form a drop... ill probaby replace it with oem when the ****** fails.

bot once we made it past that hurdle everything has been pretty good i just have other issues to sort out now.

i have a dorman recovery tank on it and the hose it came with burst so i replaced it with other hose i had and it has a tiny leak but ehhh i can live with it for now.

the next issue id like to sort out is my tpms light. i think the skim or keyless entry module is corrupted.
i get the transmitter ids and input them and the module sets it back to 1111111 or another random number.

so time to start checking that out.

ill come back and update with some pics

If the rear main is still leaking with a new seal you probably have wear on the crankshaft. You may be able to get round it by setting the seal so it runs on a different bit of shaft.