2004 Liberty 3.7 v6 overheating, bad catalytic cv

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dscopes

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Hello,
I recently acquired a 2004 JL 3.7 v6 KJ. Apparently the only thing wrong with it was a bad catalytic converter. It recently got a new water pump, head. As I drove it home(20 miles). The cat was rattling and making noise. By the 15mile. I started loosing serious power(almost nil). Engine temperature gauge shot up and I barely rolled into my driveway. I’m handy with cars and rebuilt motors. Etc.
My questions arare as follows:
The motor needed 3qts+oil, was dry in coolant, with no visible leaks anywhere.
After pulling the plugs, they looked like crap and two of them were wet with what looked like coolant. I cleaned them up, then flushed the coolant. The radiator initially seemed clogged with brown sludgy rusty crap. I flushed it out. Started it up, and it runs ok but not well. The starter really strains to turn the motor over(got full charge) but the engine isn’t seized. I noticed the small diameter hose on the top back part of the coolant reservoir was shooting/spraying coolant back into the reservoir as the Jeep was running. Is this normal? Also, could the bad catalytic converter being clogged, overheating etc. cause the coolant to disappear and or back up into the head? In other words, is my head gasket still intact possibly? Could tg bad cat seized my thermostat? With the bad cat the check engine light was on and probably running a stronger fuel mixture. Any way to reset/trick the computer so at least the fuel system is running normal? I plan to mount an aftermarket Walker cat. Not sure where to start with the head and motor yet. Was going by to start by running a compression test. Any thoughts, tips on these things are greatly appreciated.
 

tjkj2002

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Somewhere between being sane and insane!
Looks like someone unloaded it on you with severe engine issues due to neglect.

Just plan on a engine replacement and most likely a full cooling system replacement.

3+qts low on oil and no coolant is a sign of a bad repair job on a severely neglected engine and the owner didn't want to put any more $$$ into so sold it with "only has bad cat" which they left out "will need a new engine also".
 

JasonJ

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Jeez.. least they could have done when you went to check it out is top off the oil... even the stupidest scammer will do that.

If it just had all that work done, and was low/missing all of that fluid, red flags everywhere for me.
 

Myke

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You should do a leakdown test while you're at it. Best case you have a blown head gasket, worst case you need a new engine or a rebuild.
 

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