Heads and gaskets

[DeLoreanMan82]

Morning people. I posted on here about a month ago about my wife's 2005 Jeep Liberty overheating. Well, after taking it to the dealership, they verified that it's a small head gasket leak. They showed me an endoscope video with a bit of coolant in the cylinder. I wish I would have thought of doing that but after no change using a CO2 tester, it never crossed my mind to do that. Anyways, they also say that there is a bit of cylinder scoring to which I'm sure there is having over 330K original miles and using 1 quart of oil every 3K miles to which is when I change the oil. The quoted me a Mopar replacement at $16,044!!!!!! No thanks and picked it up Friday and drove it home. It drove so nice, no smoke, no overheating (didn't have the A/C on) engine runs a smooth as a sewing machine. I can't see how I need an engine. Anyways, I want to install new loaded heads, (cam and valves installed) and buy the head gaskets kit, head bolts and other stuff I'll need.

Where is the best place to buy this stuff? I've seen so many listings that I wanted to hit you experts up first who have been down this road using quality parts. Any tips are greatly appreciated!!!

 

[u2slow]

I went with rockauto for parts. Cheap ones.

And I only dealt with the one head (pass side) that had trouble. Used a blue Felpro head gasket.

 

[CheddarGau]

It's not the worst idea to do both heads, especi, however passenger is the usual suspect. The main thing is to replace the valve seal on the driver side head. I did my nieces head and well got lazy and now it burn oil from the driver side.

Now the other issue is if you end up replacing a head(s) and cams, you will have a tight top end and a loose bottom end. There is a engine rebuilder nearby that actually has (had) a 2005 engine in stock, and I think it was around 3k CAD. It really wouldn't be the worst idea to either replace engine or do top and bottom end at the same time. That only matters if you plan on keeping the vehicle.

 

[u2slow]

Its never the 'worst idea' to renew more parts, but theres a limit on my funds and time.

Part of the deciding factor for me was wether or not the timing cover and chains had to come off. They didn't, so I stuck with the one head.

 

[DeLoreanMan82]

It's not the worst idea to do both heads, especi, however passenger is the usual suspect. The main thing is to replace the valve seal on the driver side head. I did my nieces head and well got lazy and now it burn oil from the driver side.

Now the other issue is if you end up replacing a head(s) and cams, you will have a tight top end and a loose bottom end. There is a engine rebuilder nearby that actually has (had) a 2005 engine in stock, and I think it was around 3k CAD. It really wouldn't be the worst idea to either replace engine or do top and bottom end at the same time. That only matters if you plan on keeping the vehicle.

Well what about just doing head gaskets? I seriously doubt they are warped. I pick this up from the dealer on an 83 degree day, was stuck in traffic and never went above half. Stayed a tick below half. No miss, no studder. Drove and idled just fine. I feel I could probably just do gaskets and be ok.

 

[u2slow]

My spare head from a blown HG was 5 thou low between chambers. It needed to be milled. Cheaper than having the dropped valve seat repaired.

 

[Robochop]

Just my opinion but why not do a rebuild? If the rest of the car is in good shape and you want to keep it for awhile. the engine is probably "tired and worn" with all those miles. I have seen rebuild kits for under 1k on eBay and amazon. If the cylinders are scored you may be able to get by with honing. I would definitely let a machine look at the heads. I have repaired plenty of dropped valve seats. Maybe even another engine with less mileage? Best of luck with it!

 

[u2slow]

These engines commonly pop head gaskets and drop valve seats. Often as a byproduct of a cooling system event. Ours got to just over 300k before dropping a valve seat. The spare engine had popped the head gasket by 172k.

In any case, re&re on a cylinder head was less work for me than changing the whole engine. Even with a spare engine on-hand. Choose your battles.