Jeep Liberty values?

[69BahamaYellow]

Howdy JK forum,

I just purchased a 2002 Liberty 3.7 limited with 4WD and auto transmission. It has a blown motor, but only cost $500. I’ve partially torn down the engine to see what went wrong, and so far I’ve found that all the coolant is in the oil pan, #4 spark plug is broken from some kind of mechanical damage (like a dropped valve), and I found a timing chain tensioner broken on the crank to balance shaft chain. It has so many new things from the previous owner like new transmission, AC, alternator, battery, etc. that I think it’s worth rebuilding the engine. What kind of things should I make sure to replace or upgrade on these engines? I’m not super familiar with these 3.7 Mopar’s, but I know engine rebuilding pretty well.

 

[Johnny O]

I’d keep the drivetrain stock. There rebuilt engines available from Janus…James son… dang can’t remember the name with a few beneficial tweaks.

The 3.7 is a proven workhorse.

Main upgrade is the suspension. The atock/OE style is mushy garbage. Most of us here go with old man emu springs and OME shocks, bilstien shocks or a mix of the two. Suspension upgrades are discussed as nauseum here in other threads.
With those combos you can stay stock height at 19in from axel to fender or add 2 inches of left.

Also, welcome!

 

[Michael Wolfe]

There are issues with the 3.7 valve train. A sticky lifter can cause the rocker arm to fall off, and go for a tour under the valve cover. There are aftermarket clips to help prevent that. Same issue as the 4.8 V8 Magnum engine it's based on. Also valve seats can drop. Did you pull the heads yet? Interested to know how the coolant found it's way to the pan. Assuming it wasn't the head gasket, probably a cracked head.