Bailey.J.W Posted May 5, 2021 Share Posted May 5, 2021 Hi everyone My names Bailey and as you can tell I’m new to JOC as a Jeep owner however I have been along to a few events at slindon with @eastbournesmiths in his JK and I got hooked pretty much straight way, we were lucky enough to find my little 2002 4.0L TJ “Nelly”. Unfortunately it was a bit of rough couple of months owner her as we discovered that Nelly had a bit of a engine running issue ... well when I say a bit of an issue she had a big running issue. Being a mechanic myself I stripped the 4.0 down and found 3 out of the 6 piston were cracked and an odd con rod! Nevertheless I took the time to fully rebuild the engine. BEST THING IVE DONE! I’m fully in love with this thing and already got some mods on her, 33” tyres and a OME 2.5” lift kit. I had the joy of driving over to slindon to test it all out too! Bit of a little background story on me and nelly can’t wait to get to the joc events. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum Member Volant165 Posted May 6, 2021 Platinum Member Share Posted May 6, 2021 Welcome to the club! Very nice TJ and great photos. Looking forward to seeing you at an event. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum Member Nicholas Lavin Posted May 6, 2021 Platinum Member Share Posted May 6, 2021 Cool Jeep mate and nice back story, I had the YJ model in '96 was great fun! What other work did you carry out on the engine during rebuild, out of interest? Looks great! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum Member V Posted May 6, 2021 Platinum Member Share Posted May 6, 2021 17 hours ago, Bailey.J.W said: Being a mechanic myself I stripped the 4.0 down and found 3 out of the 6 piston were cracked and an odd con rod! That is a very interesting failure. For an odd conrod to be found in an engine suggests that a rod has been replaced with an after market one. The engine may have suffered from a bent rod, but what caused it? Perhaps a head gasket failure allowing coolant to pool above the piston that is in the compression stroke when the engine was switched off. The next start would have unsuccessfully attempted to compress the coolant that had pooled in that cylinder. The piston skirt cracking is also interesting. To happen on three pistons is either very bad luck, or the previous owner continuously laboured the engine, or whoever repaired the bent rod reassembled the others badly causing a stress failure. Was there any other damage? Did you spot any head repairs? Damage caused by dirt ingress? Had the crank already been reground? Did your Jeep have any evidence of previous offroad use, like mud stains high up the engine block or bell housing? Water ingestion offroad could also cause a bent rod. Good that you caught the problem early on and fixed it to your satisfaction. Who did you use for machining? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum Member spookie the aardvark Posted May 6, 2021 Platinum Member Share Posted May 6, 2021 Hi Bailey and a warm welcome to the club Very nice looking Jeep Good to see anther guy who likes spannering on their Jeep 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey.J.W Posted May 6, 2021 Author Share Posted May 6, 2021 5 hours ago, Nicholas Lavin said: Cool Jeep mate and nice back story, I had the YJ model in '96 was great fun! What other work did you carry out on the engine during rebuild, out of interest? Looks great! Hi Nicholas Thank you and I do like the YJ to unfortunately never driven one ! So on my engine rebuild I completely rebuild the head so all new valves, stem seals, rockers and rocker bearings, push rods and obviously all new gaskets. I did do a slight polish and port to the head too. I replaced all the big end bearing, pistons and the odd con rod, new timing kit water pump and fan belt, new hydraulic lifters, then I put new new oil in and an engine flush and changed the oil once more. Oh and I crinkle painted the engine! So a very big job bit over kill for the problem I had but better be safe then sorry 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum Member eastbournesmiths Posted May 6, 2021 Platinum Member Share Posted May 6, 2021 And in between all the work on the TJ @Bailey.J.W used his spare time to fit a Jeepey supplied 2" Terrafirma lift kit to my JK along with new lower front control arms, heavy duty track bar, steering stabiliser, wheel spacers and 32.5" tyres to the original rims!! We are now both looking forward to taking the TJ and JK to the JOC/ Unity Automotive event in June. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey.J.W Posted May 6, 2021 Author Share Posted May 6, 2021 3 hours ago, V said: That is a very interesting failure. For an odd conrod to be found in an engine suggests that a rod has been replaced with an after market one. The engine may have suffered from a bent rod, but what caused it? Perhaps a head gasket failure allowing coolant to pool above the piston that is in the compression stroke when the engine was switched off. The next start would have unsuccessfully attempted to compress the coolant that had pooled in that cylinder. The piston skirt cracking is also interesting. To happen on three pistons is either very bad luck, or the previous owner continuously laboured the engine, or whoever repaired the bent rod reassembled the others badly causing a stress failure. Was there any other damage? Did you spot any head repairs? Damage caused by dirt ingress? Had the crank already been reground? Did your Jeep have any evidence of previous offroad use, like mud stains high up the engine block or bell housing? Water ingestion offroad could also cause a bent rod. Good that you caught the problem early on and fixed it to your satisfaction. Who did you use for machining? Hi there so the only other damage I found was rust marks from the oil and compression rings indicating that she had bit sat for quite a some time and no signs of off roading! So my theory is on the first start up after it being sat for a long time it cracked the pistons also having an odd con rod through the balance of the engine off because it’s a completely different weight also causing the pistons to weaken, unfortunately we will never know how or why the odd con rod got there, I did 90% of the machine work and had a little help from an old work friend. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum Member Nicholas Lavin Posted May 6, 2021 Platinum Member Share Posted May 6, 2021 1 hour ago, Bailey.J.W said: Hi Nicholas Thank you and I do like the YJ to unfortunately never driven one ! So on my engine rebuild I completely rebuild the head so all new valves, stem seals, rockers and rocker bearings, push rods and obviously all new gaskets. I did do a slight polish and port to the head too. I replaced all the big end bearing, pistons and the odd con rod, new timing kit water pump and fan belt, new hydraulic lifters, then I put new new oil in and an engine flush and changed the oil once more. Oh and I crinkle painted the engine! So a very big job bit over kill for the problem I had but better be safe then sorry Sounds great! I have the same lump on my ZJ that I am restoring or recommissioning and my YJ of course had this engine. I had to put on hold my project so didnt power the engine up yet, hopefully mine wont need an engine rebuild but has been standing for some time. Nice Jeep you have tho', I hope to get mine back on the road one day and maybe pimp it slightly! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum Member digger Posted May 7, 2021 Platinum Member Share Posted May 7, 2021 Hi, gr8 looking Jeep, hardtop as well! Another who looks after his own Jeep, I'm up for that too! If you fancy a look at a Yj I'm hoping to go to both the June events with mine. So , welcome aboard, look forward to meeting you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey.J.W Posted May 9, 2021 Author Share Posted May 9, 2021 On 07/05/2021 at 20:52, digger said: Hi, gr8 looking Jeep, hardtop as well! Another who looks after his own Jeep, I'm up for that too! If you fancy a look at a Yj I'm hoping to go to both the June events with mine. So , welcome aboard, look forward to meeting you. Hi, thank you look forward to see you and your YJ too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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