Blown engine need advice! 06 Liberty

My beloved 2006 Jeep Liberty’s 3.7L V6 engine just bit the dust at 201k miles. Mechanic says full engine replacement needed. It guzzled all its oil (not due to leak), lost power while accelerating, and now has the dreaded knocking sound.

Car is in Durango, CO but it’s home is northern NM (Santa Fe). Trying to decide how to get it home and what to do next…
New tires last year, new ball joint last week, regular maintenance and overall really good condition for its age, only ongoing issue is small transfer case leak which I have been monitoring for a couple years, and some glitchy electrical/maybe fuses on dash and air controls.

Do people just scrap at this point or try and sell off parts? Not sure I can afford full engine replacement for $3500 plus labor ($1-3k?!) at the moment.
Any advice or input appreciated!

Scrap yard engine & a steady weekend to swap it over?

There are some tough decisions ahead, a 1300 mile haul home is long ways.
If you feel the Jeep is worth restoring, Jasper engines would be the way to go.
You would have a full warranty. Many members here have taken this direction.

LibertyTC said:

There are some tough decisions ahead, a 1300 mile haul home is long ways.
If you feel the Jeep is worth restoring, Jasper engines would be the way to go.
You would have a full warranty. Many members here have taken this direction.

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Thanks for the rec. It’s only about 250miles from home!

Slydog, I live here in Durango and although I don't have a trailer that would haul your Liberty, if there's anything I can do to make things easier don't hesitate to let me know. You can reach me at 970 238 0395 if needed.
Keith

Lots of KJ's come up for sale with a bad cyl head or trans.

I would pickup one of those for a few hundred $$$. I would also hang onto the heads off the old engine just in case.

Slydog06 said:

My beloved 2006 Jeep Liberty’s 3.7L V6 engine just bit the dust at 201k miles. Mechanic says full engine replacement needed. It guzzled all its oil (not due to leak), lost power while accelerating, and now has the dreaded knocking sound.

Car is in Durango, CO but it’s home is northern NM (Santa Fe). Trying to decide how to get it home and what to do next…
New tires last year, new ball joint last week, regular maintenance and overall really good condition for its age, only ongoing issue is small transfer case leak which I have been monitoring for a couple years, and some glitchy electrical/maybe fuses on dash and air controls.

Do people just scrap at this point or try and sell off parts? Not sure I can afford full engine replacement for $3500 plus labor ($1-3k?!) at the moment.
Any advice or input appreciated!

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Copart salvage yards

u2slow said:

Lots of KJ's come up for sale with a bad cyl head or trans.

I would pickup one of those for a few hundred $$$. I would also hang onto the heads off the old engine just in case.

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And that's why I have sheds full of 'useful' spares

I live in Durango too. Don't have a trailer either but Uhaul's all over town you could rent to get it back. Holler if I can help in any way. I've done 2 salvage yard engine swaps in other vehicles and don't recommend that route unless it's a verified low mileage. Both of the ones I did lasted between 1 and 2 years before they went bad too. Spending all that time and money on something that may be close to worn out is not a good investment in my opinion. I'm sure the Jasper engines are really good but they're pricey. I got a rebuilt short block for my KJ from an outfit in Florida that specializes in these engines.


I paid $800 + shipping (which was super reasonable, $150 I think)

I believe they use an Enginetech rebuild kit to keep the costs down. Can't speak to long term durability but everything looked really good and it runs perfect. I also bought a rebuilt head from them (which wasn't so great - camshaft and caps were badly pitted and corroded) and had my other head rebuilt at a local machine shop. If I were to do it again I'd just have my existing heads refreshed. Whatever you do I'd make sure the valve seats get pinned to prevent them from dropping - seems that all the reputable builders do that.

I did all the assembly and installation work myself so the whole think cost me less than $2k. I think if I'd had to pay a mechanic to do it the cost would have been more than the vehicle was worth so I'd likely have scrapped it. That's a tough decision only you can make though.

Shankster said:

I've done 2 salvage yard engine swaps in other vehicles and don't recommend that route unless it's a verified low mileage. Both of the ones I did lasted between 1 and 2 years before they went bad too. Spending all that time and money on something that may be close to worn out is not a good investment in my opinion.

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These engines seems to have a lot of lifespan variability. Nearly at 305,000km with no major engine work or problems. My parts KJ has either a blown HG or cracked head at 172,000km. Bought and sold another that was running fine at around 200,000km. A friend had a crank snap on him, dont know exact the miles, but it was low.

u2slow said:

These engines seems to have a lot of lifespan variability. Nearly at 305,000km with no major engine work or problems. My parts KJ has either a blown HG or cracked head at 172,000km. Bought and sold another that was running fine at around 200,000km. A friend had a crank snap on him, dont know exact the miles, but it was low.

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I bought my 02 with a blown engine (spun rod bearing) at around 127k miles but have no idea what the vehicle's service history was. My experience with engines over the past 40 years has been that if you change the oil regularly and look after the cooling system they will pretty much go forever. I think that all of the engine failures that have happened to me or my family or friends can be traced back to a cooling system issue. I know the 3.7 in these is super sensitive to overheating so I'll be watching mine like a hawk. The blown engine in mine came with a leaking radiator so wouldn't be surprised if that was the root cause of the failure.