XJ 4.0 help

[HoosierJeeper]

One of my wife's friends has an 01 XJ that is leaking coolant horribly and over heating. I went to look at it and the radiator, water pump, hoses, etc looked ok. What I did notice is that the entire engine block was just covered in coolant. I checked the oil and it wasn't contaminated. I was thinking headgasket- but I would've thought the oil would've been mixed.

 

[dude1116]

One of my wife's friends has an 01 XJ that is leaking coolant horribly and over heating. I went to look at it and the radiator, water pump, hoses, etc looked ok. What I did notice is that the entire engine block was just covered in coolant. I checked the oil and it wasn't contaminated. I was thinking headgasket- but I would've thought the oil would've been mixed.

Sounds like head gasket to me. When my friend's '01 Subaru Outback blew a gasket, I couldn't noticed coolant in the oil right away either.

 

[piaa_nissan]

The casting on the heads for the 2000 and 2001 were prone to cracking and leaking coolant. There's an off chance this could be your problem. Normally it would crack and leak inside between cylinders 3 and 4.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

 

[lfhoward]

The casting on the heads for the 2000 and 2001 were prone to cracking and leaking coolant. There's an off chance this could be your problem. Normally it would crack and leak inside between cylinders 3 and 4.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

Agreed. This is what happened with my '01 XJ. Luckily I had read about the problem and when coolant began disappearing I sent an oil sample to Blackstone Labs and they confirmed it. My engine bearings weren't toasted yet, so I got an aftermarket head to replace the cracked one. Be sure when they do your head gasket repair they do a pressure test of the head itself to check for the notorious micro-crack between 3 and 4. It will be so small you will probably not see it by eye.