Ownership Verified: BCS repeatedly breaks, fixes, and re-breaks his Jeep

Well, yesterday sucked.

Flow-matched and rebuilt a set of Bosch 3 injectors to replace the crap factory Siemens Deka injectors in the Jeep. Thursday afternoon I did the swap, cleaned out the throttle body since you have to remove it to get the fuel rails off so I figured I might as well. Forgot that I needed a new throttle body gasket, but CanTire had to order it in for Friday morning. Ordered the gasket, buttoned everything back up except the TB and covered the holes on the intake manifold.

Friday afternoon I get off work, grab the gasket, and reinstall the throttle body/cables/electronics. Reconnected the battery.

Went to start it up, ran rough for about 2.5 seconds (~200RPM, figured that was due to air in the fuel rails as I bled the system before pulling them), and then made a weird (but not overly loud) klankety-klunk noise and died. Hit the starter again, now it won't even turn the engine over. Great.

Pulled the steering skid and put a big breaker bar on the crank, and I can't even get it to move a millimeter in either direction with the spark plugs pulled for zero compression and the accessory belt removed.

So I'm kinda baffled as to what the hell happened. If it dropped a valve or something, I can't see how it would lock the reciprocating assembly so hard that a good 200ft-lb on a breaker bar couldn't turn it. Pulled a valve cover and didn't see any missing valves, ran out of light/motivation before I could pull the other. My only surviving theory is that the timing chain broke and bound up in the housing something fierce. Going to pull the front of the engine apart today and see what I can find.


Damnit.
 
Shit dude, that sucks.

Hopefully it's not something too major.
 
Not to sound pessimistic, but I'm not sure how it could be anything minor. :lol: Weather's getting a bit shit so I may not get it down to the chain today.
 
Thread needed a new, more accurate title. Oh, and I got just over $1000 from the insurance company for the hail damage, so I may have almost made money on the vehicle so far. :lol:

Hey, I documented my engine diagnosis procedure!

[video=youtube;OSBmo8F7N-E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSBmo8F7N-E&feature=player_embedded[/video]
 
Has the engine issue been resolved yet? Good to know that you've made some money with the car ;)
 
Spectre: Hydro was the first thing I checked, and the oil looked OK.

Stripped it down to the timing chain today and while it's old and a bit sloppy it's definitely not the problem. Looks like it has to be something internal. There's enough slop in the chain that I can turn the camshaft by hand (with some difficulty) so it's definitely something attached to the crank that's causing the problem. Looks like it's time to start seriously hunting for a new motor. :(
 
Just a wild guess, but I'd suspect a broken rod. 4.0, right?
 
5.2L, but still a valid guess. I've already got the oil pan most of the way off, so I guess I might as well open up the bottom end all the way tomorrow and see what I can see. Any broken part must be hella jammed in there to keep me from turning the crank!
 
Just be thankful it was running like crap towards the end, because maybe your block can be reused this way; my former Wagoneer had a rod come out and say hello. :p Also, did you check for obstructions at the flywheel or maybe a seized starter?
 
Haven't checked the flywheel end, I'll do that tomorrow when I pull the pan and the trans dust shield. Starter has to come off to pull the oil pan, so that another thing I can check while I'm in there.
 
Hopefully it's not a rod, that would seriously blow. (Pun not intended)

I was going to sugest what spectre did, check out the flywheel end and see if something jammed that up, at least that would be better than a broken rod
 
Yeah, will know more later when I've done more disassembly.


In other news, parts prices in Canada are FUCKING SHIT. Master rebuild kit with pistons/cam/roller lifters/oil pump etc from the States: $700. Master rebuilt kit from local parts place WITHOUT cam or lifters: $1,923. Say, that doesn't have an oil pump either - pony up another $138! Want the cam/lifters? Ooh, that'll be another $686 for a grand total of $2747. I can have a complete remanufactured long block complete with warranty shipped to my door for HALF that price. And some places wonder why we order everything out of the States.
 
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It's only that cheap here because we ordered it from China. ;)

That really sucks man. Hopefully it's something other than catastrophic engine failure.
 
Got both valve covers pulled (more of a pain in the ass than I was expecting) and all valves seem to be present and accounted for, barring the possibility of one having broken in half (unlikely, i know). Also pulled the oil pan most of the way but have to remove the exhaust to get it all the way out. Can see the front half of the crank, everything seems in order there as well. Currently soaking the exhaust bolts in penetrant so I can get the pan all the way off and will likely pull the intake/exhaust manifolds and heads soon. Got some time to do it as I won't have access to an engine hoist for a coupe of weeks yet.
 
Nope, starter's fine and the flywheel looked in good shape. Can't totally pull the flywheel cover plate until the oil pan comes all the way out, though.
 
Got the oil pan all the way off yesterday (after a bit of a faff with the exhaust and transmission mount) and from what I could see with a flashlight there's nothing wrong with the bottom end. All rods intact, all pistons intact, absolutely no debris in the oil pan and no debris on the oil pickup screen. I filtered all the oil when I drained it and there were no metal shavings to indicate a bearing disintegrated.

I'm baffled. I'm starting to wonder if perhaps there's nothing wrong with the motor and instead something's lunched itself on the input side of the transmission. Definitely running out of plausible ideas!
 
Seems like hydrolocking would be the only cause left on the engine side but if that were the case chances are you'd have fluid coming out when you removed your spark plugs. Is it an auto or a manual?
 
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