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Found source of oil leak and other stuff

3K views 16 replies 6 participants last post by  feltyrobink 
#1 ·
a year or two ago, the ZJ started eating Oil fast. about a quart or two every 60 miles. So I knew the plenum was shot again, and I had some oil on the front of the engine. A bad rear main.

well, started with the Intake Manifold, pulled the keg off. Disassembled it and threw it in the trash. picked up the Airgap from Hughes engines :-D

Then I figured I would do head gaskets. Done.

Then I figured I would change the front crank seal since I could not pinpoint where the oil was coming from, and well... after I pulled the timing cover, I was sure surprised to see this large hole at the TDC marks on the cover! wtf. so back to hughes and ordered a replacement.

New timing gear set from summit,

New Rear main seal and oil pan gasket.

new valve covers - fancy magnum covers

Hopefully, get this thing on the road and insured again. Would love to start driving her around. Gotta fix the drivers side door too, the hinges were shot at 10 years old, fixed them, then again at 9 years they are shot again... but this time they sagged so much the door lock busted from the door.

Harry
 

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#4 ·
Nope no belt failure. Honestly I wish I knew what happened to that thing. Lots of debris in the bottom of the oil pan. Large piece of hard plastic stuck on the sump screen of the oil pump. Oh well. Time for upgrades.

Some pictures for you guys. Can't wait to try out the air gap ?

Airgap installed. Fancy ss tstat housing. Fancy valve covers. New timing cover got the seal installed so it's ready to go.

Just need to get the timing set from summit. And some different valve cover screws. Didn't realize that these fancy valves don't like the stock screws.

Also I ordered the wrong rear main like a dolt... so the old rear seal is out and just waiting for the new one..

Oh and got the new hinges on the driver's side door. Here is a shot of the door latch... almost got it fixed but I decided I was having too much fun and drilled through my finger to the bone. Now I can't feel my finger.

I will rebuild the whole engine and make her nice probably next winter... spacing out the upgrades.. gotta make the engine bay look pretty.
 

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#8 ·
Nope no belt failure. Honestly I wish I knew what happened to that thing. Lots of debris in the bottom of the oil pan. Large piece of hard plastic stuck on the sump screen of the oil pump. Oh well. Time for upgrades.

Some pictures for you guys. Can't wait to try out the air gap ?

Airgap installed. Fancy ss tstat housing. Fancy valve covers. New timing cover got the seal installed so it's ready to go.

Just need to get the timing set from summit. And some different valve cover screws. Didn't realize that these fancy valves don't like the stock screws.

Also I ordered the wrong rear main like a dolt... so the old rear seal is out and just waiting for the new one..

Oh and got the new hinges on the driver's side door. Here is a shot of the door latch... almost got it fixed but I decided I was having too much fun and drilled through my finger to the bone. Now I can't feel my finger.

I will rebuild the whole engine and make her nice probably next winter... spacing out the upgrades.. gotta make the engine bay look pretty.
I had a failure of the belt (steering pulley blew up shattered completely ) about 100 miles after replacing the belt and pulley i now have a massive coolant leak/oil as well ....any idea what it could be (98 5.9 limited 142,000 miles has mechanical clutch fan ..any help appreciated

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#5 ·
A bad harmonic balancer could have enough wobble to shave away the timing cover like that, but it would be an impressive thing to not notice.

I wonder if hughes fixed their problem with the air gap not sealing against the heads.
 
#6 ·
A bad harmonic balancer could have enough wobble to shave away the timing cover like that, but it would be an impressive thing to not notice.
I did have a bad HB back in 2006-2007. the isolating rubber completely deteriorated and the outer weight was just floating around back and forth across the entire length of the shaft.

But the oil leak started in 2014-2015 ish... So maybe it wore the cover down enough to be a thin skin and finally the elements finished it off.
 
#7 ·
It's the best theory you've got.

Only other thing I can think of is a piece of debris getting caught between balancer and cover, maybe that would have finished what the old balancer started?
 
#9 ·
This may not be you but my 5.9 has had issues since day 1 with the power steering pully.. replaced the pump pully 10x and still eats belts after a year.. I would look at that first.. the pulley is plastic..
 
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#10 ·
How does the power steering pulley give you a coolant/oil leak?
@budyr start a thread for you issue so we can help you, unless you've got the same hole in your timing cover you've got something different going on.
 
#11 ·
Have another question/issue.

Here is the new timing cover I got from Hughes.

The mating surface to the oil pan is NOT polished. Its textured. Wont this reduce the effectiveness of the gasket? Will it even seal?

Thoughts?

Thanks
 

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#12 ·
I wouldn't be too concerned about it if you have a good oil pan gasket.


On the felpro those three lips on the front would probably seal fine. Oil in that area shouldn't be under much (if any) pressure, so it shouldn't want to leak from that area, unlike a rear main or the front seals.
 
#13 ·
Okay thanks for the reassurance. I do have a felpro gasket... a little disappointed with it however. The felpro oil pan gasket for my 4.0 in the TJ came with plastic posts to help mount the pan, which I thought was rather nice. The 5.2 gasket does not have these posts. oh well..

Jeep is all put back together minus the Timing chain set. Which means cover, water pump, compressor, power steering pump, oil pan and muffler, track bar, drag link, radiator fan, harmonic balancer and alternator all need to be put back in too... but thats easy.

oh and new oil and filter. Just waiting for another timing gear set. 3rd time is a charm i hope.

Also never installed my KOR rear bumper that i bought a couple years ago. Having two kids and buying a new house really puts a wrinkle in plans. So while i wait for the timing chain, i am prepping and painting the bumper. hopefully i can get it off of my garage floor finally. Just have been moving it from corner to corner past couple years.
 
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