mjeff87

I test drove it, and tried doing that. Also tried holding the clutch in for 5-10 seconds before shifting....nothing helped. My money is on worn synchros, and that means either a pull/rebuild, or a tranny swap, neither of which I want to do right now. Guy just texted me back and said he'd drop the price another $300 if I'd take it. Seems a bit too eager to me, but that's just what my gut is telling me. Going to look at a V8 WJ locally this afternoon (hopefully) that only has 130K on it for $2800. More than I want to spend on a temporary vehicle, but if it's as nice as the pics look I might just make it my primary DD and sell the KJ as-is for cheap. Decisions, decisions.....

and that's a big old NOPE sandwich...... guy texted me back and said the shop wanted $100 for a "diagnostic" on the crunchy 1st gear shift. He doesn't want to spend any money on it to find out what's wrong and offered $100 off his asking price if I'd buy it tomorrow. All new clutch stuff is in and good/bled to death so none of that is the problem. I suspect that the 1st gear synchro (at least) is dead or on it's way to dead, and he already knows that but just not admitting it to me. I've been doing some google-fu on that trans/model year and it seems it's not an uncommon issue. The next model year GM changed the trans to a different model (which is a big flag to me, lol). Some owners said a fluid change to a good ATF like Royal Purple can "help" the hard shift problems, but I don't want/need another project on my hands right now. Guy is coming to Richmond on Friday for something, and said he'd bring back my deposit so I didn't have to waste another trip up there. At least that's good. The search continues.

Well, I'm partway out of the hole on this. KJ is home, sitting in my garage for now until I decide if I'm going to fix it or let a friend of a friend of mine do it for $900 (plus any parts needed, probably another $2-300, plus any machine work needed if the head can be salvaged). But, I'm picking up a spare vehicle....2006 Chevy (yuk!) Cobalt. Went to look at it yesterday with cash and plates in hand hoping to drive it home (it's about 1.5 hours north of me) and it needs a couple things fixed on it that I was planning to haggle with on the selling price. The seller said he would have them fixed and ready to go tomorrow, and by the time I got back home to Richmond he'd already texted me showing that he took the car to the dealership and had 2 of the 3 things wrong with it (airbag light and no inspection) fixed. Today he's taking it to the shop that just put in an entire new clutch system (clutch, flywheel, T/O, slave, clutch line and clutch/brake master) look at/bleed the clutch again. It just barely (and I mean barely) grinds going into first from a dead stop. Nothing to make it undriveable, but annoying enough to me to want it fixed. I'll go back up tomorrow and test drive it again after that and if it's good to go I'll give him full asking price and drive it home. I gave him $500 in hand money just to show him that I was interested in it. He's also just put brand new tires on it all the way around, new brakes, and had the inside detailed. Clearcoat is peeling in a couple spots, but that doesn't concern me in the least bit. It won't break any land speed records, that's for sure, but it is mechanically sound, 155K miles. Oh, and it has CRANK windows too Hopefully tomorrow afternoon I'll be (illegally) driving it back home to go to DMV and get all the paperwork done. Yay. Then I can figure out what to do with the KJ. I might just go down to the junkyard on Saturday and pull a new head to have on hand in case when mine finally comes off it's not repairable.

We're there from Sunday till Thursday (I think). Staying at Port Orleans Riverside (I think). i say I think because my wife plans all of this.....I just get to pay for it all, lol edit:. check that, we're staying at the Caribbean Beach resort, just south of Epcot.

Hey...my wife and I are at Disney that week too. Staying on property. Come pick me up

No truer words have ever been spoken, about the boredom of SC. The roadways themselves are nice, but holy crap is there nothing to see. It's like driving into eastern OH from PA. Flat, straight, and nothing. I actually fell asleep driving on the OH turnpike for almost 2 minutes once. Woke up, and I was still driving straight down my lane @ 65-70 mph. Scary, but true story. Lol.

No worries, we can catch up eventually And I've replaced that socket 3x now...it's the most popular size on just about everything. Along with 10mm, lol.

Starr Hill brewery in C'ville next weekend (assuming I have something drive able that will get me there, lol)? I need a getaway day. I'll bring my wife, she can be the DD (for me, at least).

Side note, we really need to get together for some food and beers. It's been too long.

I know where you're going with this....and I'm so humbled I could cry dude. I think I can make this work out, though. I've got a line on an 04 KJ about 45 minutes south of me and I'm just waiting for the seller to call me about it. Best case I can just run it as is, worst case I can swap the head off of it into mine. Its my mess I made, and my mess to fix, one way or another. (full disclaimer, I took off work today to deal with this mess and I'm about 37 beers in right now, lol).

Yeah Greg, that's the golden nugget I'm looking for. I'd LOVE a later model XJ.....but that damn cash for clunkers B/S killed the market

Frank, I'll give you $650 for it, cash money

Thanks. We had a KIA back in the day and it was a tank. I got t-boned in it on the way home from work one day and totaled it....but I was still able to drive it home from the accident scene. ive been checking craigslist, but only searching for specific brands. I'll check out the Hyundais.

Friend of a buddy of mine said he might be willing to do the job for @ $900, less parts needed (head gasket, head bolts, etc) and consumables (oil/filter, coolant, etc. all of which I already have sitting in my garage). If he says yes, I'm going to haul it down to him this weekend. Maybe some good is happening in my life for a change, lol.

Problem is, the plug thread base is still seized inside the head (along with a snap-on extractor now, lol). I've got to get them out first, then helicoil the hole if needed. Thanks though

Shipping to 23831? I could really use this engine right about now, lol.

Yes, this is total suckage. But, hopefully I'm getting all of my bad luck out of the way for the next couple years dealing with it. Lol. I used to have an MJ, but sold it a few years ago (which I regret). Pete still lets me hang out here, though My wife has a (brand new, like only 3k miles on it) Forrester, but we work in opposite directions with different schedules. I used her car for a few days last week, but it was quite inconvenient. Not impossible, but very impractical.

So....the saga continues. Second shop got their extractor stuck (not broken though) in the head. Their quoting $2100 to fix it (pulling the head) less any machine shop work needed to fix the head, if it's fixable. My plan now is to get it towed back to my garage and I'll pull the damn head off. I might just run to the junkyard and pull a spare head just to have on hand in case mine can't be fixed. It's going to take a couple weeks to get all this done, so I'm looking to pick up a beater car to get around in while I'm doing the work. Anyone selling anything for cheap? I'm not looking to spend much more than $1000 on something.....

Thanks. I just talked to a second shop (that the first shop recommended to me). They want to try getting the threads out before committing to pulling the head, they think they can get them out. If they can't, I asked them if I could strip the engine down to just the head and timing chains, bring the vehicle to them and have them pull the head/chain(s), r&r everything and reinstall the head and chains. Then I could pick it back up, pay them handsomely for their work, bring it back to my garage and put it all back together. They are cool with that, so I think that's going to be the plan for next week. I'll get it towed up there from the first shop over the weekend (they're closed on weekends and Monday for the holiday). Hopefully if the head does have to come off there's nothing wrong with it, aside from the stuck threads. Just my luck it'll be cracked between the valves.....

Das.....I need to pick your brain (we can take this to PM if you want). I'm a little hesitant to try and pull the head myself, only because of the three timing chains. Is there any possible way to just pull the cam gear/chain off the one head somehow (without having to pull the others)? Like, if you were to remove the tensioner and chain guides on that side, would that create enough slack in the chain to pull the gear off the cam? If I could do that and just leave everything in the same position, I wouldn't have a problem unbolting the million things needed to come off to pull the head out. Jeff

Not well at all, especially with the compression stroke blowing out of the little hole inside the plug threads. Sounds like a damn steam locomotive. It does run though...enough to drive it up onto/off of a car dolly.

Sad. Saw this on garage journal this morning. She was trying to hit 500 mph. Brass balls don't come close to describing her.

No judgement from me on the Neon....we had one as the first new car we bought as newlyweds. It blew the head gasket @30k miles.....total pile of crap it was. My FIL (who arranged the purchase for us because we were DIRT poor at the time) blew up on the dealership about it, I've never to this day seen him so angry about anything. They fixed everything, steam cleaned the entire engine bay, and gave us a full tank of gas when we picked it back up. Traded it a week later on a POS Chevy Baretta I called the dealership, they quoted $1300 just to pull and reinstall the head (doesn't include any machine shop fees for getting the remnants out). They said book time for a head gasket replacement was 6 hours, which is essentially what needs done sans the machine work. That's with all the proper tools, alldata and a tech that (hopefully) is familiar with the work. I'm not doubting the book time estimate one bit, either. Ive got some thinking to do on this one.

I've watched those videos, but I don't think that tool will work on my problem (at least from how I've seen it used online). Thanks for the advice though. The broken plug problem on that Triton is/was so bad that tool was invented specifically for it, lol. We had a F350 here at work that actually blew 3 plugs right out of the head back in the day (because the head design only allowed 2 threads worth of engagement....brilliant idea). Shop just called me, they're throwing in the towel on it. I think they're (justifiably) worried about either breaking off their extractor inside the plug guts, or dropping debris down inside the cylinder. I don't blame them. Looks like I'll be pulling the damn head this weekend. Yay.

I'm pretty sure I know why this one plug is seized, now thinking about it. I spilled a ton of coolant all over the back of the engine last fall when I was flushing the heater core, like I always do. I do use an air nozzle on my compressor to blow it all out when I'm done, paying special attention to the plug wells on that side of the engine (because they point straight down into the head. My guess is I didn't get all of the coolant out of #6 back then and it's since cooked itself into some kind of impenetrable goop now. Plus the head is aluminum and the plugs are steel...galvanic corrosion and all that jazz.