Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Jeep with 4cyl engine

I am looking at a older (89) jeep that is in really great condition. It has 98,000 miles..but it has the 4 cyl engine. I am familiar with the six but not the 4. Other than having less power is there anything to be worried about with the 4?

Thanks,

Lefty

I had an 86' CJ-7(the last year made by AMC) with a four cylinder and while traveling from GA back to Ft. Bragg, NC it caught on fire!!

After some investigation I came to realize that nearly all the four cylinder models with plastic valve covers seem to catch on fire...A large Jeep only parts yard in Talladega, AL told me that every one they get is burned!

The plastic valve cover cracks after so many years of heating and cooling and once the oil hits the exhaust manifold it's all over with!

I called Edelbrock in California to see if they had a replacement and they stated they had received many calls but there weren't enough of them out there to justify the cost of tooling up to make everybody that owned them a one time replacement...not as common as a 350 Chevrolet with millions of customers.

If it doesn't have the plastic covers and you don't plan on towing with it I would say go for it, with the understanding that Jeeps and 4-wheel drives in general are a little more maintenance intensive, especially if you go 4 wheeling and don't just use it on the occasional bad weather hunting trip etc.

Mike

ain't had any valve covers burn up on any of my four 4-cylinder jeeps: an iron duke cj-7, two square-eyed wranglers and one round-eyed wrangler. 5th gear, however, went out on the '99 round-eye at 135,000 miles or so, and fifth just went out on my son's '95 square-eye at 91,000 or so. it's the ONLY thing i don't like about jeep wranglers. something about a stinkin' c-clip, said to be made in france ...

That stinks!


It only applies to the ones with plastic valve covers, which were 86' and older AMC jeeps not the later GM or Chrysler versions.


Mike

i had a '93 Cherokee 2 door with the 2.5 liter 4 cyl. Very reliable, but anemic on the uphill grades. 24 mpg on the road. At 72k miles I made the mistake of selling it.

We (was family Jeep) had almost the same exact Jeep - 4 banger - 89 and had the hard, soft and bikini tops with full hard, soft and 1/2 hard doors for it. Biggest negative was HORRENDOUS gas mileage. Other than that the thing was a go-kart - loved it.

The A-5 tranny is a POS,A local yard makes up kits to put the AW-15 in.My son did the change over in his '89 Cherokee.

Depending on your point of view a 4 banger is either 2/3 or 1/2 of a Jeep motor. I am driving my 5th CJ all powered by AMC 304v8's. The V-8 in my latest CJ is tired & in need of a rebuild, it coughs up clouds of blue whenever I romp on the skinny pedal.

But it has enough gumption to pull my friends 6cyl Jeep TJ around on my 3" strap.

Pete's radial tires just couldn't find enough traction.

--Ken <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />