Uneasy Rider

Did you plasti-gage the bearings? What was the clearance?

Its impossible to tell rod or main bearing clearance with just a visual.

Suge94

Wasnt checking clearance. I was grabbin' and shakin' to see if bearings disinigrated.
I had metal in pan but I had to drill the drain plug out (punched and overtorqued bad from previous owner)

Suribachi

07 with 45,000 miles. I bought it used with 32,000 miles on it from Romano Jeep in Syracuse NY. It was one month out of the warrant period. My check engine light came on last week, limited power and the engine was making a fluttering noise. My local mechanic said the 2 and 5 cylinder's rings, pistons and bearings are damaged/broken. He scoped the block and said it looks like crap inside. He also said that it may have already a had a ring job by somebody who didn't know what they were doing or this was a replacement engine with high mileage already on it. He recommended getting a jasper refurb engine and is working up a cost for me. I wish I could find out if this was not the original engine and if I could go after Romano jeep for misrepresenting the Jeep/mileage? I noticed after the last oil change that I was down 2 quarts after driving 3000 miles. wondered where it could have gone since I wasn't burning any oil. I was also surprised to find out that Chrysler was using GM's 3.8 ltr engine.

JKlad

Ah, same capacity and similar in basic design to the GM motor but the Chrysler 3.8L V6 is a completely different unit. If your JK has a GM 3.8L V6 in it then yeah you're right; it's not the original motor.

Suribachi

Hmmmm, I'll have to really quiz my mechanic on that - if so, I believe I could go after the dealer who sold it to me for misrepresenting the actual mileage on the vehicle and not being up front on the non-original mopar motor. Or more likely it could just be my mechanic was making comparison remark.

JKlad

Yeah, that's what the mechanic may have meant. The two motors are old-school, low-tech/low output motors of similar design (3.8L, 60 degree V6 with iron block & alloy heads, pushrod OHV, multipoint EFI) and kinda look similar from the outside however they're different blocks & run different internal specs & clearances.

It's unlikely that someone put a GM motor into your JK due to different engine mounts, bolt patterns, etc not to mention the CANBUS PCM not being compatible with the GM motor; it's why just the conversion kit alone (not the labor or the motor itself) for a Hemi swap is like 6 grand as all these things are different.

It is very likely though that the motor was partially rebuilt previously due to oil burning or a spun bearing. The problem is that unless they completely disassembled the motor & then re-built it from scratch will new rings, bearings, valvetrain, etc and had the cylinders re-honed then the repairs were just a band-aid solution and maybe bought another year or so of time before the inevitable failure. There's a thread here somewhere on Jasper re-manufactured motors, with the consensus being that they are very good units and actually even better than the brand new OEM motors due to the higher quality, heavier-duty components they use in the re-build.

ronjenx

The engine number is located on the back of the block, driver's side, (left), just under the head/block parting line. There are two sets on numbers.
The first string is the engine number. The first two digits are last digit of model year and assembly plant code (S= Saltillo; T = Trenton).
The second string is the last eight digits of the VIN the engine was originally installed in.

If your mechanic is the one who told you the JK 3.8 is a GM engine, that may call into question his other opinions on your engine.

Suribachi

Thanks JKLad for the GM/Chrysler engine comparison and info. Also appreciate the heads up about the Jaspar refurb engines being a good product - looks like I will go with that option. Now I'm just waiting to find out from my mechanic what the total $$ damages will be.

Suge94

I'm curious to see what the labor cost would be if you don't mind please post.

Suribachi

I will post total estimated cost (labor and parts) once I get it. Going with long block 3.8 ltr refurb from Jasper