found noise maker!!!

[kirkandsylvia]

Well, after 4 months of just looking at my XJ in the garage, I finally dove into breaking down the engine to a bare block. Looking for the clattering noise, I lifted the head and finally pulled out the pistons and rods. After removing the first 5 and not finding anything broken, I gave up....till this morning when I pulled #6 out and much to my suprise, I found one whole side of the piston skirt broke off up to the oil ring :poop:. Yes...I didnt even look in the bottom of the oil pan first when I dropped it to get to the rod bearing caps :bonk:. And of course, as I look now, there is the evidence, many broken pieces of the #6 piston :oops:.
So, now I am on a quest for some stock pistons, rods and rings and bearings. I dont have time or the funds to rebuild it completely so I am going to just do a major top end and rod bearings. Does anyone here possibly have a set of stocker 4.0 pistons and rods?

[6spdYJ]

Congratulations! Surprised it wasn't blowing smoke past the rings.

[kirkandsylvia]

As bad as the piston was, it ran like a champ...other than the noise. No smoke, no horse power loss. It would have been easier to diagnose if it did. And to think, when it got really noisy (probably when the piston finally broke), my wife was down in Redondo Bch with it, then over to Anaheim, and then I traded with her and drove it back up to Barstow and to work the next day before I decided to park it...probably a total of 350 miles on that broken piston. I guess just a testament to how durable a jeep really is.

I take back all those bad things I use to say about jeeps before I owned one :hide:

[6spdYJ]

Be sure to check the condition of the bore. Piston slap does bad things to blocks.

[kirkandsylvia]

Already looked at that. It appears to be good, considering how bad the piston was. Thank you for the advice.