123,000km dead WG Limited

[thesolver]

Hi guys,

You may recall some while back I bought a Jeep GC LTD that was in really fine condition, like as new, for not much money. Well its still in fine condition exterior and interior wise, just like the photos I posted before.

BUT

I think the engine is dead. Only one bank of cylinders are working (passenger side).

It was driving very nicely, very smoothly, no rattles, no weird noises from the engine, but a few days ago, reversing up a slight incline into my driveway it started to stumble and shake and almost stalled. I turned it off, restarted it and it was fine.

Next day drove it to work, drove it home, at the very same spot on the driveway it did it again, but this time it stalled and it took me a bit of pedal to get it started. It still shook quite violently and wanted to stall.

Anyway, parked it up and got NRMA road service to have a look (I don't have a code reader, so that was my aim).

No codes (apart from O2 given the raw fuel being pushed past it on the non firing cylinders).

The NRMA guy reckons it was mechanical - like a timing chain slipped or something - because all 4 cylinders in the bank were not firing.

Anyone seen this before? at 123,000 most likely pampered kms (it was a one owner Chatswood Cruiser with full service history) this seems pretty crap.

So I have a dilemma, do I get it fixed? is it going to be a big job and therefore expensive? who knows what else will go wrong down the track if I do get it fixed. Or do I cut my losses and send it to a wrecker. (And get a Toyota).

Its a pity, I don't really feel like throwing money at it now.

[alexbrown64]

Thats interesting and believe your donk is OK, but something is either starving the motor of fuel (as it only happened when you were on an incline in your driveway), or there is an electrical problem on one side.
Your V8 will always feel like it has crapped itself if its only firing on half the cylinders... and its no coincidence that it keeps running fine, but then shits itself on your inclined driveway.
Get it on a flat level surface, make sure its go plenty of fuel, and start diagnostic testing of fuel and electrical systems..
I am positive you just have a gremlin that can rectified and that your engine will be fine.

Cheers,

[Straubz]

check for spark on the side that isn't working, otherwise you could get it compression tested, if the timing has slipped you will most likely lose compression.

[Grippy]

As Straubz has mentioned check for spark, it could be something simple, especially if its only on one bank. A slipped timing chain will usually stuff the running and not let it start and run normally again like you said.
It could be something as simple as a dodgy fuel pump not pushing enough pressure into the one bank, or a small blockage in the fuel rail, I think from looking at mine it feeds from one side, then a crossover and onto the other side, if the pressure drops severely it will suck it all out on one side and leave the other dry.

[thesolver]

hmm, ok, that sounds encouraging. I just couldn't see how soemthing mechanical could "recover" and then crap itself the very next day at the very same place.

come to think of it, a few months ago it stumbled and almost stalled while leaving a carpark (after sitting for about 6 hours) and then recovered straight away, it did this twice on consecutive days and then never happened again.

Maybe I need a Jeep specialist to look at it. I thought at first that it may have been something to do with fuel - like crap being sucked up and blocking the injectors or something.

[thesolver]

actually, I think its mechanical. I just started it up and now there is loud rattle and clanking noises coming from the dead side. I think its cactus..

[Grippy]

Could it be a flicked lifter bucket thing that these things run. I read up about it a while ago, fairly easy to fix.