head gasket swap after P0301 code

[RenegadeT]

Passenger side....[check engine light, code= misfire cylinder 1]

Driver side

I think i will bring the heads somewhere to get checked and cleaned.

I'm no expert, but the carbon build up seems excessive to me. Can I just clean the cylinders with some BPC (brake parts cleaner) and.WD40?

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[RenegadeT]

I suppose I should update this thread. Been pretty slack, but still making progress.

I brought both heads to my local trusted machine shop. He talked me into a complete valve job, etc. Little more than I wanted to spend, but good piece of mind. Picked them up first week of November.

I probably overthought the parts ordering stage. Had everything delivered from allmoparparts mid November. Thanksgiving crept.up and brought bitter cold weather in early December. I'm working outside, so when it's cold...I am not working.

Christmas miracle brought 70degree weather so I dropped the heads on mopar headgaskets, reused.the old.bolts, torque in circular.sequence 22ftlbs, 33ftlbs, again 33ftlbs, 40degrees then 90degrees.
Ground connections on the back of the heads done...Chrysler you're off. My Christmas card list.
Exhaust cats bolted.back to heads....still no Christmas card for you Chrysler.

Cams and timing chains installed. I rolled the engine over a few times and am pretty confident the timing is right.
Got the timing cover cleaned up, ready for new seals before installing.

Current status;

 

[RenegadeT]

Let me post my timing pics.
Drivers side chain....
For removal, I had already removed the outboard cam phaser. To get it back together, I had to also remove the inboard phaser. If I did it again (hopefully never have to) I'd try removing only the inboard phaser. Big 36mm bolt head oil valve things torque to 105ftlbs

Passenger side, much easier. No cam phasers removed during teardown or assembly...

Edit...I forgot the beginning pics showing the idler gear dimple strait up, 12:00, the 2 arrows below for orange link on timing chains, and the crank at 9:00 TDC...

 

[azjl#3]

nice work bud.

I am still planning, engine dies, a v8 goes in.

 

[Odyssey USA]

Let me post my timing pics.
Drivers side chain....
For removal, I had already removed the outboard cam phaser. To get it back together, I had to also remove the inboard phaser. If I did it again (hopefully never have to) I'd try removing only the inboard phaser. Big 36mm bolt head oil valve things torque to 105ftlbs

Passenger side, much easier. No cam phasers removed during teardown or assembly...

I wish they just had a torque spec for the crank bolt. I’m not looking forward to doing that by myself. Which way you gonna go with that? I don’t wanna spend around $400 on up for a digital torque angle torque wrench and the cheap dial angle gauge I have, not sure how I’d secure that.

 

[Flip]

nice work bud.

I am still planning, engine dies, a v8 goes in.

Good idea. Any idea what a V8 might cost?

 

[RenegadeT]

I wish they just had a torque spec for the crank bolt. I’m not looking forward to doing that by myself. Which way you gonna go with that? I don’t wanna spend around $400 on up for a digital torque angle torque wrench and the cheap dial angle gauge I have, not sure how I’d secure that.

*cylinder head bolt.
I hear ya on the torque angle and tool. I bought a cheap chinesium angle.gauge from Amazon. It has both a magnetic end and a clip . It worked alright, but i was sure to eyeball my starting point referenced on engine in case the gauge unclipped or rotated. I thought I would use the magnetic end, but couldn't find enough steel points, so I used the clip end. One bolt, I ended up starting at negative 10 and went to 80 to get the 90 total to keep the same attachment point.
It sure seems goofy. I'm hoping there's a generous plus/minus tolerance on the angle.

 

[RenegadeT]

Hemi swap....yup, that keeps popping in my mind as I'm wrenching on this mess. I did a lil online window shopping, found America's most wanted 4x4 wants over $30k for a turnkey 5.7L swap. Seems fair, but not for me right now.

I also have a coworker that did a junkyard 5.7 swap in to his JK. Around $20k, some of that includes the 8spd auto tranny, same as in our JLs. He also has an electrical.background, unlike me, so was comfortable tackling that part if the swap...again unlike me lol

 

[Odyssey USA]

Hemi swap....yup, that keeps popping in my mind as I'm wrenching on this mess. I did a lil online window shopping, found America's most wanted 4x4 wants over $30k for a turnkey 5.7L swap. Seems fair, but not for me right now.

I also have a coworker that did a junkyard 5.7 swap in to his JK. Around $20k, some of that includes the 8spd auto tranny, same as in our JLs. He also has an electrical.background, unlike me, so was comfortable tackling that part if the swap...again unlike me lol

I called them too. Don’t care for the oiled air filter for an Offroad vehicle. Still tempting though.

I’d love to do my own swap but it’s the same for me, not a big electrical guru. I change house outlets, a battery, wire up a 90’s “system” for some shitty bass lol but that’s about it. I’m decent on the ocd of weatherproofing crimp/solder connectors. That’s as fancy as I get. A big wiring schematic…my brain goes duhhhh.

 

[roaniecowpony]

Good idea. Any idea what a V8 might cost?

I've been looking at how a 5.7 swap might go. I think I'd buy a 4x4 Ram take-out, with the engine, trans and transfer case, harness, PCM, and all accessories.

 

[RenegadeT]

I got all the belt drive components except the alternator back on.

AC compressor was fun. Nothing is ever as easy as it seems it should be. There's only 3 fasteners holding this on to the side of the block. May e this is docume ted somewhere, but here's what I figured out.
The bottom rear bolt is first. Insert the bolt into the comp before its in place. Otherwise the motor mount will block to slide the bolt in. A flat 13mm gearwrench works well here. Then the other long bolt can go on top to hold things in place. The third attachment, bottom front, is an E8 stud and then a 13mm hex nut, deepwell socket.

There is a hard coolant line coming from the nether regions of the bell housing, bolted to the bottom drivers side oil pan, routed up near AC compressor, maybe to the tsat. To access the exhaust catnconnection, i had unblocked it from the oil pan and tucked the loose end under the steering shaft. After bolting up the AC comp, I realized this hard pipe needed to be above the compressor. It was tight, but i was able to bend shimmy and finagle it back into position, then tighten it up to the oil pan.
Who knows maybe this was the best way. It was tricky getting the AC compressor in place without the hard pipe. If I had to do it again though, I'd try to have the pipe above the AC comp.

Now I need to buckle down for valve covers and intakes, plus all the fun wiring and coolant hoses. Then EGR cooler and battery tray, fan (clean radiator fins first), fresh oil and coolant, etc

 

[Odyssey USA]

I got all the belt drive components except the alternator back on.

AC compressor was fun. Nothing is ever as easy as it seems it should be. There's only 3 fasteners holding this on to the side of the block. May e this is docume ted somewhere, but here's what I figured out.
The bottom rear bolt is first. Insert the bolt into the comp before its in place. Otherwise the motor mount will block to slide the bolt in. A flat 13mm gearwrench works well here. Then the other long bolt can go on top to hold things in place. The third attachment, bottom front, is an E8 stud and then a 13mm hex nut, deepwell socket.

There is a hard coolant line coming from the nether regions of the bell housing, bolted to the bottom drivers side oil pan, routed up near AC compressor, maybe to the tsat. To access the exhaust catnconnection, i had unblocked it from the oil pan and tucked the loose end under the steering shaft. After bolting up the AC comp, I realized this hard pipe needed to be above the compressor. It was tight, but i was able to bend shimmy and finagle it back into position, then tighten it up to the oil pan.
Who knows maybe this was the best way. It was tricky getting the AC compressor in place without the hard pipe. If I had to do it again though, I'd try to have the pipe above the AC comp.

Now I need to buckle down for valve covers and intakes, plus all the fun wiring and coolant hoses. Then EGR cooler and battery tray, fan (clean radiator fins first), fresh oil and coolant, etc

I’m not making a YT video on this job, except maybe an oil pump and cyl hd stud install video as it would be a few hours long and a PITA trying to film it all making the whole job 4X harder. That said I do take pics of routing to supplement the service manual and if it’s too complex and I’m worried I’ll forget something, I take a short video talking myself through it.

Honestly, my memory isn’t as good as it used to be BUT given how many steps and how I can only work on it here and there, even if I was 30 again, I don’t think I could retain it all. Definitely red taped & video’d those ground straps lol. Not hard to install but with electronics these days I don’t want to be looking into the mess of wiring and miss those and where they go. Did the same for the hoses/tubes around the AC compressor.

See, this stuff isn’t fun to me but at least I’m learning. I went to school for engine building/porting/all the machining. Replacing a head gasket on vehicles these days…. ain’t it.

 

[RenegadeT]

Any idea WTH this bracket is? I'm sure I'll figure it out as i get deeper into the reassembly as this puzzle comes together, but right now i cant seem to place it. I wrote RH, so guessing that will be pass. side, but who knows lol

 

[JeepinPete]

Looks like the coolant hose standoff that mounts on top of the valve cover.

 

[Odyssey USA]

Any idea WTH this bracket is? I'm sure I'll figure it out as i get deeper into the reassembly as this puzzle comes together, but right now i cant seem to place it. I wrote RH, so guessing that will be pass. side, but who knows lol

I have an eTorque. I just came from the garage and though I don’t have that bracket, I have one that is constructed similarly that mounts on top of the passenger valve cover that keeps the coolant lines from moving around and another even smaller bracket that holds the power cable that runs to the MGU. Same sheet metal with the reinforcing rigidity ribs pressed into it and small hardware.

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