New head

Driftless Tad · **Joined:** Wed Jun 05, 2013 12:54 pm **Posts:** 22

Long hard sad story.

I posted a while back about the over heating and pressure build up I had. All were very helpful and the worst case scenario was a blown head gasket. Well, those that thought that we too optimistic!

Cracked head. :cry:

$4K later she is back in may hands.

Now I have a noise when in 4WD (posted on the general KJ forum). :banghead:

Not looking for opinion here, just crying in my beer a bit!

flash7210 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 09, 2016 3:28 pm

I went through my cracked head experience a year ago.
Several others here have had cracked heads too.

Did they happen to tell you exactly where the cracks were?
Mine were around the exhaust ports of cylinders 2, 3, and 4.

TURBO-DIESEL-FREAK · **Joined:** Sat Apr 17, 2010 3:29 pm **Posts:** 1167

flash7210 wrote:

I went through my cracked head experience a year ago.
Several others here have had cracked heads too.

Did they happen to tell you exactly where the cracks were?
Mine were around the exhaust ports of cylinders 2, 3, and 4.

flash7210:

Please refresh my memory regarding your cracked cylinder head and the causes of it.

I see you have a 195 degree thermostat... exactly what kind of thermostat was it at the time your cylinder head failed?

flman · **Posted:** Sat Apr 09, 2016 4:05 pm

TURBO-DIESEL-FREAK wrote:

flash7210 wrote:

I went through my cracked head experience a year ago.
Several others here have had cracked heads too.

Did they happen to tell you exactly where the cracks were?
Mine were around the exhaust ports of cylinders 2, 3, and 4.

flash7210:

Please refresh my memory regarding your cracked cylinder head and the causes of it.

I see you have a 195 degree thermostat... exactly what kind of thermostat was it at the time your cylinder head failed?

Inline, just like I had when my cylinder head cracked.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=82256&hilit=thermostat

Driftless Tad · **Joined:** Wed Jun 05, 2013 12:54 pm **Posts:** 22

flash7210 wrote:

I went through my cracked head experience a year ago.
Several others here have had cracked heads too.

Did they happen to tell you exactly where the cracks were?
Mine were around the exhaust ports of cylinders 2, 3, and 4.

IIRC exhaust port on #3

I guess I am glad I am not alone.

flash7210 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 09, 2016 5:03 pm

Don't know the exact cause.
Could be heat, stress, poor casting, or all the above.

Many folks have reported cracked heads. Almost none of them gave details about how the cracks occurred or any other information.

olypopper · **Posted:** Sat Apr 09, 2016 5:19 pm

The cracks around the exhaust ports seem to be a common problem...........truth be known, I'm waiting for mine to start acting up. It's just my luck! :mrgreen:

flman · **Posted:** Sat Apr 09, 2016 7:21 pm

flash7210 wrote:

Don't know the exact cause.
Could be heat, stress, poor casting, or all the above.

Many folks have reported cracked heads. Almost none of them gave details about how the cracks occurred or any other information.

We both had the inline tstat in our CRDs.

flash7210 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 09, 2016 8:31 pm

flman wrote:

flash7210 wrote:

Don't know the exact cause.
Could be heat, stress, poor casting, or all the above.

Many folks have reported cracked heads. Almost none of them gave details about how the cracks occurred or any other information.

We both had the inline tstat in our CRDs.

So, you + me = two cracked heads using a type of inline thermostat.
Any others?

flash7210 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 09, 2016 8:34 pm

Driftless Tad wrote:

flash7210 wrote:

I went through my cracked head experience a year ago.
Several others here have had cracked heads too.

Did they happen to tell you exactly where the cracks were?
Mine were around the exhaust ports of cylinders 2, 3, and 4.

IIRC exhaust port on #3

I guess I am glad I am not alone.

Did you have some sort of in line thermostat installed in your upper radiator hose?

flman · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2016 8:48 am

flash7210 wrote:

So, you + me = two cracked heads using a type of inline thermostat.
Any others?

My recollection show there have been others, but it would be a tough search to fist them all out at this point.

Mountainman · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2016 12:01 pm

flman wrote:

flash7210 wrote:

So, you + me = two cracked heads using a type of inline thermostat.
Any others?

My recollection show there have been others, but it would be a tough search to fist them all out at this point.

I torture tested my engine on huge grades with an e-fan and inline, and I got a HG leak, which I'd guess would have eventually been a cracked head. I don't think the inlines are a safe bet, maybe for light service on the flat-land.

thermorex · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2016 12:06 pm

I didn't really drive the crd a lot lately, but hds thermostat is definitely warming up the engine faster and holds on temp better. Never tried an in-line because I don't like bandaids.

Mountainman · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2016 1:09 pm

thermorex wrote:

I didn't really drive the crd a lot lately, but hds thermostat is definitely warming up the engine faster and holds on temp better. Never tried an in-line because I don't like bandaids.

I agree. My CRD had the inline when I bought it, so I ran it, as I'm a nut about an efficient engine, but it didn't work out all that great. If you look at the ARP research thread, I recently posted the torque numbers from this engine, and maybe it wouldn't have leaked if I hadn't abused it so much. Didn't really matter much, since I ended up with an almost new head, and figured I'd just install it for insurance, and pulling the head makes the transmission removal so much easier.

lars0247 · **Joined:** Sat Oct 12, 2013 12:09 am **Posts:** 98

Mine cracked the head in the #3 and #4 intake ports. Yes I had the inline thermostat. I don't run that anymore, and never will again. $100 for a factory Thermostat on eBay is a good value in my estimation.

flash7210 · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2016 3:11 pm

lars0247 wrote:

Mine cracked the head in the #3 and #4 intake ports. Yes I had the inline thermostat. I don't run that anymore, and never will again. $100 for a factory Thermostat on eBay is a good value in my estimation.

That's now three.

Mountainman · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2016 4:04 pm

flash7210 wrote:

lars0247 wrote:

Mine cracked the head in the #3 and #4 intake ports. Yes I had the inline thermostat. I don't run that anymore, and never will again. $100 for a factory Thermostat on eBay is a good value in my estimation.

That's now three.

hmm, now I wonder how many of those 3 had the EGR coolant passage blocked? You would think that mine would have cracked, but it didn't (maybe just needed more time), and I had all EGR crap gone. Maybe the head cools better without coolant heading out to the EGR?

Such a complex picture...

Edit: come to think of it, I haven't dropped that head at the machine shop yet. It could have a tiny crack. I'll let you know if it does. I couldn't really read much from the HG, but a couple of the pistons were "steam cleaned"...

funnyman06 · **Joined:** Sun Jul 06, 2014 7:46 pm **Posts:** 180

My head cracked as well, but i believe that it was due to coolant entering the combustion chamber through a failed EGR cooler. Cracked both the liners and the head. We never bothered determining where the cracks in the head were. Jeep was running an OEM Thermostat at the time, not an inline.

rankom · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2016 8:33 pm

after reading this tread , my opinion is , keep your engine fan, don't remove it , drive your jeep on steady rpm as possible don't race with it , and don't push it hard , avoid cruise control uphill , let it run to cool down , use common sense , just to avoid cracking heads ,

Driftless Tad · **Joined:** Wed Jun 05, 2013 12:54 pm **Posts:** 22

Well, add me to the inline t-stat crowd!

I just put one back in and I think it might be coming right back out.

New head

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