Looks like the engine blew on my wife's '03 Liberty and we're looking at options and one might include swapping a decent used complete 3.7. The patient is an '03 KJ Limited loaded w/ 129K miles. Looks like the valve turned loose on Cylinder #6 and was banging around on the piston. Been tracking a P0306 code for several months and looks like I finally figured out what it was.

I found one locally w/105K miles on the clock and the salvage wants $2K. OUCH!!! If the engine had 50K miles I would consider it, but dropping $2K plus another $1K+ to get it installed seems like too much coin to possibly be back in the same boat 20K miles down the road. Everything else is darn near perfect on the '03 and has been immaculately taken care of since new.

Any suggestions or does anyone know of a good search engine to find a 3.7? Are there other vehicles that I could look for other than just Liberties? I'm a bit of newbie on the 3.7 and most of my experience is w/the 4.0 or Ford 302s.

Thanks.

Same exact thing happened on my '02 sport. The best option I can offer is to find a LKQ (like kind and quality) engine. Google LKQ, that should get you started.

Make sure you get some kind of warranty on the engine or you could be right back where you started at, as you said. In my case I was fortunate enough to still have the aftermarket warranty coverage in place that I bought when I got my jeep so when the engine blew it was replaced by a totally rebuilt one including new heads and valve springs, so I got a 80K mile warranty with it. At the very least I would pull the heads off any used engine and have all the valve springs replaced just to have the piece of mind that I wouldn't be replacing the engine due to the same problem in ?? number of miles.

Personally, I think there should be a recall since I hear of this problem more often than I believe should be normal for a mass produced item.

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'02 Sport 4x4, 3.7L, 245/70R16 Bigfoot A/T tires, Tow Hooks, Rear Hitch

Found a shop here in Tulsa who recommended a Jasper Reman engine... 3 Yr 100K mile warranty. I haven't been given the price f/the shop yet, but looking at Jasper's webpage and running the VIN they quoted a price of $3400 for a Remanufactured engine. Will have to get the final price quote f/the shop before we decide how to proceed. I'm still hopeful the shop will be able to fix the current engine for an affordable price and get us down the road for a while more. May get it fixed and list for sale and pick up a nice late model (98-01) Cherokee... but we'll see. I love the road manners of the KJ, just not thrilled about this problem and reading about many other 3.7, 4.7 and 5.7 Hemi's having valve problems.

For a few more bucks, you can buy my CRD this summer and it will solve all of your spark-infestation problems.

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2006 CRD http://www.UtahPowderCoatings.com/ http://www.gorecon.com/ I'm kind of a big deal.
RL rear bumper, ARB front bumper, Mile Marker winch, Power Tank, Skids by Mopar & Skid Row, RL Super Skink Sliders, 235/85R16 MTR, Air Flow Snorkel, DTT, 4.10 gears, Frankenlift II, Katskin leather, JL Audio stereo, Rosen video.

Thanks but w/the price of Diesel I'd have to pass...ha Besides, if the price to fix or replace the 3.7 gets too much we'll just sell it and pick up a used XJ.

Your in a bit of a pickle, the 02 and 03 engines are limited to just those two years, the only way to make the 04+ work is to swap the complete wiring harness and ECU over.

Use car-part.com to search for engines, prices listed there range from $1100-2200. Looks like a place called "karsense" has one for $1500 with 54k on it and is located in arkansas. Most places will ship or you could take a ~213 mile drive down to them from tulsa.

Just search for engine on car-part and that will get you started in the right direction.

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http://www.Colorado4Wheel.com
"Its not about what you can DO with your Jeep, its about where you can GO with your Jeep."
Knowledgeable - But Caustic