Hey all - long time stalker, first time caller here.

Yesterday, the wife called me to say that the Liberty would not start (she was at K-mart at the time). I loaded up the kids into the Mustang and drove out. I did manage to get it started, but it ran like CRAP, and I very briefly heard a bit of tapping. We limped it home, and I yanked the plugs. The first 5 that came out looked worn (just needed replacement), but the last came out looking like somebody put it in a vice and beat it with a hammer. It also had oil all over it. My brother-in-law came over with a USB camera and ran it down into the cylinder to see what happened - and to assess the condition of my piston. We couldn't get a picture, so we reeled it in, and it was covered in brass shavings and motor oil. We came to the conclusion that the valve seat on the exhaust valve had worked loose, broke in half, and fell down into the combusion chamber. The piston then proceeded to grind it up into fine shavings, and (in the process) bashing my spark plug into a pulp. Since there is oil all over that spark plug, one can only assume that the piston has a hole in it.

I did some research, and it looks like a common problem with 2002 Liberties between the 80,000 and 110,000 mark. Mine has 135,000. A lot of people have gone ahead and had these repaired only to have another valve seat come loose and have this happen again within 20,000 miles or so.

From what I can see, we have the following options:
* Get all new valve seats put in + have whatever damage happened dealt with. We still have the risk that pieces of valve seat could be elsewhere in the engine, and could cause issues in the future.
* Get a used engine from a junk yard put in. The lowest mileage ones that I can find (2002 is an odd year from what I hear - not interchangeable) are around 65,000. This means that in ~15,000 miles, I could see this happen again (~$3,500 installed).
* Get this engine completely rebuilt. Since it also has a bit of an oil leak, it may not be a bad idea. Although, I have no idea how much this would run. I can imagine this would be pretty labor-intensive - not to mention the cost of parts.
* Get a NEW engine put in (~$5,500 installed).
* Trade it in while it still runs, and get myself under another car payment - which truthfully, I cannot afford right now. We also put new tires on this thing last year to the tune of ~$1,000.

What would you do?

Hemi?

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2010 KK Deep Water Blue,OME Liftplus 1",JBA 5.5 UCA ,Dynaflow cat back exhaust, Weathertech VV & mats,Mopar skids,Atthehelm front bumper, Smittybilt XRC 10, Rigid LED's,RL Skink Supersliders,Gecko Safari Basket Detroit Truetrac rear, E-Locker front, G2, Dana 4.10's

Well, it's looking like ~$3,000 or so for a rebuild.

Common problem? Yes some of had issues with that but for everyone that does 10 more at over 150,000-200,000
You can swap motors with a later one. 2BobsKJ swapped in a later model using a kit . There is a write up which I can't locate right now but its on here. He'll pop in sooner or later I'm sure.
I'd throw a low mileage later engine in and keep on going

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MUDD'S MOTORSPORT'S We do IFS lift installs ,
03 OVERLAND EDITION /Kilby-Skidrow-Mopar-4XGuard skids/ 2.5 inch TOTAL CONTROL JBA coilovers -JBA Arms/MOABS-31 FALKEN WILDPEAK AT3W / 4.10's etc, 04 Kilimanjaro Edition loaded, plus 05 KJ limited

I made some calls and firmed up some estimates.

A complete valve job including the replacement of a broken piston = ~$1,500 ($1,200 in labor + $300 in parts).
A complete rebuild = ~$3,000 ($2,300 in labor + $700 in parts).
A used engine = ~$2,800 ($1,200 in labor + $1,600 in parts).
A new engine = ~$4,400 ($1,200 in labor + $3,200 in parts).

The rebuild & new engine options both come with a 1 year parts & labor warranty.

Bob's How-To put a 2007 motor into a 2003:

http://www.jeepkj.com/forum/how/53270-e ... rview.html

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2005 Liberty Renegade, Bright Silver Metallic