05ish Jeep Grand Cherokee hard to work on?

hey guys,

One of my close friends from hockey mentioned to me that his wifes Jeep was dead, and he was looking for a new car. I aksed what is wrong with the Jeep, and he said the motor is toast. I asked if it was the 6 cylinder or the 8, and he said the 6. He mentioned that those engines weren't very good from what he read, but I find that sort of odd. I told him that I could replace the engine for him, but he said he was most likely just going to get a newer car for her. He asked if there was a way to sell the Jeep as is with zero hassle, and I mentioned I would buy it thinking I could swap an engine in, and flip it, but I really don't know how bad they are to work on. Am I crazy? Jeep has 110k miles on it allegedly, and from what I remember the last I saw it the car was clean looking. Am I crazy to think this is a good flip? Are these V6 engines available( I thought they still used straight 6's), and is he right that they are not good engines? I really have no idea what is wrong with it, but he mentioned it being run down 2 quarts of oil. Any imput is greatly appreciated. I figure with some sweat equity I could flip it if the price were right, and sell it pretty easy especially around here with winter on its way.

Thanks,

Chris

Same 3.7 that blows up in Libertys? If so, that motor gets a big thumbs down from many here for going bad... For a variety of reasons.

....and THAT'S why they should have keep the 4.0L around forever. 110K on a 4.0L was the equivalent of the drive home from the dealer on the average motor.
But to answer your question, no. They are not hard to work on. Do a swap and make some monies.

If it's anything like my wife's Liberty, there isn't an easier SUV to work on. As much access as there is under the hood in the Leberty, I'm betting a engine swap would take under a day.

I was talking to another friend of mine who is a Chrysler master tech and he says that the 3.7 are known to throw rockers and it could be that. The friend with the Jeep says that the engine runs, but is making a knocking noise. Maybe I could get lucky.

Chris

you might as well swap a hemi or 4.0 from the 05-06 wrangler in.

Sounds like a lot of work.

Paging Curmudgeon to the

If it is a 3.7, it's garbage, but fixable garbage. Tons of room to work on underhood. Hemi swap don't do it. It will turn into an electrical nightmare as it's the first of MB's involvement, even if you had a donor vehicle.

Just my $0.02.

Check for a busted valve spring first. Pretty common.

Yeah, check for a busted valve spring or sticking valves, for some stupid reason it's worst on the two rear cylinders on the drivers side. They have also been known to spit rocker arms out. If this happened, replace the lash adjuster too even if it looks good. The techs were pretty sure the lash adjuster would collapse, spit the rocker out, then the adjuster would slowly work its way back up and look OK. If you didn't replace it, the same thing would happen again. This is not mileage dependent; I saw some do it with less than 12k miles.

Be REAL sure it's not sludged up! I have seen two that were gooped so bad that when the oil pan was removed and turned over it would not empty. Do the usual; look inside the valve cover. Goldish color = good, reddish = hmmmm, black = keep going.

As far as flipping it: 3.7's are weak as water in something the size of a Grand and are thus not in big demand. If you are gonna do this, get into it CHEAP. Like CHEAP CHEAP, say $500 or so.

Don't bother with swapping a 4.7 etc, it won't be cost effective at all.

Once my friend determines what he is going to do with it I am going to look at it with my Chrysler Master tech friend and determine if it is worth picking up. I will only do it if it is cheap.

Chris

If it do pick up this jeep, where would you guys suggest getting a new engine if it truly needs one? Rebuilt, junkyard, other? If rebuilt where would you suggest getting it from? I'm hoping it is just a repairable issue like listed above.

Chris

My friend said he was offered $1000 for the Jeep as a trade in. He said he would sell it to me for the same amount. I don't want to spend that much if it needs a new engine, but if it is something that is repairable then I could get in at that price point. I hope to go look at it and hear it run tonight. Wish me luck.

Chris

I have a problem with the offer of 1,000.00 on a trade in. Might he be trying to up the ante a bit?

Might be, but he is a close friend so I doubt it. I don't see how a dealer offers up that sort of money sight unseen for a car with a potentially blown motor. That is without said dealer playing a numbers game on the other end, but I truly don't know. If the engine is in need of replacement I will not touch it at that price.

If it's clean otherwise I don't see how you wouldn't make money on it. That's a $5000 - $8000 truck if it's in good shape. The only ones priced lower than that around here are salvage title or 250k mile examples.

Mazdax605 wrote: If it do pick up this jeep, where would you guys suggest getting a new engine if it truly needs one? Rebuilt, junkyard, other? If rebuilt where would you suggest getting it from? I'm hoping it is just a repairable issue like listed above. Chris

www.car-part.com

ALWAYS call first - sometimes the inventories are not up-to-date. The ones I have dealt with have been but YMMV.

Might be, but he is a close friend so I doubt it. I don't see how a dealer offers up that sort of money sight unseen for a car with a potentially blown motor.

Happens all the time. They just took $1000 of wiggle room out of one of the other columns. It certainly doesn't mean they are offering to make $1000 less dollars on the sale they are pushing.

Just daydreaming and kind of a threadjack, there is a 2004 V8 Grand Cherokee on CL here for $750. http://tallahassee.craigslist.org/cto/4748781201.html This seems like maybe a better option for a flip if you could get the price down to $500 maybe?