Seeking advice

[Wrangler13]

Recently bought a blue 97 TJ Sport, 4.0 6 cylinder, manual, lifted 4 or 6 inches on 35s, with a whopping 70k miles on it, and very little to no rust anywhere. It had been sitting for about 10 years, and all that was wrong was the paint wasn’t in great shape and needed a new soft top. Ever since I got it back serviced and road worthy, I noticed the oil pressure seemed a little low for my liking but didn’t think too much of it. Long story short, one day while driving it lost oil pressure all together and began knocking and sounding terrible. Got it home and pulled the dipstick and the oil was sparkling. so assuming the engine is shot, or at the bare minimum needs an oil pump/overhaul, what are my options and price guesses moving forward? Wondering how much it’d cost me to get an engine put in it, or how much I could get for it as is, or if I should attempt to part it out.
Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[Link]

Engine is gone. Might be rebuildable but maybe not. Only way to know would be to pull it and take it apart.

I’d start shopping for a rebuilt engine. Finding a low mileage engine to drop in is possible but unlikely.

Call around and get some prices. It’ll be a lot cheaper if you can do the work yourself but if not, it won’t be cheap.

 

[macleanflood]

S and J engines out of Spokane Washington is around $2500.

Plenty of 4.0s on CL and FB if you want to roll the dice.

Not hard at all to swap a 4.0. probably one of the easiest vehicles to do it.

Do be aware most engine rebuilders will require a shop to install an engine to honor any warranty they're pretending to offer.

@BathiasRei just finished up a 4.0 swap. Check out his posts.

-Mac

 

[BathiasRei]

Im sorry to hear about your rig and circumstance…

I recommend taking apart your current motor so that hopefully your bottom end can simply be rebuilt to avoid the swap process (I highly recommend DeXJ videos on how to do this without straining your wallet), but like Mac said I recently was in the same boat as you and finished a 4.0 swap from a Cherokee.

Link to DeXJ video on rod bearings/bottom end: ()

In my experience doing the swap would 100% be worth it unless you are in desperate need of a daily driver. When I was doing my swap it took me about a month of on and off work since I’m a college student living on campus with no garage to work out of. I kept the rig a 30 minute bike ride one way at a friends and constantly had class to keep me preoccupied… After getting an 110k mile engine off FB marketplace I was only around 1k in, including the engine, a cooling and ignition system re-haul, new gaskets and a new head gasket.

Prior to this swap (and even now), I am not the most mechanically inclined or seasoned wrencher but this only speaks to the “do-ability” of the swap and the amount of knowledge gained for not too much effort.

if you were to do it I would say that as long as you had the right tools, a garage/driveway and spare time you could do it in about a week or 2 no hassle. The biggest thing is just having/buying the right tools and being patient… a lot of my own personal set backs came from rushing things and not double checking others, IE not having patience on engine listings off marketplace or rounding a transmission bolt from getting frustrated.

If you decide to not go this route and sell the jeep private party, I believe that a median take home you can receive be somewhere between 2k - 4k. Of course this is all depending on how bad the body/paint is as you mention and other factors that go into selling a car. When I listed my rig at first with the blown engine, blown 1st gear and 270k miles on the body, I would regularly receive offers of 2-3k so I’m guessing you would receive much better.