Blown motor? Cracked Head? Head gasket?

[CobraJay]

Well, I went wheeling for the first time. A bunch of us took a trip to PA (rauschs creek). Jeep performed great until the end. Somehow all the water i had in the radiator just vanished. Didn't have any smoke or overheating allllll day. I was on the last trail and got stuck on some rocks and I over heated and I waited and cooled down and took off after that. A little while after, I hear a tick coming from the motor. Only ticks when I give it gas. The tick eventually gets louder as I give it gas and when we leave, I jump on the HW and it died and never started back up. I think I blew the head gasket or possibly damaged the head (cracked). I filled up the radiator today and tried starting it but got nothing. I had power and fuel but as far as spark..well....I pull all plugs and two or three of them had water on them. I started breaking down the motor and these are the pics so far....

[flawlesslydisturbed]

Oh No. That doesn't sound good.

[2000XJ]

Doesn't look good either

[CobraJay]

Water sitting on top of the pistons....lots of water







The cylinder walls are perfect. The pistons are clean. Two pistons are these marks on them. Don't know what its from. I turned the crank and all pistons move just fine. Dropping the heads and the manifold off tomorrow. I hope the heads come out ok.

[BigBadXJ]

Dude you might as well get the engine stand out and pull the whole engine for a rebuild.

[2000XJ]

Moved to the right section

[CobraJay]

Well, talked to the guys at the machine shop. The head is all F'd up...warped and ALL the valves are bent. He said he's never seen a head in such bad shape. So bad that they are discolored. He said "Honestly Jay, I can rebuild it for you for $100 but if you did this much damage to the head, you most likely fried the piston rings, bearings ex ex and I should look into a rebuild or local junkyard" I said it makes no sense to take the risk in rebuilding the head and putting everything back together to find out 2k miles down the road and something let loose. I agreed so now I'm on the lookout for another motor. I was thinking of a stroker but F that....wayyyyy to much money. I want way more power for that kind of money but hey...its only a 6 i guess. A simple 4.0 motor will do it for me. I might get some head work tho and maybe a header, intake, TB spacer while im at it.

[01LimitedXJ]

sucks about your engine...did the shop have any idea what caused it?

also...dont waste your money on the TB spacer...