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Old 10-01-2015, 08:07 PM
chirorod chirorod is offline
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Default Jeep Liberty Question

Just recovering from a cold, so the brain may be a bit muddled. And that may be what has led me to consider a 05 Liberty with a bad 3.7. I can pick it up very cheap. Is it worth considering, or are these more trouble than they're worth? And is it possible to squeeze a few more ponies out of that motor or is an engine swap possible?
Yet another question: would horsepower increases from such as a camshaft regrind cause trouble codes to be stored? They don't use sniffers any more in MA, but they do plug in a scanner. If no codes are stored, it passes emissions.
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Old 10-04-2015, 08:17 PM
chirorod chirorod is offline
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Whilst awaiting the anticipated flurry of response, I made my way through google land. There appears to be nothing available other than the usual paltry power gains through cold air intake, improved exhaust, etc. It appears that the Liberty is a much unloved and very distant cousin of the mopar family.
The 3.7 is only rated at 210 hp, very much inferior to the possible 300 hp of the 3.6.
It seems that the major repair issues of the 3.7 are (1) dropped valve seats, for which the repair is new pinned seats, and (2) slipped rocker arms. The rocker arm slippage may be caused by sludge buildup in the lifters. This engine appears to be prone to sludge buildup, which I should have called the number three problem.
I remember that, back in the 1950's, hydraulic lifters were somewhat new to most people and not at all universal and that they seemed to start clacking at what would seem low mileage now. It may simply have been that the clackers had not had their oil changed regularly. And it seemed that I saw lots of engines with major sludge. But I thought these new oils had solved all that. Maybe it's the long oil change intervals now.
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Old 10-04-2015, 08:55 PM
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JVMopar JVMopar is offline
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Sludge build up is from extended oil change intervals and heat. I see it all the time.

The engines are running hotter than they used too. Some thermostats don't open until 230 degrees F. Ad that to the oil change intervals, and the oil just can't take it.

I'm still a firm believer in a good quality conventional oil changed every 3000 miles.

I work at a GM dealer and we have been doing a lot of engines, timing chains, pistons and rings, cams, lifters. Aside from GM being a lesser quality vehicle manufacture, most of the issues are from lack of maintenance.
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Old 10-05-2015, 06:25 AM
chirorod chirorod is offline
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I notice that, at one point, Toyota went to 10,000 oil change intervals, but have since backed off on that. The Corolla engines seem to start using oil just before 100,000 miles. I was looking at a video of one of those engines being torn down. It had had its regular maintenance but was really gunked up. I have taken motors apart at 200,000 that had the oil changed every 3000, and they were clean. But those motors hadn't been run as hot as the current engines are. One reason they run them so hot now is to decrease emissions and increase gas mileage.
I suspect that the 3.7 problems are from long oil change intervals. But it would be nice to know. If I do get this Liberty, I'd like to think that engine work I would do would have a chance of holding up.
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Old 10-25-2015, 08:43 AM
chirorod chirorod is offline
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It looks like the Liberty idea is done for. One of the guys was moving a car and brushed off the rocker trim and exposed a lot of rot. Almost half the floor on the right is bad. Also, I can't find much if anything in the way of performance stuff for the 3.7. So not much use in tearing down the 3.7 if I can't nudge a couple of pones out of it. Looks like there might be enough room for a V8 but it could be super tough to deal with what the scanner will read on inspection.
So, end of that thought.
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