Decision time...

Ok, picked up a rear main seal and an oil pan gasket, pulled the plug tonight. Gonna pull pan tomorrow and replace seal. I'm planning on also pulling intake and valve covers, cleaning, painting, etc.
At this time, should I pull heads? Jeep runs STRONG as is, but is so RICH makes your eyes tear. I've tried adjusting carb but it is def happiest the way it is currently adjusted. Have no idea if it's burning oil passed the guides. Speedo shows 79,000. Someone has been in the engine before because paint colors are different on motor. Block and heads are turquoise blue and look original. Pan, intake, air cleaner orange. Hmmmm. What do I do? If I pull heads might as well pull motor, do motor mounts, clutch, and here we go. Just gonna be an around the town beach jeep and trail rides. How far should I go? Like I said jeep runs really good IMO. Just hate to button it all up only to pull it apart later. Would a carb rebuild help? What color should motor be?
The thing leaks so much currently I can't even tell where it's coming from besides main seal. Just want to clean her up and make her respectable.
ANY and ALL suggestions, comments would be appreciated!
P.S. How do you post pics? Would luv to show you guys some motor pics.

 

This is quite the pickle. Sometimes its hard to avoid snowballing. If you would be satisfied with the motor if it didn't leak and wasn't rich, then I would suggest sticking to those two problems. If you get into the motor and find more troubles while trying to tackle those problems, then you might as well pull the motor and do it right. Then you can worry about colors and stuff. Is the budget okay to support a rebuild? Go for it. Not really? Then do what you can until you can afford the rebuild

 

Good point Jon, this was suppose to be a budget build. When I picked up rear main seal today, at a real auto parts store with a real owner who knows his stuff (you know the type of store I'm talking about, those gems that exist few and far) he said same thing. Clean it up, enjoy it, and if down the road heads need rebuild, do it then. Leaning that direction...

 

Buddha44. please don't take offense, but... how much experience do you have with engines? And carburetors?

Have you looked at the spark plug color and condition after a full-temperature drive? Have you measured the compression, wet and dry? Have you adjusted the idle mixture to either best lean idle or maximum vacuum with a vacuum gauge?

Why would you consider pulling the heads when you know so little about the engine condition, and have no complaint that would point to such a tear-down?

Why do you think the engine is using oil? Is the exhaust blue? Without obvious blue smoke, you need to fix the oil leaks so you can tell if the engine is using oil. A compression test will also help here.

It seems your mind is racing ahead to drastic conclusions that have no basis now. Gather your facts. Do some simple and cheap or free tests. Ask specific questions if you need help. Be systematic. Fix only what obviously needs fixing.

Dauntless V6 engine color has been covered in the past ad nauseum. Search. https://www.google.com/search?q=site:earlyCJ5.net+Dauntless+engine+color

Re carburetors, most carburetors on neglected cars will benefit from rebuilding. As such things go, it's not a difficult job, but are you up to it? You should read the factory manual about the external carb adjustments first, and follow through with those. Have you tuned up the ignition system? New points, condensor, plugs, rotor, cap and wires? Set the timing? Most every new-old car can benefit from a good tune up, and used cars have usually been neglected in this area - esp. wires.

Do you need help fixing the oil leaks? Make sure that the pan and covers are straight before you put them back. Often these are distorted by over-tightening, in an attempt to stop leaks. Check flatness with a steel ruler, and tap-tap-tap with a light hammer and dolly to flatten the flanges. And don't over-tighten.

 

You need to host your images somewhere else. The site will not host your pictures.

You wrote - in place of Photos, substitute the link to your picture. This is called hot-linking, and will embed the picture in your post.

Or just put a link to the photo you want us to look at. You can host photos on many different sites like Photobucket. Your ISP may already give you some online storage space where you can store pictures and then hotlink to them.

 

Be sure to clean the oil sump (pick-up) screen while your down there. Will need new gasket. I make mine. The straightening of the pan as Timgr talks about is very important to a leak free pan seal. Same goes for valve covers.

 

Tim, NO offense taken at all! I'm new to the site and also excited about being back in a jeep. Used to have a cj7.

yes, I have experience with motors and carbs, grew up in a Hotrod family, but almost always Chevys. My weakness is going to be transfer cases, lockers, etc.

yes, I measured compression on each cylinder, but as you know that will not give any indication of bad guides. I guess if you saw the jeep it would make a lil more sense. The thing just looks un loved, like it never had oil changes regularly. Plus, I'm assuming it does not have hardened seats, but I have no way of knowing. Like I said, the pan, intake and valve covers and air cleaner all a factory orange, yet block and heads a factory blue/green. That's the stuff that bugs me...what did they do and why?

yes, I pulled the plugs, but they were so old it was honestly hard to tell if they are getting wet with oil.
previous owner switched to electronic ignition, so dist and wires very new. Don't know why plugs look so old if he made the other upgrades.

i tuned carb, but as mentioned it seemed WAY happier exactly where it was set.

i checked timing and it was right on per the book.

i asked about pulling heads because I know myself all too well, total neat freak and like my stuff done right. Was second guessing not pulling heads only to end up pulling them down the road and wasting time and money on gasket sets.
The more I think about it, think I'm going to clean her up, wipe her nose, new gaskets and stuff, get her back on the road for summer. The whole point was for enjoyment. I have two boys, 8 and 4, and they LOVE taking rides around town in it. Only been on a couple rides, and now she's been sitting in garage.

have some GM blue on the shelf, going with that.

although mechanically inclined, might spring for a prof carb rebuild. Have used a guy locally here before (carbcareusa) and it is UNBELIEVABLE the difference he makes, even on new carbs out of the box!

thanks for your reply/replies! I'll let you guys know what I find this weekend.
if I pull the pan and find gum wrappers and loose change, THATS IT, I'm ripping the thing apart!

 

Sounds bit like you are thinking of using a cannon to ring a doorbell. Rich running is not a rebuild type of issue. The advice already posted above is all good, from wise people.

" Have no idea if it's burning oil passed the guides. " The plugs would show clues to this - are they wet and oily, and/or heavily caked with deposit? That indicates oil-burning. Soft black soot on the other hand is excess fuel from the carb. Maybe as simple as a stuck choke.

I'd suggest you begin with a basic, but complete, tune-up. Then isolate any remaining issues one thing at a time, slow and steady.

 

Good advice Pete!
BTW, luv your quote...
I spent nearly all my money on women and motorcycles. The rest of it, I wasted.

 

You said electronic ignition by PO. Is that pertronix or HEI ignition?

 

Pertronix

 

Jeep never used orange for engine parts, AFAIK. Closest is red? The 71-72 AMC V8 engines for CA were red, and the Buick 350 in Wagoneers was red. Rather certain the V6 was always solid blue-green - there are a couple of close substitutes given in old posts about this topic. Service parts were typically black, IME.

Re the oil burning, if the compression is good the rings should be ok, and oil leaking around the guides should give you a puff of blue smoke on decelleration. I'd assume it's ok, without evidence to the contrary. Run your new plugs for a while then evaluate them.

I'd assume that you looked down the top of the carb when the engine is up to full temperature, and the choke flap was fully open.

And a carbureted car is never going to smell as sweet as a modern car with a cat. The under-seat tank has a vented cap, and usually gives a whiff of raw gas when the wind is right. I'm guessing your idle mixture is too rich - how many turns now? The usual procedure is to run the idle mixture screws to the same place, ie 2 turns, and then tighten both in parallel until the engine just starts to stumble. Then back off just a tad - "best lean idle."

I'm not that familiar with the carb used on the V6s (Rochester 2G?), but you should be able to kill the engine by leaning out the idle mixture. If not, then the engine is getting fuel via some other route at idle. You should also be able to kill the engine by closing the throttle completely, ie backing off the idle stop screw. I'd also check for vacuum leaks - a leak would make the mixture leaner, but you may be compensating with the idle mixture screws and changing the fuel distribution somehow.

 

Thank you guys for the replies.
even though I was joking about finding loose change and extra parts in my oil pan, I found extra parts. As soon as I figure how to post pics I will show you guys. Basically a small handful of chopped up hard white plastic pieces. Almost looks like if you took a mayonnaise jar lid (with the ridges and curve to it) put it in a food processor and chopped it up, but it's white.
any ideas??? Plus about a half inch of sludge on bottom of pan, which is what my gut told me I would find...NO LOVE!
oh well, still thinking I'm gonna clean her up and button it back together and just ride it out...

 

Timing gear teeth? The original timing gear has nylon (?) teeth on a metal hub. Common for them to self-destruct. If the gear was replaced, the PO may not have pulled the pan to clean out the plastic scraps.

 

I like what you did there!!!
if someone could send me there number or personal email I would love to send a pic. Very curious!
just pulled rear cap, still has original rope main seal, but an orange oil pan...

 

Yes the original camshaft mounted timing sprocket is a whitish colored nylon that's bonded onto an aluminum hub.
IMHO the real problem with them was not the nylon itself.
The short timing chain/gear lifespan is mainly due to the oddfire design.
The oddfiring impulses fatigue the timing sprockets and chain at relatively low mileage.
In other words IMHO the nylon gear is just as good as steel sprocket and in some ways it's better.
Both the nylon or the steel types should be changed at mid engine service life.
I'd suggest changing them at 60 to 70K miles.