If you have not done the timing chains, I highly suggest you check them.Dr. Marneaus wrote:I dunno about the HO, but everybody and their brother says the 4.7 is pretty much the worst engine ever created in the entire world and it's sure to overheat and explode killing you and everybody in a 10 mile radius.
Aside from it being gutless, the one in my 2004 dakota has 140,000 trouble free miles on it...I dont really see the big issue.
YMMV
that sounds like alot of work.Stuka wrote:If you have not done the timing chains, I highly suggest you check them.Dr. Marneaus wrote:I dunno about the HO, but everybody and their brother says the 4.7 is pretty much the worst engine ever created in the entire world and it's sure to overheat and explode killing you and everybody in a 10 mile radius.
Aside from it being gutless, the one in my 2004 dakota has 140,000 trouble free miles on it...I dont really see the big issue.
YMMV
It is a fair amount of work, as there is three of them. Thankfully though its a non-inference engine, so when they do stretch, the engine just starts to lose power as the cam timing gets off. Very little risk of them slipping though as each chain has a tensioner.Dr. Marneaus wrote:that sounds like alot of work.Stuka wrote:If you have not done the timing chains, I highly suggest you check them.Dr. Marneaus wrote:I dunno about the HO, but everybody and their brother says the 4.7 is pretty much the worst engine ever created in the entire world and it's sure to overheat and explode killing you and everybody in a 10 mile radius.
Aside from it being gutless, the one in my 2004 dakota has 140,000 trouble free miles on it...I dont really see the big issue.
YMMV
If you plan to do any modifications, go XJ or ZJ. The WJ Grand Cherokees (99-04) are more difficult and expensive to mod. But are perfectly capable in stock form. I'll never trade my XJ by I'm also fond of the later ZJ (96-98) and if you go with a WJ try to find an 03-04 to avoid many of the common electrics plagues.rentdresxrz wrote:thinking about buying a cherokee for daily driver and light off road use .cant make up my mind whitch one would be better,xj or a grand.you can find either one very reasonably priced.is a grand a little to big for off road or not?what years are good ?
There is definitely a lot more aftermarket support for the XJ. XJ ZJ and WJ are all solid axle front and rear, with the WJ being the last year they did solid front axle in a grand. The XJ's are pretty dang inexpensive to lift and run up to 33's with stock axles. They have leaf rear and coils up front unlike the grands which were always coils at all 4 corners. The ZJ's and WJ's look really nice with a little lift and 31's but unless you really like to break out the sawzall on the body panels you're not gonna go much bigger on that if you want to keep it fancy. All were available with the 4.0 but it's going to move the lighter XJ around the best. IMO 99 is the best year for XJ and WJ, emissions killed the 4.0 and they are more prone to overheating resulting in a cracked head, I believe because of an added catalytic converter in the manifold on the 2000 an later models. I would probably look for a 1998 ZJ as that was the last year for it and get a 4.0. My uncle has a 1996 with over 300,000 on it. As many have said the 2003-2004 model years for WJ are pretty good. I'd probably prefer a 4.7 V8 with the limited package if I was going to go WJ otherwise I don't really see any reason to get one over an XJ.rentdresxrz wrote:thinking about buying a cherokee for daily driver and light off road use .cant make up my mind whitch one would be better,xj or a grand.you can find either one very reasonably priced.is a grand a little to big for off road or not?what years are good ?