Head gasket help

[chuck2000xj]

Alright guys....needing to run something by you and see what everyones thoughts are. About 3 weeks ago (while in this nasty midwest heat) my radiator developed a large crack and I was stranded about 30 miles from home. After finding the crack and limping home (took about 3 hours) while filling the radiator with water and letting it cool down.... the engine (4.0 L) finally quit and and i had to be towed about 5 miles. got the jeep to my buddy's house and replaced the radiator and thermostat the next day. When I drove home, it did ok. Well, about a week later I was out about 20 miles from home and my temp gauge buried itself at the max. I realized that my coolant level was low so I added more coolant and water so that I could get home. Well....during all this, my check engine light came on. Said I was having a misfire at cylinders 2 and 3. Last weekend I decided to do some maintenace. Replaced the valve cover gasket (because it needed it), replaced all spark plugs, changed the oil. Just did a compression test with my buddy and these are the results.... cylinder 1- 150, cylinder 2-100, cylinder 3- 115, cylinder 4- 150, cylinder 5- 140, cylinder 6- 160. Does this sound like a head gasket? Has anyone had problems with the head cracking? Sorry for the lengthy story but just trying to give as much details as I can. Thanks guys.

[chuck2000xj]

No one has a thought?

[4.3LXJ]

No experience with the late heads. But yes it could be. You can have a radiator shop analyze the coolant for exhaust gases. Any steam coming from the tail pipe

[chuck2000xj]

There is no steam coming from the tail pipe but there was steam coming from cylinders 2 and 3 where the plug goes when we were doing the compression test.

[4.3LXJ]

Better get it checked

[nickxj94]

Alright guys....needing to run something by you and see what everyones thoughts are. About 3 weeks ago (while in this nasty midwest heat) my radiator developed a large crack and I was stranded about 30 miles from home. After finding the crack and limping home (took about 3 hours) while filling the radiator with water and letting it cool down.... the engine (4.0 L) finally quit and and i had to be towed about 5 miles. got the jeep to my buddy's house and replaced the radiator and thermostat the next day. When I drove home, it did ok. Well, about a week later I was out about 20 miles from home and my temp gauge buried itself at the max. I realized that my coolant level was low so I added more coolant and water so that I could get home. Well....during all this, my check engine light came on. Said I was having a misfire at cylinders 2 and 3. Last weekend I decided to do some maintenace. Replaced the valve cover gasket (because it needed it), replaced all spark plugs, changed the oil. Just did a compression test with my buddy and these are the results.... cylinder 1- 150, cylinder 2-100, cylinder 3- 115, cylinder 4- 150, cylinder 5- 140, cylinder 6- 160. Does this sound like a head gasket? Has anyone had problems with the head cracking? Sorry for the lengthy story but just trying to give as much details as I can. Thanks guys.

Yup I bet it blew between them two cylinders, I've had my mustang do that to me before and my Nissan

[chuck2000xj]

Well....got my fingers crossed its just the gasket and not the heads.

[bigjim350]

Well since you'll have the head off to replace the gasket, go ahead and have a machine shop check it for cracks. However if I were in your shoe's i would go ahead and replace the head with a new or rebuilt one since its already off.