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I know very little about engines and enjoy your threads...So the side skirt literally wears away this much?! Wow that’s insane. I guess it makes sense though. Surface contact+movement+time=nonexistance...how many miles were on the one pictured here?
Just a mixture of cost cutting manufacturing, previous owners not understanding oil change importance, and driving like an asshole haha. Once they wear to a certain amount they start to “slap” which can crack off the entire skirt as seen above. If you’re really unlucky it cracks off enough that the piston can rotate sideways enough and then you shoot the rod through the block and it’s over. The one above has 200-220 don’t remember exactly and was still running fine but noisy. This Jeep has 150ish. It’s a common point of failure with this engine as well as lifter noise and some genius engineer made the head have to come off to replace lifters. All in on parts is under 400 to rebuild, all new gaskets, valve seals, pistons, oil pump, connecting rod bearings, I’m replacing the push rods and head bolts but you don’t have to. Pretty much all the main wear items.
I wish the 3.6 was that easy to work on.
Engines aren’t that scary, everything in the world is just bolts nuts rivets and pins. I will admit this particular engine is only a few steps above a lawn mower in terms of complexity haha