I’m also glad I ordered a new aluminum oil cooler since mine is clearly leaking.

 

In the diagram above, I ordered box #13 only, though I did replace the crank seal as well. (I've replaced my intake gaskets a few times in the past and they were not that old.) The timing cover can be removed without removing the components mounted to it. I believe there is a video in my timing thread that shows a mechanic doing so for a warranty service. It will show the exact bolts to remove and which ones to leave. Should be in the service manual as well since I recall his snapshots from that showing the bolts, but I have not looked.

While you're at it, you may as well take the time to replace all that shit wiring loom that is probably pretty crusty. That takes a good bit of time but I'm happy I did it while I had things so torn apart.

 

Surprisingly the wiring loom on my harness is in good shape. I did however order some high temp zip ties to tie the harness back to the brackets and such. I cut the zip ties instead of trying to pull the plastic trees off of the brackets. I will run new ties through the trees.

One silly mindless update:
I called the dealership to get prices on parts. A couple things come to mind that I find funny. Normally when I call a dealership, the automatic prompt will tell you to dial a number for a particular department. Normally at a dealership, their first priority is sales, so you press one for sales. Not Jeep. You call Jeep and press one for parts.

Second, they have a left head, head gasket, timing chain cover gaskets, and front crank seal… all in stock. Kinda makes me think that this happens a lot.

In other news, it’s time for me to clean clean clean. Once everything is all cleaned up, I’ll start putting this pig back together with good parts and finally wrap up this 3 year old check engine light.

 

There are a ton of these 3.6L engines out there over the years.....

 

True… but I’ve never been so “lucky” with previous vehicles to have a dealer have every part in stock.

 

After a couple super busy months at work I finally am able to get back to the Jeep and put it together. I got a reman head from the dealer and all parts. However, I was either a dummy and left some sensors on the core or I just forgot where these connections go. Either way, I have to ask a newb question: what are these plugs for?

One is located near the back of the left head

I believe this one may be the ignition capacitor?

the other one is located toward the rear of the left side of the left head;




can someone verify what these are for?

 

I believe the plug in the second photo is for the coolant temp sensor.

 

I pretty much have everything put back together. I still need to get the sensors off the core (old head), so I'll reach out to the dealer tomorrow and grab them as long as they haven't shipped the old head out yet. Otherwise I'll get new sensors.

I also still need to add coolant and purge it of air. The book says to use a vacuum system to do this but I don't have one nor am I going to buy one. There's a tech page on here somewhere that says to add distilled water, run the engine till the t-stat opens, drain the water, and repeat several times till the water comes clear. That sounds like a great idea to tell when the fluid and passages are clean but our coolant doesn't come in a concentrate, it's already pre-diluted 50/50. @resharp001 What was your procedure for adding coolant and purging the air when you replaced your radiator?

 

I buy concentrated OAT from my local dealer. Odd that you are only able to get pre-mixed. I always just fill it and burp it as well as I can, and then I know I have several heat cycles of burping it again first thing in the morning when it's cool. Typically I do this for 4 mornings or so till I pop that radiator cap and it's filled to the brim like it should be.

 

Awesome, thanks!

It looks like there is a part number for the concentrate. The stuff the dealer gave me is PN: 68163849AB which is the pre-diluted 50/50 stuff. I'll give that back to them and get PN: 68163848AB which is the concentrate. I would really like to do the procedure here:

https://www.jk-forum.com/how-tos/a/j...coolant-407878

This will actually let me see the health of the fluid so I can visually verify that my lines and passage ways are clean.