pulled the XJ back in to mess with recently ... a few evening of testing EVERYTHING and still wouldn't run. finally bought the compression tester adapter i needed while i was eliminating all possible knowns as issues. because how could every cylinder be so low that there's no fire. i mean, it ran!
aaaannnndddd fubar
#1 - 20
#2 - 25
#3 - 15
#4 - 30
#5 - 40
#6 - 20
so i thought, fine, i'll just re-ring it and drive it for a bit ... just make it run. well Dietz came over n helped wrench. i pulled the aw4 n broke the shifter rod in the process trying to remove the nut, fine whatever it's scrap. pulled the 4.0 pan and there is over an inch of sludge in the pan!!!! start pulling the pistons, got one rod stuck on the cylinder wall n chipped the piston skirt. bearings are all 60%+ copper. then trying to dig out the stuck BS rings i fudge up the ring land on one.
fawk it, this XJ obviously doesn't wanna run ever again on a 4.0 ... so it's getting a TDI.
yes, that is coolant pissing from a freeze plug ...