Infectious Off-Road.com

FYI dont ever get one! I made this mistake last year. Put in a reman long block from them (autozone carries them) in aug. of 2011. and within 5K miles (a month a a half) out it came for a warrenty. (rod knock). Great turn around though. Had the new motor within 3 days of calling to warrenty it. Now about 11 months later Im hearing what sounds like another rod bearing decided to go south on me. As i let off the gas i can hear a spinning sound as the motor goes back down to idle. Call Vatozone and explain what is going on. They give me a run around with they have to send my jeep to a mechanic (which i never had to do the first time, i just talked to a surefire rep), I explain that to the guy on the phone and he said well no we have to follow procedure and we cant give you their number. I explain to him this will be the second pos motor that i have recieved from them and i am not excited to pull it out again. He says he will need to call the warehouse and talk to them in the morning.

So needless to say do not buy surefire engines... Ive made this mistake and will never buy one again. It does have a 3 yr warrenty with no mileage cap but i cant seem to even go a year with out having to pull it back out...

Anyone wanna come help yank a motor and put a new one in this weekend hopefully?

About 10 yrs ago I had the same experience with,vatozone reman transmissions, after that I have done them myself or used a local reliable rebuilder...

If everything goes south on your warranty I do have a good.ole boy connection for an engine rebuilder locally

Good luck bud

Thanks man. I was listening to it last night and pinpointed it out to one of the two front cylinders. I took my stethoscope and it is loudest around those two cylinders. So if it does go south as for the warrenty i may be hitting you up. I will probably just need the crank shaved, over sized bearings and possibly a new rod if it is egg shaped. I doubt it though. Its not terrribly bad yet.

How much was this engine?

it was like 1400. The original motor was totally toast. The original owner threw in thick thick oil to cover up the knocking which worked great. Did an oil change and then come to find the knock... Was going to have the crank shaved and over sized bearings but figured at 240K might as well get a used one. Bought one of craigslist that looked great and clean stated rebuilt 2K ago. Well that thing was complete crap.

So we decided to try the autozone one becasue of the warrenty and i needed my jeep up and going asap and it was a decent price and got it in 3 days where most other places would have taken a week to two. I should of waited the week to two now...

I went with Jasper engines for my 4.7 stroker. It worked out well and had a buttload of power. Stroked engine with port n polish was 2200. Just consider it next time

ya hopefully i will consider that next yr is i get this warrenty to go through...

Well just got off the phone with the store manager at Vatozone. He made the claim 2 days ago or so and he just got word that the motor is being shipped from mississippi and will be here in 8 to 9 days.

So hopefully it will show up next sat morning. If it does, Ill be putting it in saturday, finish up on sunday and hopefully be running on sunday night. Now if only i could get a new exhaust manifold and ac condensor by then lol

I suggest that you change or check out the main and rod bearings on this one as soon as you get it. Make sure you mic the crank to make sure you get your clearances correct. I'd make it as tight as possible within the tolerances. Then figure out if you need to run a non-detergent oil for 500 miles or so to break in the engine.

Let's just make sure you don't have to keep doing this...

ya.. Im gonna be throwing this one on my stand and go through it with a fine tooth comb. Inspecting everything! Rechecking the torque on everything, plastigauging every bearing (main and rods). These call for 10w-30 but im thinkin something a little heavier, Im gonna check the clearence on the oilpump and make sure it is clean and no particles in it, I have a bottle of lucas assembly oil that i am gonna be putting on the bearings as well.

Probably a good idea, because I'm sure the chinaman that assembled it in 30 mins and shipped...it'll save u a 3rd R&R

Well borrow a micrometer from someone and check the crank. If I had my 4.0 book on me right now I'd list all of the stock tolerances for you.

Good deal bud glad it worked out so far

For you SureFire and AutoZone!
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$2500.00[/color] for engine; 157 miles later stranded in AZ. with oil puking out rear main seal that was 5 months ago... Still trying to get back on the road...

Fellas if you want a quality motor My advice is if you see SureFire or AutoZone RUN LIKE HELL!