hzoltaan

Isn't that beautiful?





Turbo



Governor



All the tidbits of a diesel.



Underworld without 2kgs of oilmud

kerensky

Very nice Jeep, glad to see you're having fun with it over there. I had no idea they even sold a diesel.

ajpulley

So hard to come by. If one every crosses my path, I've always wanted the diesel version.

hzoltaan

Over here a quick glance on one of the advertising sites show 38 jeep XJs and 9 of them are diesel powered.
1 of them is the 2.1TD, the rest is the Italian 2.5td. I've heard that that engine has troubles.
The 2.1td is reliable enough, but very weak for a 2.2ton jeep, specially if you want to nudge it up a mountain through some terrain. A lot of drivers overloaded those engines, and heads get warped, cracked, so on.


So... Yeah... get one for curiosity, but forget about highway speeds or going over hard terrain with an easy smile.


With our petrol prices, diesel is a real winner. Of course, today there is huge debate about it's environmental impact...
A lot of cars are converted (and a few even produced that way) to burn LPG. With petrol engines it's an easy conversion and it halves your fuel costs. Sadly the only place you can put the LPG tank is the trunk, and I need that space for construction work-material. So for me the 4.0 legend engine is a no go. No space for LPG tank, and without it, I'd be crying every time I need to fill it up.


This bird with my easy foot on the go-pedal consumes 8L/100km, which is around 30mpg(us). With petrol costing 1.2$ a liter, an diesel about 1.1$, you go for what consumes less. But this makes the jeep a tractor, a loaded delivery van. Not a strong, overbearing, 4x4 champion.


But I love it this way.

hzoltaan

Long time no update:
There are two reasons for that:


The jeep goes and goes and goes.
Summer, with lot of things to do around other vehicles, house... even things like "holiday"


What is being done to it is:
undercarriage protection.
I'm not confident that is popular in the US but here in these parts older vehicles fairly often get this treatment. Cleaning all the old stuff, occasional rust off the underside, spray with some rust inhibitor, cleaner, then some basepaint-kinda-thing, then a rubber coating.
According to the guy who does it, it's been done properly now. Unlike before. (but ALL mechanics say that, I'm pretty sure If I were to take this jeep to the next guy in a few years he would say it was done improperly... )


so, the jeep is drying out in the early autumn drizzle now if that is at all possible. tomorrow I should get it back.


Just before I fixed interior lights, installed a LED light for the rear, and wired it a bit differently, so that you can turn it on from the inside.


The oil pan has a leak, already a lot of oil is splashed around, so I must see to that soon.


I'm in the process of choosing tyres for the winter (which is a lot of wet, a bit of snow over here). Last time I performed a nice dance on the wet tarmac on a curvy mountain road... filled up my pants all right when I quicly contemplated falling off a cliff or experiencing a loaded logger-lorry first-hand!
Therefore I'm fed up with those tires and want something a bit better.


Will post some pictures after I get it back!

cruiser54

As always, thanks for the update.

hzoltaan

Hopefully with all the base-paint-wonder-chemicals underneath

hzoltaan

hzoltaan

The old tires were above 10 years of age... and Man, they were bad on wet! Several times I went dancing with the rear wheels sliding off. Fortunately I managed to keep it under control every time, but it's no fun on twisty mountain roads with overpowered angry and excellently suspensioned Audis, BMWs all lining up behind you. (That is some eastern-european thing... being agressive on the road... almost exclusively with high-end German cars. (ok, not Opels))


Anyway, on those fresh new rubbers it even feels like rolling easier... Which can't be, right? And usually I can't go up to my house without shifting all the way down to 1. (narrow twisty uphill road... and you know... 140Nm... once upon a time) But now... I can.
How come?

hzoltaan

So, we have nice thick undercarriage protection, with all the chemical wonders of differently named cans, sprays and all that... Of course, I see only the black tar, but hoping it was not applied directly on the bare metal. (I saw it cleaned and yeah, mate, a bit rusty here and there)


So, Winter is coming, therefore let's have some heating...
and maybe eliminate the noise, wind coming from the driveshaft tunnel, by finally replacing the rubber boots... Actually the one covering the gearbox is missing. The one covering the tunnel is in tatters...


Let's see the heater control first.
1: blower goes to a weaker power on FULL setting, instead of... well... Full.
2: at some point over the year the vent stuck on defrost. I wonder why... did it happen when I was tearing out bits of vacuum piping with a hellish laughter following the successful CAD elimination job...? Yeah mate... that sounds about right... it happened around that time.


Believing that the vent control is just like on any other "normal" vehicle (sorry US engineering, but for my understanding overuse of complicated electrics, riveting or vacuum actuated stuff is just way not normal!) operated by simple cable, started the game with removing the radio...


Then came the surprise:
Vacuum
Oh-****.


Vacuum... this totally unnecessary toy of automotive industry... I mean this is a tractor from 1990! Why on earth do we have vacuum operated stuff when the very same thing could be done by cables, like 2 of them! (all my other cars, present and past had cables, except a US model Mazda 929, which had electric motor doing the trick, and buttons for vent controlling... All cars... French vans, Japanese hatchbacks, Czech or German cars... all. )
Hookay...


Let's recall what we did in the euphoric moments, following CAD-killing, letting loose of all anti-vacuum feelings.... Did I remove most of the connectors, tubes, and whatnots from the engine bay?
Yeah... I thought it was there for nothing... Actually... no. It was there for the ventilation... Urrrggghhhhh.


Ok, how to build it back?


there is a black and a pink stub looking into the engine bay from right next to the heater core pipes. Which one needs vacuum?


I think I found my answer here:


https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/xj-...bility-223068/


Black I will hook on the vacuum canister and see what happens!


(blower motor FULL is apparently caused by contact problem with the blower power selector switch. It can be fixed I guess)

hzoltaan

I have an issue with the driver electric window. Both windows are slow, sticky and generally just hanging on, but the driver window does not fully close. (never did) therefor even went I do not want nice fresh air coming in (like driving in -5C) it will blow in.


Let's forget about the generally abysmal condition of the door...
- hinges worn, door hangs,
- upper corner is slightly ajar like it was abused some time ago
- rusted corner as the water outlets were at some point blocked.
- also found some broken glass inside, so I guess... well.. I do not want to guess.
- window motor is held on by ducktape, it's wires are held on by insulating tape. (at least, correct usage of resources there!)
- power lock actuator wiring is messed with,
- lock and window control switches falling apart
- speaker (fixed now) was nonexistent and cover missing.
- moisture barrier (if ever was present) missing


Hahah! As we say in my hometown, this is the place from which pole-position is a very nice achievement! (sounds a lot better in Hungarian)


So...
tried all tricks I could come up with to oil the window gear, and get the rails straightened up. Somehow the glass sits askew, the front end is a cm higher than the rear.


I think I managed to reach to a point where the glass was fairly fast moving up and down, but it would never do the lst 1cm of travel to close off the few mm gap...


Ended up taking the power window assembly out to see if I can get the slider positioned a cm higher. It was not removed it seems, the rivets were original (rivets??? crying out loud, why?? Because cheap to build and more expensive to repair? Business-thinking, hey? )


had to put it aside, gotta earn a living looking at two monitors for 8 hours a day. But tomorrow! Ohyeah, we shall prevail!


And then straight away I will modify the power locks and switches. Because It's weird that the key does not open all the doors. :P Or that there is a separate mechanical button for locking... and an electrical one. Weird weird weird. :P


Good pastime though!

hzoltaan

And yes! Following a very simple logic by "connect vacuum and see what happens" we got a working climate control! All vacuum actuators happily move about doing their job once the black line got it's vacuum.


While looking for the canister just for fun I discovered... that I have two canisters! Behind each end of the front bumper!


Power window.
Took the thin to a workbench and opened it up to solder wires where they should have been. poured oil on the link and on the big felt pad on the upper end. (assuming that that is the lubricating point). There were a few tense moments, when I got the car stuck in the bend topside, but managed to get it loose.


Bolted it back with a handful of 6mm short bolts, and now it closes and goes down. Not exactly perfect, not the greased lightning I'd expect after so much tinkering and bathing in oil, but better.
It actually works.


Also probably a lot of power is lost on the bad connections, the wiring had been re-done a zillion times, and those poor switches have seen better days.


I'm planning to replace the 4 switch door panel with a 2 switch from a pax side panel, and the pax side will be replaced with a 1 switch panel from a rear door. Those bits I fished from our ebay. I'll make it simpler (the option to lock electric window, or to have a separate mechanical and an electrical locking button, that is so foreign for me, that I want to get rid of those. )


Central lock will work with a master lock actuator, (and 2 relays) locking all doors at the turn of the key or the flip of the LOCK button (the mechanical one, moving the locks). Pax side will have only a slave actuator, that will not control all doors.
I'll do away with the power window lock option, so I will need only 2 switches: driver/pax window.
All parts have been lying around for months... I just need to finally get on with it!

hzoltaan

I have fixed the heating right?
It was the vacuum lines, vacuum not doing the job in moving the actuators... and the electric switch not giving full power to the blower.


but there was heat, roasty nice warm air...


Now, I started to have some coolant leakage in the summer, nothing biggie, but after empying a 5L water can i realised it probably was not so small a deal after all... It took months mind you, every now and then a bit topping off... Grrrr.


Parked the car for a few days going on a short holiday.
When back, noticed two things:
Temp gague erratically going up and down (normally the needle sits right on the 2nd mark, so it was easy to notice the needle going around a bit)
And the heater erratically blowing hotter or colder...


Damnation... ... Stopped to grab some antifreezer and figured that it did not need a lot to have that cannister full again...


Last year i done installing a flow through 300W heater inline with the heater core. It was quite a job, as the heater pipes on this renault engine do not leave a lot of room to play... Inteestingly, one of them comes right out of the TOP of the cyl head, taking a 90degree turn at the same height as the reservoire... Where is the logic in that?? I mean, the first place you gonna have air bubbles trapped is right there...


Anyway. With the summertime coolant-loosing sideplay i might have damaged the little heater. I think at times it did not get enough coolant because if the coolant level drops 1 inch in the reservoire, that 90degree coming the cyl head is already dry... GRRR


Might i clogged the heater core with some rubbish from this inline heater...?


The pipe going into the core (from the inline heater) is hot. But the one coming out of the heater core is cold...


Today on the way to work heater stayed cold, engine temp stable. So I guess I done clogged it completely shut.


Tomorrow I must flush the heater and take a look if the little heater is still working. (it heats, but god knows if it circulates...)

hzoltaan

So... heater flushing time... let's let the old coolant out. A waterbottle cut and some old tubing.







My first suspicion was a broken external heater so after removing it it went on the test bed.
Pretty good I must say, it delivers a lot of water and heated up the few liters in that bucket in no time!



the tube just behind the turbo, returning coolant from the core was pretty much stuck on... I had to cut it at the end to get it off...
Ready for flushing!




Flushing went well, I few good 'ole wellwater to every orifice I could shove my hose in!
Water flowed abundantly and freely.
For dessert I imagined a better place for the electrical heater pump. I have no idea why it was not put there the first place!





When I fed about 7.5 liters in (1 and 1/2 bottles) there was an awful feeling of doubt popping it's head up... I got only 1 and 1/4 bottle out... Damn...
Then this greeted me:

​​​​​​​
Crap...
I busted the core... probably when preying that damned pipe off... I thought of crying a little, but then I just plain started swearing...
Taking off half the car interior to get to the busted bastard core was exactly what i happened to plan for tomorrow!


There was still the possibilty of head gasket failure...
Awesome...
Good stuff just keeps piling up, don't they?


So decided to bypass the core and have that engine back together soa t least i can get to work in the following days... a pair of gloves and a jumper should do it...


Did not manage to find a proper pipe joint only a right sized piece of plastic tube for domestic hot water systems...


While driving to work I was tormented by the images of steam suddenly bursting from under the dash just a bit forward of the passenger wiper... then temp gauge wildly jumping to the red and beyond... engine changing tone and reving up... a mushroom could of a zillion megaton obliterating Central Europe...


Man, probably i have not looked so often at the temp gauge during the last year, than nowm during this 50 minute ride!


Not much after driving my temp started going up, then went back below operating temp... stopped at the nearest pertrol station, released some pressure from the expansion tank, then stopped again 10 minutes later to find that there was not much pressure, but the original level in the tank... this set my nerves lower a notch, and also temp gauge calmed down, nailing itself to the all-good mark.
After arriving at work another check proved that there was no pressure buildup...


So I assume, my cyl head is ok.
I assume all my troubles were due to a leaky heater core
I know by fact that the heater core is fubar'd needs removal







​​​​​​​

Tbone289

Oh boy... Time to pull the dash?