'99 XJ Build-The Yeti
 

Hi all, new to the forums after lurking for a long time, and I figured the best place to start would be with a build thread. Backstory: I bought my cherokee stock last September with high miles (242k) on the 4.0:


Attachment 275350

Drove it stock for a few months, and then decided to lift it around Christmas. My goal with it was to make it a DD that I could hit trails and mud holes with, without worrying about getting stuck. For this reason, I went with a 3" lift from RC. Because it's just a starting point for this jeep, and I'm still pretty gentle with it off-road, I was fine with going rough country for the time being. Also bought some used Dick Cepek 31s from one of my friends. Lifted it:


Attachment 275351

Threw on an old Flowmaster Super 44, and drove it like that for 4 or 5 months. During this time, I did some small stuff, like $30 "cold" air, and a 60mm bored throttle body and fan shroud to replace my broken one, that I picked up from thexjfiles, who lives pretty close to me:


Attachment 275352

Pretty soon, my M/Ts were all but bald, and I needed new tires. My dad convinced me to go with all-terrains, so I picked up a set of brand new 31" General Grabber AT2s off of craigslist for $425 and put them on:


Attachment 275353


It rode so much better, but the tires still rubbed like crazy. One night at work, a bunch of guys were all parked around my jeep with a couple other Cherokees, so I went out and talked to them; long story short, I worked a deal with one of the guys to buy his old bumper and lights when he got a new one, so I bought that and put it on, and then went wheeling:


Attachment 275354

Soon after, the same guy sold me his roof rack and 2 20" light bars:

Attachment 275355

I had gotten bored with the old super 44 and stock exhaust. It wasn't "mean" enough for me, so a couple weeks ago, I had a local shop put on a super 10 and 2.5" pipe. I'm so much happier with the sound now, it sounds like a 5.0 mustang at idle. Not too loud, but a much more noticeable rumble than the super 44.

That's pretty much it up to this point. I'm going to swap out my 60mm throttle body for a 62mm soon, and I'm either going to get some bushwhacker flat flares or order some notch customs X-Max flares. I'd like to go up to 4.5" of lift, though I plan on going with IRO this time. Sorry for the long read, and thank you guys for looking!

Build update: Last September, I started having overheating problems with my 4.0, and it eventually blew. After a long wait and a junkyard motor that we thought was having the same issues as well (in all actuality, I put in a new radiator, and the cap got sucked up into the hose, clogging it completely), I finally got a re-man put in, and it's been running like a champ ever since. I plan on wiring the light bars in the rack tonight...

Nice looking XJ. Did you resolved the rubbing?

No, the rubbing hasn't been fixed, I'm holding out until I can get flares so I don't have to rig something up. Got the light bars wired last night, and they work great. Will try to post pics ASAP