ihscoutlover

Ok here is the start of my build, a 2000 XJ. Bone stock, bought it back on Halloween of last year for $1400, with like 10 miles shy of 170k. Specs are as follows:

4.0
AW4
231
LP30 3.55
8.25 3.55

Pics from when I bought it are currently in my folder under my username. I should have some more shortly.

Jeff

Moparboy01

Should post the pictures in your build thread...

ihscoutlover

They are in the album under my pic and user name, just roll the mouse over the cherokee box, my pics should show up. I am still trying to obtain the others located on my home computer, of which my wife can only email me 10 at a time. Then I can progress with the real build.

Jeff

ihscoutlover

Ok, here are some of the photos of when I first got the Jeep, while still at the owner's house:

ihscoutlover

I was on the fence on the wheels and tires, so I did this as a comparison, on the front is a 30" BFG AT KO. The rear is the sport rim and tire that came on the jeep when I got it:



I like the front wheels better than the stock sport rims, so I am going to probably use the sport rims for either snow tires, or a set of roadway spares, to keep the mileage off the good offroad tires.

ihscoutlover

After buying this on Halloween of 2012, two days later, I hit this milestone:

ihscoutlover

Then I got to cracking on the PM that some of the POs failed to complete. I learned something else about the late model XJ's and that is that the front clip is held on by 4 nuts on the outer corners, one behind each turn signal light assembly, and the other two up top behind the back of the header panel. Then the 4 nuts along the back of the center top of the header panel, then the whole assembly can come out so you can reach this:



Yes that is the drain plug for the radiator. It would appear that the antifreeze/water solution in my system here was, well not so good.

ihscoutlover

This is what came out after just the first flush:



The thermostat:

ihscoutlover

After two weeks of clean antifreeze and water in the XJ, again it was drained and this was the result:



No change. So I flushed it yet again, put on the new thermostat, and started driving it. Temps got down from 220-230 back to this:

ihscoutlover

Ok I'll fast forward to the start of November. I took it with the family on a local Jeep club trail ride. We had a great time, got hung up a few times, but it performed well. Went to go to lunch and I was still battling high, I mean real high temps now, with the sitting and idling, couldn't run the heat and still get the temps down. Pretty much drove it for about 1/4 mile with the needle buried(no real choice), since the trail head was that far, and as the caravan proceeded to the lunch rendezvous location, I got it parked and shut it down. We ate lunch with the group, and I decided to head the 45-50 miles back home, so I didn't hold the group up and at least going down the Interstate, the temps were much much more reasonable. So I first swapped out the factory radiator. Then I pulled the water pump. I figured with all the crud that I had flushed, I might have something in there. Here is what I found:



Yes there is really no impeller there to move any water, and look at the cavitation that is going on within the pump as well, that is those little indents in the inside behind the impeller, thats caused by the crud in the system, as well as cavitation.



While removing the pump, one of the bolts decided to exit this world:



I did learn a cool trick to remove that little bugger. Get a hammer, a pair of vise grips, and some PB blaster, or Liquid Wrench. Take the hammer and tap on the end of the bolt, like you are going to drive it in like a nail(You don't have to hit it real hard), then take the vise grips and crank them down on the end that's exposed. Then work to slowly back the bolt out, and voila!! Out that thing came:



Drained the coolant, yet a third time, and here is what was leftover in the top of drain container in the top of the picture:

ihscoutlover

Yes after this repair the mileage has gone up, here it is at the time I was headed home to get the radiator and water pump changed out:

ihscoutlover

Later that month, we got nailed with about 8" of the white stuff:

ihscoutlover

Nothing really transpired the rest of the winter on Jeepy. Back and forth to work, in ice and snow and such, doing 90 mile round trips to work from the time I bought it, to the present. During a trip to Indianapolis, IN for a work assignment, I was noticing the coolant overflow bottle was lower than it had been. I kept an eye on it, and then at the end of Feb/start of March, I took another trip with it to Louisville, KY. That trip I used approximately 1 gallon of coolant. I pulled the oil fill cap, and there was a milkshake residue on the bottom side. Time to pull the head. I got estimates on the job, and found that it was gonna cost me like close to 2k to do it. I hadn't done this job before, but I was determined to learn. So here is what I did:

I started marking wires and parts as to where they went. Here is the start with the battery and intake/air cleaner assembly removed:

ihscoutlover

Injector wires, temp sender wire, and throttle/kickdown cables/bracket removed:



Covered up TB, and removed front O2 Sensor wire:



Another view of the O2 sensor wiring and routing:

ihscoutlover

Intake, and TB wire and house routing picture:



Injector harness holder removed from studs and set aside:



Temp sender wire removed:



Power Steering pump and bracket removed and set aside in the tray the air cleaner: