Eddy_AL

Guess I'll start bangin away on my own build thread. The past couple of months Old Blue has been spending alot of time under the knife. Unfortunately, I don't have many pics. Guess I'll have to get more diligent on the pic taking......


OB is a 1997 model. I bought her in 2000 with 50,000 miles on her. 160,000 miles later and I decided that I had gotten my original money's worth and it was time to begin the build.
HP D30/Chrysco 8.25, 4.0, AW4

Done so far.....
Installed a Rusty's 3 inch springpack kit.
Rusty's LCA's
Installing the lift quickly beacame a "while I'm in here" exercise....
New control arm bushings
New ball joints
New wheel hub assemblies

Rusty's steering conversion
Rusty's Adjustable Trackbar

Did I mention that Rusty's shop is about 30 minutes from my house... Yea, dangerous....

Right now, I'm not happy with the TRE's on the steering - gonna swap em out for heim joints.

Gonna go ahead and dump the TRE on the Trackbar as well.

Took her in for an alignment. Had forgot about a hit I took in her 6 years ago. 8.25 had a bent axle housing. Found another 8.25 off of NAXJA for $100. Swapped it in.

Put some 31/10.50 Wrangler Authority tires on. They looked interesting, figured I'd try them out just to see. OB is gonna end up with 33's and I have another 97 XJ that I'm going to build mild for my daughter this summer - will swap them over.

Blew out the turdy5 in the other XJ. I orignally bought the other 8.25 for it, but then came the bent axle housing on OB. Scored a D44 tonight, so it will go into OB and I'll swap the chrysco over to the other XJ.

Swung by the JY a couple of weeks ago for a blower motor resistor. Found a 97 ZJ with the full rear disk brake setup. Scored the entire setup for $45. So when I do the D44 swap, it will get the rear disks.

OB has a severely blown head gasket. Don't really feel like tearing into a motor with over 200,000 miles. Low oil pressure - looks like bad bearings. Currently weighing my options... If I can score a deal on another 4.0, I'll probably go with it for now.

On the list:
4.56 gears
Lockers - still not sure which
99 intake
bore out the throttle body
15x8 steelies with 4.5 backspacing
Posi Lok
headers
port & polish head
roller rockers
etc
etc
etc....
Anyways....The list goes on and on. I'm looking at doing a trip to Moab in June. So I need to figure out just what I can get done in time for the trip.

Wish I could find a front D44 already converted to 5 on 4.5 and the proper wms.

I'll get some pics up as soon as I can.... Gonna call it a night.

Eddy_AL

Swung by Rusty's today for the heim joints. Once I told told the guy in the office what I needed. He came out and gave OB a thorough going over. Turns out it is my steering gearbox. With over 200,000 miles, I was looking at replacing it anyway.

I walked in ready to drop some cash. They took the time to check out my issue and saved me some money in the process.

I'll continue to give them my business.

wheeler

sound like u did miss lot of oportunities to take pics! we wont hold it agianst you i like the biuld, keep us updated.

Eddy_AL

Yeah..... I was too busy turning wrenches.

I promise to get more pics moving forward....unless I forget.....


Picked up some new Rusty's Offroad UCA's for OB today. Will put them on this weekend.

Eddy_AL

A little weekend surgery.....


Aaaah Much better......


Lift ON!!

Added the Wrangler Authority 31/10.50's




That's all I got right now.... Will add more as the work progresses.....

Damn this is addictive....

31/10.50's should have been a factory option.

INDIANA-XJ

Looks good, thas always been one of my favorite Jeep colors.

Eddy_AL

Thanks - Mine too. Already had three offers to purchase in various parking lots around town. Ummmmmm, no. I'm keeping her forever....

Eddy_AL

Well, I 've come to a decision. OB is going to Mall Crawler status. I'm going to leave the chrysco 8.25 in it. I'm going to do the head gasket, put on the new UCA's, and a steering gear box this weekend. Once everything is tweaked and where I want it, I'm going give the keys to my 17 year old.
To protect my teenage daughters, I'll add a roll bar.
To protect the Jeep, I'll add bull bars and a rear tire carrier.

Then I'm going to start the next build.

I have black 97 2 Door sitting in the driveway. My D44 is going in it.
I'm thinking a 4.5" lift, Rusty's 6 inch bulge fenders front and rear, 35's and bump stops (keeping COG low). I'll wheel the 4.0 til it blows. During that time, I'll start searching for a chevy 5.3 and collecting Novak parts.....

* ADDED: She's kinda dirty. She's been sitting for a year. Notice the bird poopage on the mirror... Anyways, I bought her in 2003 at a GSA auction.
When I bought her, 45,000 miles - AW4 - 4x4 - A/C - All factory skid plates - $4500.00. At 130,000 the turdy5 went belly up. Going this weekend to Charlotte, NC
to pick up the XJ D44 I just scored. Let the games begin.......







Anyways, I have a lot of work to do on the build sheet.....

Eddy_AL

Well, didn't get quite as much done this weekend as I had hoped.

I did do the head gasket, exhaust/intake manifold gasket, valve cover gasket, new o-rings on the fuel injectors, radiator flush, oil change. Also spent many hours Saturday night with the dremel tool opening up and polishing the exhaust ports on the head.

Oil pressure seems to be back up. It is staying between 35 and 50psi on average. A couple of time it has dropped down to 20 psi. I'm running 5 quarts of oil and 1 quart transmission fluid in the crankcase. Transmission fluid is essentially a high detergent motor oil. (I'll probably get flamed on that)

I'm going to keep running the same in the crankcase over the next couple of months. I'll be changing the oil every thousand miles until I can be reasonably sure I've gotten all the moisture out of the crankcase from the blown head gasket.

Who knows? Maybe I got lucky and dodged a bullet. 212,000 miles and after this weekend, she gets up and scoots! I actually forgot what this engine is supposed to run like.

This is my first time to do a head gasket on one of these. Yea, it's a time suck, but all in all, it was pretty straight forward.

Got it apart.....



Found this. Didn't have time to go to the shop and weld. Will be putting a header on this list. Said screw it and put some JB weld on to stop the exhaust leak.




Gettin Clean...



Just a suggestion for anyone that decides to do it... Cardboard boxes are your friends. Use them wisely.....




All back together...... Whew... I'm worn out...

cole93maxxxj

nice cherokee! i like it!

Eddy_AL

Ok..... I'm going to have to resize those pics.... Jeez

Gibby_91_XJ

Great work man, that is one clean lookin engine compartment!

Eddy_AL

Well.... 300 miles after the head gasket work and the oil pressure started dropping. Went ahead and changed the oil again last night. On the drive in to work, the pressure got down as low as 15 psi. I'm interested to see what she'll do on the drive home with the warmer temperatures.

Right now now, I'm thinking about pulling the engine from the black 2 door and dropping it in. This is getting annoying.....

offroadnut36

Nice jeeps man. Im diggin the build list for the black one. Sucks about the motors, but **** happens, right?

Eddy_AL

Ok... Not gonna swap motors just yet. I'm going up to Charlotte to pick up the D44 so this will have to wait until next weekend, but I'm gonna put a new oil pump in. While I'm in there, might as well do the RMS too.