Ender

Very cool build thread, a lot of pics, pic of off-road shows, AND some pics of a nice lookin' girl, you got it all right here! keep it up man, you know it's a good thread when you get motivated to do some of the same things... thanks!

p.s.
Red XJ's rule!

xjfanatic

By far improved it...however, it worked so well because I have a manual trans...top end is a little rough, but I live in a small town and rarely need to go over 45...she will cruise at 75 smooth though.

andrews_96sport

love the build, and x2 on red xj

n_a_i_w

Nice write up. Very nice looking rig!

WTF?

Badass jeep and awsome write up

xjfanatic

Well now that its finally starting to thaw out here in Michigan, I can finally get back to workin on my Jeep. I have done a few small jobs over the past couple of weeks such as a new power steering pump, idler pulley, serp. belt, and I rebuilt the rear cv driveshaft because I have a severe case of the angry sparrows syndrome. Sorry no pics of any of those jobs, but since they are pretty much the same on all jeeps you can imagine what it looked like. Two days ago I finally got around to ordering a new exhaust manifold because like most all other cherokees mine cracked at the collector. After all was said and done, I did the exhaust manifold, motor mounts, and also fixed a few little things on the jeep. The job took about 5 hours with a nice lunch break.

Photo of engine before install for reference when putting it back together. I spent a good 45 minutes labeling everything to make sure that it would go smooth.


New header...I ordered the cheap one on ebay with the flex pipe in it because after a lot of research it sounded like this one holds up better than even the banks headers because they also tend to crack in the same place.



Air filter and tube removed...



Throttle body, spacer, and wire rail removed...



Intake manifold out...



Nice pile of parts building up...



Surprising low amount of carbon buildup inside the intake ports for 135,000 miles...



Totally bare...





New header going in...





Finishing the install was a breeze since I labeled everything so well...After getting all the bolts torqued to spec it took maybe 30 min. to get everything running.

Here is the crack in the collector



I would definitely recommend doing this job if you have a leak in the manifold because it definitely improved gas mileage, power, and steadied out my idle.

XJeeper193

great job! and just wonderin how long did it take you to finish all of that bec im pretty sure i have the same problem and i just havent gotten around to it and how does that header sound? any better than stock?

xjfanatic

The job took about 4 and a half hours all together, including a lunch break. the most time consuming part is getting to the bottom bolts. Your best bet is to just take your time and be patient with the job. Don't rush it and it will go smooth and make sure you label everything because it will make the install go so much easier. It didn't really make that much difference in sound because I went with a header that was basically the same design as the factory manifold. The one from factory is actually designed very well for flow and installing a really expensive performance header won't actually net you any more noticable power or sound.

highwater

Sweet rig awesome work

xjfanatic

Well I had a little more time to work out in my garage this weekend. I got tired of how my jeep looked with only rear fender flares, so I cut my YJ flares to fit a little better and painted them so they don't look like crap any more. I also sanded and painted my steering stabilizer as the rusty white just wasn't doing it for me. I replaced my door hinges on the driver side as well because I was really tired of having to lift up the door everytime I wanted to close it. No pics of the door hinge replacement, but it was pretty straightforward. Here are the rest of the pics and how it sits today.

xjfanatic

Well I went out to my shop to work on the jeep the other day and found a nice big slit in my sidewall of my tires. I also noticed that I have some serious sidewall damage on most of the tires and now they are starting to bubble.

Well this gave me the motivation I needed to get new tires like I've wanted so a set of brand new 36x13.5/15 IROKs are on the way...pics to come hopefully on friday when they get here

xjfanatic

Finally got the new tires installed...surprisingly, they are smoother on the road than my old mud terrains. They do howl a bit, but not nearly as bad as I expected and they do wander a little bit. All in all I am very pleased and will let you know more as I put some miles on them.

Old 35" mud terrain off the rim


New 36" IROK...measures 37" off the rim



First tire mounted


After I got home




Saying good bye to the old tires...sold them 20 minutes after I got home


I must admit, for a dd/weekend wheeler, the bfg mud terrains were awesome, they lasted me five years and a LOT of miles, but now that she's being retired from daily duties I figured it was time to upgrade!

1ABrian

nice thread man. those IROC's look awsome. I bet you'll be impressed with rock traction over the old MT's you had

DaveAz

Does that header happen to have to use little D shaped washer to space things out to match intake manifold?

xjfanatic

Nope...Mine still had the older style intake and exhaust manifold compared some of the 99 and all of the 00-01 models.