welcome to my build and thanks in advance for any help or input! i had to wait a few weeks for a cherokee to pop up cheap enough since this is my third car. I found this one for $1500 in los angeles, california. only a few hours away! i bought it feb 25th 2012. I'm going for more of an expeditionary vehicle build since i have a few trips planned out, but it will also be used for shooting in the desert, airsofting in the mountains, and camping where i feel like it and such when not in road trip mode.






4.0L 4x4 204,xxx miles
32" tires
4" lift
cool bumper
OD green!
high pinion?
towing package?
headers ?
power locks, windows, and mirrors but they don't work
sunroof


first thing i did was bed liner the floor with cheap auto zone bedliner, since the carpets were old, moldy, and smelly. turned out pretty good but now i decided i want to put a sound deadener under it and find carpets to put over that.


while i was away in europe for a week the starter died! no problem, took an hour or so for a new one. better now then later!

ordered new door seals and tailgate seal but the auto zone ones fit better because they're thicker, so now i have two sets!kajsdf;aklsdfj

changed the dirty 20-50w oil for some decent 10-40

did compression test. lowest was 115, highest was 135.

sea foamed the gas tank and intake

dual battery kit from painless! 2 new batteries! only one is installed at the moment but I've got a 55lb monster dual purpose battery waiting for this weekend haha (power inverter coming soon!)




got bored a few days ago and put a new motor mount in.

and today i got a new cat and cutback exhaust(before it just ended about the middle of the jeep) and a broken door hinge welded back into place for 240 total! what a difference! its amazing that everything i do makes it noticeably better.

more to come! but on to question time. hopefully thats okay here

how do i find out if i have the 80amp or 100amp alternator? i think either way id like to have it upspun to 130amps min

definitly gona find smaller tires for road trips since i don't trust these but do i need to do anything to run smaller tires? track bar? just worried about death wobble

also looking to make the ride a little better. its fine on a smooth road(for me) but if you hit a tiny bump it feels like you just smashed into a large tree. what would be recommended for that. only thing I've thought of is shocks.

i have a huge list of small maintenance items to do before the first road trip in august but should i worry about any major stuff? water pump, oil pump, fuel pump, head gasket, timing chain?

also just to keep in mind the previous owner said the previous owner had the engine rebuilt, who knows but also the cali title says 289,xxx miles and my odometer shows 204,895. so its possible this jeep has 305,xxx miles on it

 

looking good....

 

looks really good dude. I'm diggin the interior looks like it's already got some style . Whats goin on with that sweet switch you got rigged by the radio? It looks like something you'd connect to a flame thrower.... And that front bumper is sick!! That came with it?

Looks good! Following your build

 

thanks! and yep the bumper came with it. its why i had to have this one! lol the switch is for the dual batteries, so i can have main/both/aux

 

heres a better pic of the switch. today we made most of the connections for the dual battery system more permanent but still didn't have enough time to wire up the second battery. wish i could show you guys how bad the old exhaust was but heres a pic of the new one.

oh and my power windows work! just gota wire the main power wire back up to the fuse box. it looks like they haven't been used in years! haha

 

bedlinered the chrome door handles and mirrors, new motor mount, 80 square feet of second skin damplifier, and some shiny closed cell foam. hopefully its dead silent on the road, but I'm sure ill still need smaller street tires.

also gona do the camo on the rest of the roof!

 

finished up my custom headliner. started putting vents in the hood and got distracted so now theres only one lol. another 40sq ft of www.lobucrod.com insulation stuff. found some junkyard carpet for 11 dollars for passenger and cargo area! they look brand new!

also bought new goodyear wrangler tires to replace the worn out mud tires. they look pretty good for how small they are. pics of that later!

 

going center consoleless. i think it looks much better. gps mount. also, cupholders!
still need a full shot with new tires, coming soon!

 

Is that a floor vent your using for the hood? Very creative I like it, I'm assuming you can open and close it for rainy days right?

 

yep its a floor vent, but i cut the inside part that opens and closes before thinking about rain lol

 

Still a good idea either way. Best thing to do is put dielectric on all the electric stuff just incase

 

yeah thats what i was thinking. i wouldn't get out and close them if it was raining anyways lol

 

theres the new tires, and I'm trying to get the dang intake manifold off lol

 

new intake manifold gasket
cleaned intake/exhaust manifold and throttle body
new felpro rubber valve cover gasket
new water pump/ radiator and heater hoses/heater valve
new fuel filter
703 neon injectors
new serpentine belt
new radiator cap
had the alternator rebuilt to 175amps and installed that with a 140amp fuse

not sure if I'm forgetting anything but heres some recent pics

 

started building my own cargo area rack. didnt really want to buy one...



things i still need to do

fuel pressure regulator
02 sensor
tranny mount and cushion
new radiator since i think this one is leaking onto the battery tray
dirtbound electric fan kit
radio
alarm
power inverter
window visors
new shocks and other worn out suspension parts
finish the dual battery setup this weekend! lol its been too long