New Dad's practical XJ build...on 35's.
02-15-2015, 09:05 AM
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New Dad's practical XJ build...on 35's.
Well it all started a few years ago with a 4 day weekend trip to Colorado with the wife in my stock chevy Colorado. After an amazing weekend doing some light wheeling, we decided to buy a "cheap cherokee" so we wouldn't tear up my daily driver. My original plan to flat bar tow my cheep jeep turned into buying a trailer, but then the tires got bigger on the jeep so we needed a bigger trailer, but then the colorado couldn't pull it so we bought a V8 conversion van, but then the van almost died pulling the jeep up the hills on the way to moab, so we bought a Duramax truck. (I'm still not sure how a $1,000 cherokee turned into me driving a duramax dd) So for the last 3 years we have really enjoyed our 94 2door XJ, and than the family grew. My short armed, pieced together, hard wheeled, moab flopped, XJ just wasn't going to cut it. I needed to settle down and get a nice family friendly 4 door vehicle. Something reliable, comfortable, and pleasant to drive and ride in. (If momma not happy, nobody's happy) I had a plan and needed a cheap rig. I found a stock1998 4door XJ with 260,000 miles on it for $800. Of course it had a "leaking head gasket" and wouldn't start.( more on that later ). So the plan is to basically strip it down and make it new. I want a reliable, capable, comfertable rig. So to do this I plan to tear down and rebuild the motor, trash the stock axles replacing with a HP dana 30 with Eaton locker up front and my 8.8 with Aussie in the rear. Both will be rebuilt and re-geared to 4.56. It's going to get a Rubicon Express Extreme Duty 5.5" long arm kit, and BFG KM2 35x12.50 tires. I'll be cutting out the rusty rockers and doing a rock slider replacement install, as well as plating the unibody front to back. Gas tank skid will be going on, my Rough country front bumper and Warn M8000 winch will be going on as well with a 40" led light bar on top. Custom steering brace as well as track at brace will be made. For part 2 an EXO cage will be built to protect her, as well as a rear bumper and tire carrier. ( part 2 may be a few months, still have to buy a bender and notcher) Here's the 2 door that's getting replaced.
Last edited by Thumpinhard25; 02-16-2015 at 11:37 PM.
02-15-2015, 09:15 AM
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Loaded up and on the 7 hr drive back. Unfortunately the first causality came in the form of curb rash on the pull truck while turning around to load this thing up.
Last edited by Thumpinhard25; 02-16-2015 at 10:28 PM.
02-15-2015, 09:33 AM
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I'll combine these posts when I get home and to a computer. So I squeezed her in the driveway and went to work. Cleaning it up I found about 8 air fresheners hanging from the rear view mirror. Woundering why a person needs so many I pulled them out. I quickly found out the next day that the jeep STUNK of smoke. It was barely tolerable for me and there's no way I'm putting my infant in there. So currently it has 4lbs of bakkng soda sitting in it. Anyways, I decided to pull the motor to check out the condition of the "blown head gasket".
Last edited by Thumpinhard25; 02-16-2015 at 10:33 PM.
02-15-2015, 09:42 AM
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So with the motor on the stand i decided to do a leak down check, hoping to possibly just put a head gasket in this thing. Guy said it had a little tick up top, and smoked a little bit when it stopped working. As I rotated the crank to TDC on the #6 cylinder, I inserted a long zip tie down the spark plug hole to find out where the piston was, in reference to TDC. I quickly felt noticed something missing. Turns out, I got lucky and got those easy access pistons that lay in the bottom of the oil pan. How a guy can do this to a 4.0, you got me.
Last edited by Thumpinhard25; 02-16-2015 at 10:34 PM.
02-15-2015, 09:48 AM
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After seeing this I decided to
Salvage the intake and exhaust manifolds and scrap the test of the motor. A friend had a 4.0 pulled from a running Comanche that he was selling so hoping to buy a long block i checked it out. Leak down test revealed it needed a valve job, but he was willing to sell just the short block. I picked the short block up off him and tore it down while searching for a reman head. I came across a head in Dallas for surprisingly cheap, from a reputable engine builder.
Salvage the intake and exhaust manifolds and scrap the test of the motor. A friend had a 4.0 pulled from a running Comanche that he was selling so hoping to buy a long block i checked it out. Leak down test revealed it needed a valve job, but he was willing to sell just the short block. I picked the short block up off him and tore it down while searching for a reman head. I came across a head in Dallas for surprisingly cheap, from a reputable engine builder.
Last edited by Thumpinhard25; 02-16-2015 at 10:35 PM.
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02-15-2015, 09:59 AM
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While tearing down the motor and getting parts on order, I also had my blue jeep up for sell. The plan was to build the motor while I wait for a sell to fund the lift and rest of the parts. I tore into the bottom in with hopes of just frrshing ing this motor up. The motor was in great shape and it's just getting bearings, rings, seals, lifters, and timing chain set since it's all out. While I put my parts on order I started cleaning up the pistons/rods, block etc. ( I'm on a pretty tight budget trying to just keep within the profits of the blue jeep).
Last edited by Thumpinhard25; 02-16-2015 at 10:37 PM.
02-15-2015, 10:01 AM
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HA!! That's what I said. My poor blue jeep has been hammered and still holds together. But wait. It gets better. ( I'm going to combine these posts up and add more pictures tonight after work.
02-15-2015, 10:25 AM
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So that was a crazy week and a half getting it down to there. All while dealing with trying to sell my blue jeep. I found a buyer however he wanted it for cheaper with stock axles, and no bumper/ winch. So last weekend I started the swap. Installing the stock 98 axles from my new rig into the blue. That turned out to be a whole lot of fun doing it by myself in a driveway. As well as removing the 80lbs bumper alone. What should of been a 8 hr job took 3 days.
Last edited by Thumpinhard25; 02-15-2015 at 10:29 AM.
02-15-2015, 10:40 AM
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I quickly learned that EVERYTHING on the new jeep was trashed. I after installing the new jeeps axle in blue, I hooked up the drive shaft and heard a clank. The pass axle u joint was gone. When I removed the rear drive shaft, I noticed it had ZERO bearings in it yet somehow still had the caps on the u joints. There's a reason I'm not a fan of the mud. And this is it. Literally every rotating part was trashed. Luckily I planned to scrap the axles and suspension and motor anyways. However it wasn't a lot of fun getting them operational for install into blue.