Hello all,
This is the official beginning of my build thread for my 88 XJ Laredo. I got it for some work that I did on a Saturday a few months ago. As it sat when it came to be mine, it had issues, big ones. Some of them have been addressed. Some of them are in the process of being fixed. First major issue, blowing all of the coolant out of the now nonexistent recovery bottle. This was in part, due to the PO running water through the system and plugging all of the de aeration/return ports from block to head shut with crud that took a screwdriver to break up, and left the head in pretty sad shape. Luckily, I was able to clean it up and it checked out well within the .002 warp spec, over any 6 inch span of the head, and the .008 warp limit lengthwise over the entirety of the deck.(in case anyone needed to know), and all of the valves and seats looked fine. After replacing the head gasket, inspecting all of the lifters, that were in pretty good shape, given the condition of the rest of the engine. Surprisingly, they all pumped up with an oil can, after being soaked in 15w40 brotella overnight. I thought for absolutely sure, that the issue was resolved, but nope, root cause was a plugged radiator core. I did all of the closed system conversion, put a fan clutch (a brand new part that I scored at the junkyard, from a newer ZJ 4 liter), 97-01 heater hoses, to avoid having to cut and splice, (SKETCHY) and a 210 degree on, 190 off temp switch, (part number 75099 from summit racing) and bingo, problem solved. It runs a solid 210-215, without the aux fan. This is just the beginning of the build, as my ultimate goal, is to have an overlanding setup, so I can teach my kids the wonders and beauties of the outdoors, like my dad did for me. I also want to try and do as much of the work by customizing and fabricating things myself as I possibly can. I will be sure to update the thread regularly and put pictures up as regularly as I take them.



Thanks for reading.

I look forward to the awesome feedback I see so much on this forum.