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Hey folks, figured I would start a build thread seeing as I picked up the project rig a couple days ago. This build is something I’m doing with my older son (who is 9). He’s super excited to be involved with something like this, I’m looking forward to many quality hours in the shop (and in the woods) with him working on this and having fun in it. The “PJ” in the name is hi initials.
Its a 99 Sport in red (not sure of the fancy name...lol). It’s got 120k on the clock. Rockers need a little work, but very savable. Runs ok, has a skip/miss. Seller says it overheated and the head gasket failed. The deal included a head gasket kit. 4WD works good.
Towed it home on a dolly (pulled the rear driveshaft). The trip was uneventful, all went well. Got home and pulled it into my shop. Threw it up on the lift, looked it over good. Brakes are good. The rest of the body is good, one soft spot under the passenger front seat.
Yesterday I tried doing a coolant flush, found it hemorrhaging coolant out of the rear freeze plug on the left side of the engine. At that point I just committed to getting the head off so I can get the manifolds out of the way to do all the freeze plugs on the side. Got the head 99% ready to pull. Only thing stopping me is the damn fuel line disconnect. I am going to get one of the tools to get it apart (I tried like hell with the picks...couldn’t get it apart). The good news it things looked good under the valve cover.
Im going to have the head cleaned and checked at a machine shop. I have already ordered a new water pump, tstat, freeze plug set, electric cooling fan (found it seized up). I will also be doing plugs/cap/rotor.
Hey everybody, had a camping trip over the last week, so no work on the XJ over the last week.
What I did find out is that a clean/cut/valve job on this head is $250-$400 (depending on initial condition). I found several heads online for $250-$350 complete/refurbed.
What sense does it make to go through this head when I can get a new/refurbed head for same/less money?
Ooooooooookay......this is off to a bad start. Finally got around to pulling the head off. I was pleasantly surprised to find the head gasket and head looked good! I could see where there was bypass between #3 & #4 cylinders, but looked good otherwise....
I was feeling pretty good about it until...
Yup....two very noticeable cracks in the block, just above the freeze plugs on either side of #3.
Motor or shopping it is.....hope to find a suitable donor quickly, I was hoping to have this on the road before too long!
Good luck with the new engine search! hope the one you found works out. The jeep looks like a good clean start and will make for a great father/son project !
Hey everybody, little update on the engine search. I picked up the 96 that I went and looked at today.
Stats: 1996/auto/4x4/C8.25/77k on the clock (yes, that’s the real mileage). Paid $450
The good: Runs fantastic, starts right up cold, idles perfectly hot, drives and shifts awesome, 4x4 works as it should. Entire cooling system replaced 8k ago (rad/cap/hoses/pump/tstat), repair slips are in the glove box. Rocker panels are immaculate....which is strange given the condition of the floors.
The bad: Floors rotted front to back on outboard side of frame rails, and 4-6” inboard of frame rails. Generally really rusty underneath body wise.
Seeing as I’m into this for the motor (and I’ll keep the tranny), I think I did fine.
I have already got the bad motor in the 99 nearly ready to pull out. One question for those who have done it, can I just separate the motor/tranny and leave the tranny in the truck for the swap, or is that just making more work for myself? I’m either thinking I’ll split them apart and leave the tranny in, or pull them out as one (in which case I’ll drop the donor motor and tranny in as one with the swap).
A few picks of the donor and the bad motor as it stands:
I took a quick video of a start up and idle when I got it home. I’ll upload it to YT and post the link.
I’m thinking I got lucky with this donor....now the fun stuff begins with the swap.
Nice work so far! The fact that the underhood light still works on that 96 is impressive.
Are you going to try and swap the AC over too? I noticed your 99 has an AC delete pulley.
I would like to, but the connections are different. The 99 has the one piece flange that has both lines on it, where the 96 has two separate threaded connections for the refrigerant lines. If there is an easy swap then I’d definitely do it!
Made some progress yesterday after work. I think I’m going to pull the tranny before pulling the motor. I was going to try and leave it in during the swap, but I don’t think that’s going to be doable.
PJ’s 99 XJ Build
