sup fellas? been a while. getting my 98 xj fixed up to sell, picked up a 2000 xj my dad had sitting around for cheap.

2000 XJ Sport, LP D30/8.25, AW4/NP231

Big suprise... (not)... water in the oil when my dad bought it which we knew and he planned to fix, so I suspected the head was cracked. My dad has too much other stuff to work on so I told him I'd take the burden off his hands

Out of the mud/trail scene, and I just want a nice fun beach/camping vehicle, this thing is too clean to destroy!

plans:
-new reinforced 0331 head and head bolts
-new water pump/thermostat
-new radiator hoses/vacuum hoses (has new radiator already)
-new brakes
-junkyard 4" lift
-Big 3 wire upgrade (probably from kellyswip)
-15% window tint
-neoprene seat covers
-some sort of stereo system w/ cubbyhole sub
-detours tailbone
-jcr DIY front bumper
-roof rack
-265/75/16 when the mtr's wear


When I first got it from my dad after a wash.

 

swapping stuff from the 98 to this one.
got the front done. smashed the eff out of my finger, well two of them. pinky came out a little worse. stupid broken bolt, and then the spring compressor got wedged... ftl.

 

so finally had time to get the rear lifts swapped out. finished pulling the door molding off and cleaned it up.
after that pulled it in the garage and decided to start working on getting the head off. pulled the fuel rail, electrical, fan, air intake, etc off and started working on getting the intake manifold off. the damn thing has 4 bolts on the underside that are in b/t the exhuast manifold ports, and a PITA. after spending 15 minutes working the socket onto the bottom back bolt, which was the last one... it is giving me hell. i got it half way backed out and about had the intake off and the socket slipped off and now i cannot get it back on. walked away for the day. jeep-2, me-0.

 

finally got the garage straight/organied where i could get it in the garage and got the valve cover off... revealing this...



so pulled the head off (by myself)... im 140lbs and with that 2" BB and tires made it way harder than I thought it'd be... that thing whooped my ***... but I got it off without breaking anything (except my back)
a lil inspecting and I saw what I guessed was the issue...



got a magnaflux kit to scope it out and sure enough....

 

so, it'll be a lil while til i get all the parts i need ordered/acquired b/c of working 72hr/wks until april, so i figured i would start cleaning up the wiring/loom, etc and do a lil cleaning/painting in the bay.
starting moving stuff out the way and taking old loom/tape off... what a friggen rats nest.


pulled the front clip to paint/clean/make it easier to work on... about 50 of these fell out...

boxes of stuff i've pulled off... (hope i don't have any pieces left over when it's done! lol)

 

cleaned up, painted, did a lil wire loom. paint needs to dry, hopefully it'll look better

 

got a new water pump, hoses, and some other crap last week. ordered a new heater/inlet tube for the pump too. hopefully get the head ordered soon, im working outta town so wanna be back home so i can be here when it ships.

oh, also ordered battery cables from KelleysWIP, great guy

 

slowly getting cleaned up/painted

 

got a set of JK shocks (black ones for now) for $20, ordered detoursusa 1.75" stm rear shock relocators, set of RC bar pin eliminators for the front and plan to make a trip to the junkyard thiwhen i get back in town and do a little searching for some rodeo leaf springs and some thunderbird coils, then I'll order a trackbar from Ironmanfab and some control arm drop brackets from RC as well. also should be getting my battery cables from KelleysWIP soon. in the mean time I'm piecing together everything I need to install the head as well. Need a gasket kit, some new headbolts and ofcourse the head. Waiting until I'm back home (in town) for good to order it. My wife is pregnant and I dont want her even touching that thing to move it when it arrives b/c i dont want it sitting on the porch for long.

so that brings us up to now, i'm 75% done with the wire looming/taping, i need to upload the pix when i get back home. i'm working out of town on night shift and only have friday nights to work on it so it's a slow process.

need to finish it up before august, i've been doing some other work too, lol

 

Congrats!

 

lol thanks! all that work talking about the jeep and the baby takes the cake

 

Yes congrats! My wife's due any day now. Bunch of future Jeepers coming this year!

 

i didnt read that you said that you pulled the head off and thought that you said you pulled the motor by yourself i just pictured you like litteraly lifting the engine out and it almost killing you haha had to reread that like 3 times to get that image out of my head

 

Congrats. The jeep looks sweet. nothing like a super clean black xj.

 

Clean as SHI*, Love the wheel and tire combo. you think abt painting em? and are you gonna just swap it for another head?