unidentifiedbomb

Great update!!! Congrats on the baby. With a winch you can go wheeling some crazy spots if you're not afraid of winching when the trail gets crazy and you don't want to abuse the D35 too much.

Freerider15

Yeah, I'm sure once she gets to the point of being able to "play", it will be a little more rewarding than the feed, change diaper, try to get her to sleep, repeat routine

Yeah, definitely plan on swapping at some point. I did find them $10 or so cheaper on a website I've got saved somewhere. Though the swap will not happen at the moment due to any funds going towards the buggy.

Yeah, though it will likely be a while until it remotely gets anywhere where something of that nature might be required. For now it will be the DD/scenic mountain driving rig. I'll wait for anything that might give the D35 pause until the 8.8 is in.

Luckily that swap should go pretty quick, having the parts on hand, and it being something that is a cake walk compared to what I'm working on now.



I've been driving it the past couple weeks. Surprise surprise, the Optima Red Top from late 2017 was starting to crap the bed. Got my warranty swap out and going good again.

Got the emissions test done, passed with flying colors (no issues with my swap what so ever). Plates are finally on...and it's good to go!

It'll be a pause until likely after EJS. Between now and then I'm rebuilding my D60 front from essentially scratch again, redoing some suspension, and reconfiguring my cooling system.

Once that is all done, I'll work on getting the Dirtbound rear DIY bumper, the gas tank skid plate, and my HD offroad shackle hangers all installed.

Ralph77

I hate asking you to repeat something but I can't find it in the thread. Your Jeep is an '01 which means CA Emissions, 2 piece exhaust manifolds, front dual cat set up, and a 0331 head.
Now I remember the Ebay header.
What head did you use on there? The 0331?
What did you do with the 4 O2 sensors?
Are you running only two now?

After rereading the thread I saw the flaring tool. I own the Napa version of that. Is that not like the greatest flaring tool ever? If all you are doing is 3/16" line that is.
Literally foolproof. LOL.

Freerider15

Yeah ebay header (though would just get an OEM one off another vehicle after everything).
0331 head, I'm not worried about it at all.
If you look at the FSM for pinouts, the PCM for a 2000 and 2001 are exactly the same with the O2 sensors, the 2000 just doesn't have anything where the 2001 does for the extra two. So I'm running two of the 4 sensors. The other two are just tied up and zip tied at the back of the head.

Yeah that inline flaring tool is SO much better than the usual bar style. Buddy and I were talking about going in on a hydraulic flaring tool, but right now it just didn't make sense money wise. It's been leak free since install, glad I found they exist. It was $15 or so off Amazon.

Ralph77

See now I would have thought what looks like a '99 and down header, which would
be used on a 0630 head would not work with a 0331 head.
I know it would bolt up but that difference in the ports, exhaust I think, would
make it not right. So what exhaust gasket did you use?

All '01's are CA Emissions. Most '00's are CA Emissions. But not all.
So you are running a Federal Emissions PCM from an '00?
So did you just lengthen the wire for the 2 O2 sensors connectors on the harness?
Because I have to figure they would not reach the down pipe for the upstream
and the back of the cat for the downstream.

I wish I knew about the Amazon one cause I paid almost $10 more for mine from Napa
and that was with my discount at the store. Still don't regret buying that one bit. Everytime
somebody posts about needing new brake lines I link that at Napa. Telling people how good it is.
Now I am going to use your Amazon link. LOL.

Freerider15

See bolded

Ralph77

Thank you for the info.
Sent you a PM.

almirjah

Freerider15

Well, waiting on some parts for the buggy and such, so working on a couple things in the meantime.

Got the rear Dirtbound DIY bumper all tacked together, and ready for finishing whenever I get back to it.

But, prior to that (the reason for not finishing it), I'll be getting my Tomken Gas Tank Skid and HD Offroad Shackle Hangers installed.

Working on doing something I've never see anyone else do yet...UHMW on the bottom of the gas tank skid

Ralph77

So I had no idea what UHMW meant and Google came up with this:


Is that what you are talking about?
I have seen a picture or 2 of gas skids for what I believe to be ZJ's that have 2 "bump stops" in the skid.
Always wondered if I should have put some of those in my factory skid before I hung it.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f67/zj...990-xj-170517/

Freerider15

Correct, UMHW is a little bit of a misnomer, since it's essentially a property of the base material. The correct designation would be UHMWPE, Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene. Similar but different to HDPE, High Density Polyethylene.

It's similar in description to cutting board material.

I'm putting it on the bottom of the gas tank skid, much the same as the skids and boatsides of my buggy. It's a bit nicer when it hits rock, and slides quite a bit better.

Since the Tomken skid is 1/8", it will also help *some* with strength.

Freerider15

So, since I've been waiting on some parts for the buggy to arrive, I decided to jump back on this for a few.

To start it off, a Tomken Gas Tank skid plate. Now, I'll be 100% transparent here, I won this at a NAXJA raffle.

The Tomken skid wouldn't have been my *first* choice, but never the less, it should do the job just fine. The skid itself is 1/8", so a little lighter duty than others. It uses a different mounting setup, which in my case, made life much much easier. The Tomken skid mounts with 4 bolts on the rear crossmember, and to the threaded tank studs in the rear.

One thing that I had planned on doing to this since I got it, was adding some skid material to the bottom. What did I choose? UHMW of course . I've still got a good portion of the sheet I used for the buggy left, so the Tank Skid gets the same treatment.

Why add UHMW?

Well, its adds some rigidity to the slightly thinner material. But, more over, it slides a hell of a lot better than steel, and absorbs impacts a little better.

The first thing I did was get to removing the packing tape that seemingly didn't want to come off, as well as the Tomken sticker (sorry, not a sticker/logo kind of person).

I got the UHMW cut, edge routered, and a slit routered to allow it to sit on the tank and make the contour. Once it was set, I got to drilling and used rivet nuts for keeping the skid in place (a big thank you to my buddy Sam (zluster) for letting me borrow his rivet nut tool):



Got them all in:



And, since I know it will be asked...no, I'm not remotely worried about the rivet nuts and tank puncture. The skid has room, and the roundness of the tank make it so if they did touch, I'd likely need to replace my tank anyhow...since the skid would be crushed.

Freerider15

So, not really a rant, but something I'll cover...since it's always a sticking point.

One area that I'll point out where I like to go a bit above and beyond, is hardware fitment.

What do I mean? Well let me show ya!

Case 1.

The hardware supplied by Tomken was 5/16" for where it bolts to the rear crossmember.

Here's how that looks:



Hotdog down a hallway anyone? They did provide washers that would hold, and I'm sure it all would work just fine.

Here's the same 5/16" bolt, on their own skid:



Still too much play for me.

Want to know what was REAL close to fitting? 1/2".

1/2" filled the frame side hole...a bit better:



With about 2 minutes with a drill, 1/2" fit on the skid. Overkill? Fukk yeah...but it fits a hell of a lot better!

Freerider15

Case 2.

I'm not sure how everyone else buys their hardware, but washers have ALWAYS been something that have made me wonder. As an engineer, loose...is bad.

Why what do I mean?

Let's have a look! Below we have two 1/2" bolts. On the right, we have a 1/2" washer. See anything odd? Yeah, not really a tight fit. How about that washer on the left? That's a 7/16" washer....fits great. So me, I buy all my washers under size since they fit far better.



Most vendors supply hardware with the corresponding sizes. 110% nothing against them, it makes life easy. Me however...nope...I like a close tolerance fit.

Freerider15

So, back to the skid.

A view from the tank side:



And finally...installed:



(today, just as the snow started to fall: )



Overall, pretty easy install. And instead of four Grade 5, 5/16" bolts holding it on the rear...I have four Grade 8, 1/2" bolts.

Boo ya.