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For the washers, the pumps are both in the tank on LHD XJ's, and the tank is in the driver side fender. I would wager that the pump has failed if you cant hear it spinning, it's a really quick fix. Check the wiring first I suppose, mine comes loose from time to time because I don't have my fender liners and the washer pumps are exposed to the wheel well
For gears, I screwed up on my math and went with 4.88 gears and 35" tires. Now, I am turning close to 3K rpm at ~75 ish (I would need to double check that because my speedo gear is one size too small after I went up in tire size). I towed a 5000 lb trailer from Denver, CO to Tampa FL (like 2000+ miles) with that gearing and although it was just fine and I had tons of power, my cruise speed had to come down because I didn't like cruising above 2800 RPM for that long of a period. Lots of power for the hills though, could easily keep it in 4th gear until I hit Georgia which has some steeper hills. It definitely feels fast with the short gearing, but I have to row through the gears like a trucker - lol.
I feel like I would have been much happier with 4.56 gears but that is going to be depending on your use case. I also have an AX-15 5-speed trans, not the AW4 automatic so final gear ratio is different I am sure. A 6-speed NSG370 with a custom longer 6th gear would be killer.
Anyways, just food for thought. I think 4.27 gears would be great for the higher speeds of the Autobahn, but you are going to trade some pulling power up steeper grades
Why is the Grand Cherokee sway bar an upgrade? Is it softer or firmer?
Awesome project you got going on!
Thanks! WJ swaybar is larger in diameter, and will decrease the body roll up front when compared to the XJ swaybar. Haven't gotten around to installing it yet.
Originally Posted by investinwaffles
Damn, nice build thread!!
For the washers, the pumps are both in the tank on LHD XJ's, and the tank is in the driver side fender. I would wager that the pump has failed if you cant hear it spinning, it's a really quick fix. Check the wiring first I suppose, mine comes loose from time to time because I don't have my fender liners and the washer pumps are exposed to the wheel well
For gears, I screwed up on my math and went with 4.88 gears and 35" tires. Now, I am turning close to 3K rpm at ~75 ish (I would need to double check that because my speedo gear is one size too small after I went up in tire size). I towed a 5000 lb trailer from Denver, CO to Tampa FL (like 2000+ miles) with that gearing and although it was just fine and I had tons of power, my cruise speed had to come down because I didn't like cruising above 2800 RPM for that long of a period. Lots of power for the hills though, could easily keep it in 4th gear until I hit Georgia which has some steeper hills. It definitely feels fast with the short gearing, but I have to row through the gears like a trucker - lol.
I feel like I would have been much happier with 4.56 gears but that is going to be depending on your use case. I also have an AX-15 5-speed trans, not the AW4 automatic so final gear ratio is different I am sure. A 6-speed NSG370 with a custom longer 6th gear would be killer.
Anyways, just food for thought. I think 4.27 gears would be great for the higher speeds of the Autobahn, but you are going to trade some pulling power up steeper grades
I replaced the washer pump, which came with a new wiring harness in the box as well, and now all is well. It was a dead pump.
Don't tickle me with a good time with those 4.27's! I looked high and low for 4.27 gears for the XJ Dana 30 and they do not exist. Only in low pinion version. Otherwise that would have been my choice.
I had them replace the stock exhaust system from header to tip. The downpipe is 2.5" to the crossmember, then a 3" expansion joint, 3" Magnaflow cat, 4x12" body (3" in/out) resonator, 3" Magnaflow offset muffler, then 2.5" after the muffler all the way back to the tip.
Reasoning behind parts choices:
2.5" downpipe: get rid of the crushed OEM downpipe
3" expansion joint: have the ability for expanding metal and be a good starting point for the future 3" turbo downpipe to connect to
3" Magnaflow cat: to be legal, save the ozone a bit, and to provide a good bung for the rear O2 sensor to thread into.
3" in/out 4x12" body resonator: to cancel out part throttle daily driving frequencies early in the exhaust system. Seems to be doing its job.
11229 Magnaflow muffler: 3" center in, 3" offset out. Straight through design to keep turbo exhaust restriction minimal but still not be obnoxious on the highway.
2.5" after-pipe: to allow for easier bending up and over the rear axle, and to keep exhaust gas velocity more consistent by reducing pipe cross section as exhaust gasses cool. This may end up being a restriction later with the turbo...we'll see.
I have some MPG data over the last several weeks and a few ski trips:
A few trip pictures from Garmisch and my never-ending search for good Pizza.
The Jeep did quite well hauling 3 adults and all of our ski/snowboard gear down to southern Germany on the 6hr drive. On the way back I slept in the back while my wife drove and she was cruising along on the Autobahn doing 85-90mph for at least 3-4 hours straight. My biggest surprise was to see the gas mileage did not change, even when doing those sustained highway speeds. I'm starting to believe in peak torque being the best chance at highway MPG, and she got 313.1 miles out of that tank, averaging 17.00mpg heavily loaded down.
Speaking of heavily loaded down, I really need to replace the rear springs and shocks ASAP. We bottomed out quite a few times during this last trip due to no bump stops, frowning leaf springs and original rear shocks + all the gear we had in the back.
Last edited by Stroked98Xj; 01-16-2018 at 05:31 PM.
For the turbo, are you planning on making your own custom manifold, modifying a stock manifold, or running it downstream/rerouting the exhaust pipe? Sorry if I missed it.
Man that pizza looks amazing reminds me of my Europe tour and now I and now I want to go back!! You just can't find good pizza like that any other place. Brick Ovens!! Pictures look great and also that's good MPG you guys acheived!
Thanks! WJ swaybar is larger in diameter, and will decrease the body roll up front when compared to the XJ swaybar. Haven't gotten around to installing it yet.
I replaced the washer pump, which came with a new wiring harness in the box as well, and now all is well. It was a dead pump.
Don't tickle me with a good time with those 4.27's! I looked high and low for 4.27 gears for the XJ Dana 30 and they do not exist. Only in low pinion version. Otherwise that would have been my choice.
Oh crud, I didn't really look that hard and I guess they only make that gear ratio for the low pinion? Seems really weird...
4.56's will definately be fun. I love my 4.88's, just wish I had a 6th gear for the highway...
For the turbo, are you planning on making your own custom manifold, modifying a stock manifold, or running it downstream/rerouting the exhaust pipe? Sorry if I missed it.
Perfect timing actually. I haven't posted much on it yet as I'm still designing and planning this part. However, I can with certainty answer a few questions:
I'll be fabricating my own turbo manifold
The material will be Sch. 10 T304 stainless 1.5" pipe size
I will tig weld everything
Cylinders 1-3 will be grouped together, and Cylinders 4-6 will be grouped together
The merge collector will be a twin entry/twin-scroll design with external wastegates
The turbo will be positioned in front of the left side shock tower, above the wheel well.
Originally Posted by XJIrish4x4
Man that pizza looks amazing reminds me of my Europe tour and now I and now I want to go back!! You just can't find good pizza like that any other place. Brick Ovens!! Pictures look great and also that's good MPG you guys acheived!
Indeed, the pizza in Europe has spoiled me. When in Rome, I literally ate pizza for breakfast lunch and dinner for a few days straight. Could not get enough of the brick oven pizza. The dough, the sauce, the seasonings, the cheese, the salami...perfection.
Originally Posted by investinwaffles
Oh crud, I didn't really look that hard and I guess they only make that gear ratio for the low pinion? Seems really weird...
4.56's will definately be fun. I love my 4.88's, just wish I had a 6th gear for the highway...
I too wish I had more gears. The AW4's 4 gears are killing me since everything else I own here in Europe has 6 speeds and are manual (motorcycles, car).
Last edited by Stroked98Xj; 01-17-2018 at 04:50 PM.
Perfect timing actually. I haven't posted much on it yet as I'm still designing and planning this part. However, I can with certainty answer a few questions:
I'll be fabricating my own turbo manifold
The material will be Sch. 10 T304 stainless 1.5" pipe size
I will tig weld everything
Cylinders 1-3 will be grouped together, and Cylinders 4-6 will be grouped together
The merge collector will be a twin entry/twin-scroll design with external wastegates
The turbo will be positioned in front of the left side shock tower, above the wheel well.
Sounds like it will be awesome. Can't wait to see it.
BTW, when you come back to the states, you're going to want to bring that 4 switch bezel and the tail lights with you.
Originally Posted by Stroked98Xj
Again, this is a right hand drive UK-spec Cherokee.
Below is neat in the way of being different, but more of a pain in the *** now to convert over, are the UK-spec head lights and the headlight angle switch. The idea is to manually aim the head lights for no load, then when you are heavily loaded down or towing a trailer, you adjust your headlight switch 1, 2 or 3 degrees down so you're not blinding anyone. Over here, Europeans and Brits are very cognizant of their headlight beam nice
As mentioned, this is a RHD Jeep.
This Jeep was retrofitted with a 100 liter LPG (liquefied propane gas) system that was an OBD2 add on/piggy back. - The idea was to start the vehicle on normal petrol, get the 4.0L up to operating temp, and then flip the switch to LPG. OR, USE AS DISTANCE EXTENDER = LONGER TRIP OFF-ROAD
Very Nice!!
I would absolutely KEEP the headlights. the adjuster, and that big LPG tank especially if yo go off-road or live where gas stations might close during a storm of disaster ...?!! (extra tank of gas? - Yes plz!)
you can't get headlights like that here - unless you pay about $100 each + whatever the Aiming system cost ? - have it imported?
BTW, ... can you find/ get to Junkyards over there?
I'd recommend getting as much of that kind of stuff as you can before you bring home (as spare parts & or to sell to us ?) very hard to get
---> Also: if you can find the thin plastic insert for the earlier Cherokees (80s-'96) dash panel left side 'idiot-lights'/ 4-wheel drive indicators, etc -- or anything like that - I'm interested. ---> Nice work!
Go figure, we are headed back down to Austria this upcoming weekend for a 3 day ski weekend. In preparation, I replaced the rear leaf springs with OEM replacement springs, new bushings, new bump stops, finished replacing the shocks in the rear and added longer shackles for a slight rake.
The U-bolts were cut and leaf perches cleaned up of rust. I'm leaving the rear sway bar on this Jeep for emotional support, if it does anything for body roll control.
Naturally, all the upper shock bolts and a few of the bump stop bolts were frozen into the frame. I drilled and tapped all the bump stop bolts out to 8mm (metric is easier for me to find in Europe) and I punched out all the upper shock nuts. We made capture nuts for the new 8mm replacement bolts with long ears/wings on the nuts to make install tool-less.
And here's how it sits today, much firmer suspension, no bottoming out, and oddly enough my exhaust note got quieter. Also having 4 stiff shocks in all 4 corners is definitely the way I think an XJ should ride. It feels great driving around town, looking forward to another 15-20hrs on the road this weekend.
---> Also: if you can find the thin plastic insert for the earlier Cherokees (80s-'96) dash panel left side 'idiot-lights'/ 4-wheel drive indicators, etc -- or anything like that - I'm interested. ---> Nice work!
Can you link a picture of what you're looking for or send it to me in a PM? The German Jeep club guys and gals I hang out with have a plethora of pre-facelift XJ parts in storage.
01-09-2018, 03:10 PM
I looked high and low for 4.27 gears for the XJ Dana 30 and they do not exist. Only in low pinion version. Otherwise that would have been my choice.
