What's the intended use? If a daily driver and lite trail vehicle then I'd keep it simple.

Fix rust first.

Here is how I did my family trail vehicle. I drive to and from work in the poor weather too. 80 miles highway round trip.

I went:
3.5" RE lift. With new rear springs and mono tube shocks
Dual shear RE adjustable track bar
Extended brake lines front and rear.
Keeping the 8 1/4 and Dana 30 rears.
Have stock style 16" wheels that keep the tires tucked in.
Tires are 16" that measure about 31.7x10.5

Future plans:
SYE
Sway bar disconnects
Regear to 4:10 or 4:56 and some kind of selectable lockers.

Still has very good road manners and does what I want Offroad.

In the end it really depends how you plan to use it.

andrew - cracking head?

joe - that is a beautiful machine. mine is that same cherry red minus the black trim.

Thanks man. Looks better in pics though.

Have been thinking of getting rid of the black door trim.

2000 and up have a bad rep of cracking the cyl head. They fixed it sometime in 03 with a typy casting of the head. Something to keep an eye on. Some never have an issue others crack. Main thing is make sure you don't over heat it. Make sure the cooling system is in good working order. Mine has 208,000 miles on the original head. Maybe it's good one. Maybe I will have problems next week. Never know.

So I've made a few discoveries about what I want this thing to do and what I can do to it for now:

Eventually I want to do the Rubicon Trail with this Jeep. Down the road.

The axles are showing a bit more rust than I'm comfortable with, so they're going. Anyone have any recommendations for where I can find a new C8.25 and an DHP30?

My bonus check got stolen by the tax man. Quite literally over 75%. That'll be the last time I don't pay attention to withholding. Just means I have to start small. First step is replacing my factory headlights. The roads where I live are mostly unlit and infested with deer and people. You guys have any recommendations on LED headlights? I'm currently looking at these: http://www.quadratec.com/products/97009_8002.htm.

Great lights. I have them and love them. Others will chime in with the same experience, I'm sure. Shop around though, you may be able to find them cheaper.

roninofako - were yours a direct swap or did you need any wiring adapters?

Direct swap. No harness upgrade needed as they draw less amps. Plug and play, and night and day (pun intended) difference. I would post up some pics, but am out the door ATM for work...there is a thread on here with my comparison pics somewhere, search around if you want to see it, otherwise I can post them up later.

Something worth mentioning, though, if you have factory fog lights, you may need to disable the relays for them, sometimes they don't play nice with upgraded headlamps...

I'll check out your thread. Thankfully, no fog lights for me.

Jeep made a new head and put it on the 00-01 xjs and some other jeeps.If drove hard or hot the head would crack,They did make a upgrade head which jeep used to replace the heads that cracked.The word tupy i said to look for is the upgraded head.

New question: I need to replace the axle shaft on the front driver side. Figure I may as well go ahead and upgrade. I have ABS also. Do I need any sort of special axle shaft/cv axle? And does anyone have any reco's for the parts I should buy?

I am new to the world of XJ's also, and started a thread asking similar questions about a week ago. Some of the good advise that I got was to replace parts as they break. This sounds like good advise to me especially in a situation where you have a tight budget that way your only replacing what's really necessary, just be prepared to be towed home when you go out wheeling.


Oh and an exception to this rule is a snorkel, if your going through lots of deep water you'll want a snorkel before you hydro lock your engine. That was one of the things that I had to learn the hard way.

Ditch the ABS, it's a dumb system and nobody runs with it, especially off-road. I'm not saying all ABS is dumb, but older systems are incredibly intrusive and a decent driver will have more control once they learn to moderate pedal pressure in snow. As far as upgrades, chromoly shafts (including the stub shafts) and Spicer sealed u-joints are pretty much all you've got. Do your axle shaft seals while you're in there, and you can get aftermarket seals for the exposed ends of the axle tubes. They only have a little piece of plastic from the factory, so it's not an actual seal.

I'm not a fan of this mentality. Replace stuff as it wears out, not as it breaks. I understand that's not possible in a lot of situations, but you should be aware of the condition of the major components on your vehicle, especially a modified XJ. For instance, I knew my water pump was beginning to struggle a year ago. The bearing was making a little noise, but it wasn't bad and I didn't have time to replace it then. Two days after I started hearing the bearing, the water pump went and stranded me over night. I should have made time to replace it.

I agree with you when it comes to engine parts replace these to prevent major engine damage. And since its also your daily driver it might be wise to upgrade everything before hand so you know it won't break on your way to work.