I was able to get the oil pan out, oil pump out and new one in in a single afternoon. Last time I did the oil pan I had only a 2" lift and I didn't have the HF Farm Jack. It was a lot easier and faster this time, as I didn't even have to remove any steering or suspension parts to clear the pan. Just needed a few inches off the front bumper.

The oil pump went in fairly easily, even the PITA tube for the pickup wasn't that bad. I decided to call it at the 3/4 point because I was out of daylight, but all that remains is torquing the bolts, filling with oil, and priming the pump...

 

Same one I used, only had 2 weird things. No gasket for the IAC, and when I went to tighten it down the base screws they included wouldn't go down all the way. The washers was hitting on the outside rear part of the casting. Had to take my dremel tool and take some off the body section to make it work. Sent three emails to them prior to putting it on asking for the gasket, never received any answer, and then 2 more about the bolt problem. Never got any response from those either. Wondering if you had any problems like that, or just my bad luck?

 

I was aware and also nervous of all the things you mentioned above as possibilities upon arrival, but I think they have steamlined the manufacturing process or something because I didn't experience any of those issues. There was a gasket for the IAC, the bolts worked fine and no need to dremel anything. It just fit, first try.

I did have some washers and my dremel on standby, not needed. Maybe they actually listened to all the reviews over the years?

 

311K on our 2000 freedom CA's
Still tight as heck. We got it at 240k and put about 25000 a year on it.

 

Did the air box cowl mod.

 

Ended up making the gasket for it. Was a pain trying to find gasket material to do it. Neither Advance or Autozone had them, had to get it from Amazon. Appears to be good and no leaks.

 

Well, everything is in and leak free. I am extremely happy with it and the fact that I had the foresight to take my time as I had lots of it on deck. For the first time in 4 years, it is not leaking oil.

It *is* leaking power steering fluid, but it's another battle for another day.

Side note: it seems like every time I do the oil pan for whatever reason I spend an inordinate amount of time drilling and tapping new bolt locations. I can't tell if this is just a product of an aging Jeep with aluminum threads or just an aging vehicle in general, but it's a pain having to re-size most of the bolts. This time I didn't have to use any time-serts but they were on standby just in case.

It was nice not having to remove all the suspension and steering components to do this. Makes me want an honest to God hydraulic lift one day if I'm going to keep ancient Jeeps on the road...

 

I thought 1998 4.0 blocks were steel. Hmm.

 

My first thought was 'make your own gasket'. I have a roll of it.. err somewhere!

 

Gutted the interior to remove mouse damage from sitting so long and worked on rewelding the unibody stiffeners I put on poorly a long time ago.

 

So since I am running Agate heated seats under the seat covers I decided to use an Agate seat for the back too.
I picked out the worst upper and bottom from the 2 sets I have. One cause I have to cut holes in the upper for the headrest mod.
They are going to be under seat covers anyway so.......
And two cause if I can ever find any Camel heated seats, the color that should be in my '00, I will sell the Agate ones.
Figure sell the nicer back seat with the fronts.

Speaking of which if anybody has any Camel, found in '99 to '01, heated leather seats for sale in really good shape contact me.

So I have never had a problem taking the cover off the upper part until now. The zippers were corroded and frozen.
There are 3. One across the bottom and ones on each side. The bottom I freed up. One side I freed up after soaking it in Evapo-Rust.
The other side I could not get to unzip to save my life. But I was able to get the seat cover off with just unzipping the two.

On another note best I can tell replacing the FM Modulator stopped my 6 CD Changer from kicking in and out like it was so.....

 

So I decided to turn my attention to the back seat bottom.
Figure clean it up best I can. Going to get rid of some rust first.

Wired brushed it and going to let is soak in some Evapo-Rust. Using stuff that I have already used.
Depending on how clean it comes out will either spray it real quick with some spray paint or maybe
hit is with some of that rust converter crap.

The front heated seats that came with this rear seat were in pretty good shape.
Never have I seen a back seat trashed this bad and look worse then the front seats. LOL.

 

I put a fan shroud on for the mechanical fan. It wasn’t overheating, but I’ve seen the temp climb a bit on the hot days. AC doesn’t work. Pressure by separator 50 PSI.? Is that to low for the switch? I’m tempted to put a little juice in to see what happens..
Hydro

 

I am no HVAC specialist but if that is the low side it can get pretty high if the compressor does not kick on.
If the compressor is kicking on and that is a low side reading.. trouble.
I would draw a vacuum on it and then add freon. Suitable vacuum kits are under 100.00.

 

So I let that piece on the seat soak in the Evapo-Rust for about 24 hours.
And this is already used stuff. You can keep reusing it till it gets black.

I did wire brush it a couple times yesterday after it had been soaking for a bit.
Imagine if I used fresh stuff. Probably would have looked like that in less then half the time.
Going to do the other side now but it is no where near as bad as this side was.