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Craigslist 1999 XJ - where to start

tex1999

NAXJA Forum User
Location
tx
Hello All,
About a year ago, I managed to snag a used 1999 4x4 XJ with about 260K miles (and a rebuilt title by virtue of some slight fender damage) on it with the intent of restoring / lightly modding it and spending time wrenching on it with the kid.

There are a bunch of things wrong with it (I only paid about $800 for it) and I barely managed to drive it home - white knuckle experience with the steering wandering all over. I added stabil to the fuel tank and it's sat in the garage for the last year.

Before I stored it , I had it checked out at the local jeep dealership . I've attached their diagnosis. Part of me feels like the engine and / or should be rebuilt (hardly any power) but the other part of me feels like I should probably fix minor stuff like the leaky valve cover gasket and exhaust manifold and then re-evaluate from there.

I'm trying to figure out what my plan of approach should be.

Thanks in advance

whats-wrong.png
 
Check what engine code it's throwing. Then address the front suspension so you can drive it. Get under there and look at and feel all the joints while someone turns the wheel back and forth. Look for play or things moving that shouldn't be like the trackbar mounts, or the power steering box loose on the frame.
 
The dealership list is probably pretty much spot-on. Looks like a lot of deferred maintenance and typical wear on an XJ. The missing fan shroud and e-fan being an interesting touch.


The one thing the dealership has listed that I might tackle differently is the power steering pump. Not having looked at it the dealership may be right, but odds are good that all you need to do is replace the o-ring that seals the tank to the pump. Doing this requires removing the pump from the engine, and from the dealership's perspective at that point you might as well be putting in a new pump, but if you are doing your own labor there is benefit in making the effort to keep costs down and an o-ring is substantially cheaper than a new pump.


Also note that there is often a direct correlation between worn out motor mounts and a cracked exhaust manifold (header). If you don't take care of the two of those at the same time then at least make sure you do the motor mounts before you take care of the exhaust lest you end up needing to take care of the exhaust twice.


Before you spend any money on control arms and track bar you need to decide on how much lift you intend to run and how/where the vehicle will be driven. At different amounts of lift different components will come into play. And you have lots of aftermarket options in that department. Be specific about your goals and you can get recommendations for what products are most likely to meet your needs.
 
Replace the engine with an LS1. When you’re done with that you’ll know what to do next.
 
Thank you all.

Based on your feedback, I think I'm going to tackle (in order)

  • the battery (old one died on me shortly after I got the vehicle home
  • the valve cover gasket (to stop the incessant leak whenever I crank the engine)
  • exhaust manifold
  • motor mounts
  • take a look at what's going on with the power steering

After that point, the vehicle should hopefully be a bit easier to deal with (to change fluids, general maintenance, suspension etc).

I did degrease / power wash the engine bay a couple of days before storing the vehicle so a lot of the grime and oil residue has been taken care of

What do you recommend I do about the gas in the tank (it's about a 1/2 tank full, a year old with stabil added to it)?

Thanks
 
Thank you all.

Based on your feedback, I think I'm going to tackle (in order)

  • the battery (old one died on me shortly after I got the vehicle home :) )
  • the valve cover gasket (to stop the incessant leak whenever I crank the engine)
  • exhaust manifold
  • motor mounts
  • take a look at what's going on with the power steering

After that point, the vehicle should hopefully be a bit easier to deal with (to change fluids, general maintenance, suspension etc).

I did degrease / power wash the engine bay a couple of days before storing the vehicle so a lot of the grime and oil residue has been taken care of

What do you recommend I do about the gas in the tank (it's about a 1/2 tank full, a year old with stabil added to it)?

Thanks
 
If it will run on the old fuel then I wouldn't worry about it. Just top off the tank with some fresh fuel and burn off the old stuff.

If you need to pass emissions then you will want to make sure you get all the old stuff burned off before testing, and I wouldn't want to try towing or anything else that is likely to be pushing the motor to its limits, but just for driving around it shouldn't matter.
 
probably smelt more like exhaust fumes (cracked exhaust manifold)


What's a decent set of mounts (motor + tranny) to buy?

I'm considering putting a cheapo set in there till I have everything sorted out. If this sounds a bad approach please let me know.
 
For motor/trans mount you are probably fine just going to Napa for now.

If you decide you are going to wheel it hard then you can look into Brown Dog or SFR mounts, but that route gets more spendy very quickly and many folks don't like the vibration that tends to come with performance mounts.

More than anything you just need to get some mounts in there that are not broken/worn out.
 
For motor mounts I would say brown dog. Everyone says the cheap ones break. I’ve never done them and have a set coming so take this for what it’s worth. It’s not fun to swap motor mounts and doing it right the first time isn’t cheap. I went polyurethane because I’m off roading mine. Brown dog has a discount code too so it was $90 for a set of mounts delivered to my door.
 
For motor mounts I would say brown dog. Everyone says the cheap ones break. I’ve never done them and have a set coming so take this for what it’s worth. It’s not fun to swap motor mounts and doing it right the first time isn’t cheap. I went polyurethane because I’m off roading mine. Brown dog has a discount code too so it was $90 for a set of mounts delivered to my door.


Hi
I think I'm going to start with the OEM mounts (they're only about $12-$15 each) while I sort the rest of this vehicle out. Once (hopefully) I have it running right, .. the fun begins. Too many worn out parts right now.
 
It would depend on your over-all goals for the XJ. I tried Brown Dog rubber mounts a couple years ago in my 2000 with a stroker motor. I only got about 15 minutes on it when I came home a changed back to stock mounts as the noise/vibration was not for me and my ride!
 
The one thing the dealership has listed that I might tackle differently is the power steering pump. Not having looked at it the dealership may be right, but odds are good that all you need to do is replace the o-ring that seals the tank to the pump. Doing this requires removing the pump from the engine, and from the dealership's perspective at that point you might as well be putting in a new pump, but if you are doing your own labor there is benefit in making the effort to keep costs down and an o-ring is substantially cheaper than a new pump.

1. What's the part number for this o-ring ?
2. In general,.. what's a good resource to hunt down part numbers for this vehicle.
 
I just picked up a o-ring from Ace that fit perfectly. As far as part numbers, the Mopar parts stores is what you want specially for any sensors.
 
good info in here, post some pictures of your ride.

interested in how this comes together because I am doing a similar project, but mine it sounds like mine is mechanically in a little better shape.
 
1. What's the part number for this o-ring ?
2. In general,.. what's a good resource to hunt down part numbers for this vehicle.

The O-rings I bought were these ones: https://www.amazon.com/M3x14-Viton-Ring-Shore-Durometer/dp/B005RUSZ9G/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=B005RUSZ9G&qid=1601089197&sr=8-1

Specs are 14mm ID, 20mm OD, 3mm width, Viton. A good Ace hardware might be able to hook you up.

When it comes to hunting down part numbers, the first step I would take is a trip to the dealership parts counter to ask them to print out the build specs based on your VIN. That will show you all the various options your XJ orginally came with and make it easier to determine which parts are the correct ones when searching through parts catalogs such as RockAuto.

I am not aware of any good parts list for a given year of XJ. Not to say it doesn't exist, but I have not come across it. I try to keep track of all the part numbers for work I have done on my own XJ, but a '96 is such a bastard year that isn't likely to be of much use to the world in general.
 
1. Pic of the jeep when I picked it up. I now realize it's actually been 2 years (time flies I guess)


2. I've just realized that the gas is about 2 years old too. The last time I tried starting it up (about a year ago, I could hardly get the motor to stay running without revving the cr@p out of it. Maybe I need to think about siphoning the old gas out. Hopefully, that wont give me too many issues.

3. I ordered some parts (as well as a low profile T60 bit so I can attempt replacing the infamous oil filter adapter o-ring when I do the passenger side motor mount



4. There's still so much much in the engine bay . It looks like the only way I can begin to fix this vehicle is to start somewhere, drive it and eliminate the issues one by one . Of course, I knew that getting into this project and am looking forward to it - somewhat :)

Thanks for all the advice.
 
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