Joel's multipurpose XJ build (rocks/boulevard)

[frijolee]

Hi y’all.

I’m a SoCal resident and professional engineer but I’m still a little new to the world of Jeeps in general and XJ’s in particular… That’s just my way of asking forgiveness up front if some of this build comes across intelligent and some of it is pretty ignorant. I’ve been lurking on here for a while now and I’ve been reading a lot. Figured it was time to get a thread started... I would have put this into advanced fab and engineering but as a newbie apparently I don't have rights yet, we'll see if I'm worthy after this gets going.

Step one: Find a vehicle that I can use to:
-Serve as back-up vehicle when my daily is under the knife
-Carry 4 people in relative comfort (family man)
-Take camping / throw a mtn bike in the back
-Haul a car trailer in a pinch
-Build some cool *ish and take it wheeling, but keep it looking nice enough to be respectable
-Find something interesting so I won’t regret selling my motorcycle (again family man)

Winner: 1999 XJ, black on black on black…

Paid a little more than the typical going rate, but it was built very close to exactly what I wanted, 96+ meant it had the slightly more modern styling, and it was in stellar condition inside and out. I was also glad it’d had a lot of routine service done because I have enough projects that I didn’t feel like chasing oil leaks and the like. Finally, from what I read, ‘99 is the money year to have: something about head cracking issues on the 00/01s due to different castings with a coil on plug setup?

Dig the Rigid bumpers:

Now that’s a clean interior!

Obligatory engine bay and suspension shots:

Full specs as purchased:

Year: 1999
Model: XJ Cherokee Sport 4x4
Black with black interior
Power windows and locks
Cruise w/ steering wheel controls
Cold AC
Tinted windows

Drivetrain:
- 4.0 L L6 motor, 170,000 - Amsoil full synthetic oil
M.O.R.E. "BombProof" motor mounts
New rear main seal and oil pan gasket, no leaks anywhere
New serpentine belt
New idler pulley
New auxiliary cooling fan
New exhaust manifold
Mopar cap, rotor, wires, plugs
K&N filter
Interstate battery
- AW-4 automatic transmission - Amsoil synthetic
Auxiliary transmission cooler
- NP231 Part-time transfer case - Amsoil synthetic
SYE w/ CV Tom Wood's driveshaft
- HP D30 front axle
Solid diff cover
Yukon 4.10's
Yukon master install kits with Timken bearings
Spartan locker
Spicer 5-760X U-joints
Moog balljoints
New unit bearings, both sides
New pads and rotors
Rugged ridge crossover steering
Gusseted and plated control arm mounts
Amsoil Severe Gear oil
- Chrysler C8.25 rear axle
Rockcrusher diff cover
Yukon 4.10's
Yukon master install kit with Timken bearings
Detroit Truetrac
New shoes, drums, hardware, wheel cylinders, wheel seals

Lift:
BDS 4.5" longarm with full leaf packs
BDS monotube shocks
Bar pin elimnators

Armor:
BDS transfer case skid
Rigid front winch bumper
Smittybilt XRC8 winch
Rocker replacement sliders
Rigid rear bumper with cut rear quarters

Wheels/Tires:
32x11.5x15 BFG KM2's
15x8 M/T Sidebiters
Full size spare

Other:
M.O.R.E. steering brace
Polyurethane swaybar bushings
Alpine Cd player
Pioneer speakers


Bought the car in Iowa on the return from a business trip and drove it straight out to Cali. I almost went straight through and ended up driving 26 hours in a 30 hour period, slept in the back for a couple hours (and froze my tail off somewhere in the Rockies.)

13 mpg on the freeway, yikes, wonder what it gets in the rocks. All that for a lousy 190 hp? Ugh… If the I-6 ever lets go I’m yanking that lump and finding an alum v8. Mine has some miles so it’s a real possibility, unfortunately the more I read the harder it looks to kill these things.

Given the build specs above anyone have any obvious recommendations?

FWIW I’m already a big fan of LS1’s. Here’s the daily driver:

A last note:

If anyone wads up a built XJ and has a matching set of hardcore axles to sell I’m interested, particularly if you’re also in SoCal. Presently debating whether I lightly polish the dana 30 turd, or just save the money for a d60/d60 setup that I could throw some HP at someday.

Bought the Jeep about a year and a half ago. All the stuff I’ve done since comes next…

 

[Milford Cubicle II]

You should be getting at least 20mpg highway, somethin's wrong there. Maybe start with o2 sensors - how old are they? Other than that, congrats on your new ride. You won't regret it

 

[DeftwillP]

You should be getting at least 20mpg highway

lol

 

[hubs97xj]

I. Want. That. Car.

 

[zachandandy]

These fuel economy guys need to come back to earth. A stock xj with the straight 6 auto and 4wd was rated at 18 highway. Lifts and bigger tires do not increase fuel economy period. 13 combined sounds about right if you drive it. Hyper mile your ass off, following big rigs at 60 and you might see 20.

 

[CAPE83]

^^^ Yup

 

[CAPE83]

I meant yup on the wanting the car

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

might want to rethink what ever that plug is under the bumper.

and step to a double sheer track bar...






but great build none the less. i like the RX even better.

 

[bluejeepkid]

i love the rx! i wanna do similar to a clean 240 =]

 

[sunburned]

Damn son, you found a super clean, well built XJ with a lot of nice parts.

The only thing it looks like you need is a double shear trackbar, which a ton of companies sell.

As far as building the axles, how much are you going to rockcrawl in this thing? Remember, it won't be nearly as clean after, ask me how I know... Those axles have some decent work in them already, so it wouldn't be much to just add some decent shafts to them and wheel as is. Personally, I liked 4.56's with my 32's better. If you go to bigger tires, different gears are definitely necessary, especially for crawling.

LS1 swaps have definitely been done and Novak sells a bunch of swap parts if you are interested. There are a few build threads on this forum. If you do plan on the motor swap, I'd plan on bigger axles to hold up to the stress. A friend of mine put a LM4 in his wrangler and his D30/D44 stood up to it for a year or two before he swapped in a D60/14b.


And damn, the motor swap in that FC is clean as hell. Nice car!

might want to rethink what ever that plug is under the bumper.

Dude, those are bolt heads. The bolts that hold on the end plates for the Rigidco bumper.

 

[Vanimal]

that thing is too clean! i bet you get through maybe 4-6 wheeling trips before it's not so pretty that thing is pretty capable with that build, you'll eventually want to test it out.

 

[Luke Graham]

Nice Jeep! Where's the updated pics??

-Luke
Frontier 4x4

 

[mako my day]

Perfect. Sell it to me!!!!!!!

 

[fallacist]

being an engineer, I'm sure you'll figure it out and make me look foolish, but I had to fold down the rear seat, take my front wheel AND my seat off to fit my bike in the back of my xj....

otherwise, nice XJ, look into some new injectors for improved mpg. and ditto on the DS track bar(and tie rod)

 

[Vanimal]

yea, xj's are horrible for hauling bikes. my saturn has far more cargo room unfortunately. i tried it once and never again lol of course my frame is an xl and there's a lot of seatpost sticking out...

 

[frijolee]

Thanks for the compliments all. Please keep the advice coming. I got into engineering because of my love of wrenching so my vehicles tend to progress slowly over time. E.G. the RX7 recently went widebody.

Spare Tire Carrier:

One of the first orders of business was what I could do about the full sized spare. A spare’s not doing me any good if I don’t carry it with me but when I purchased the vehicle it only fit lying down in the back and that seemed to take up the whole trunk.

Did a bunch of poking around, looked at some pre-fabbed units but didn’t find what I was looking for. I ended going the DIY route using a 1750 lb trailer spindle kit with sleeve (<- liked that because it made integration into my existing bumper easier.)
http://www.comp4x4.com/Tire-Carrier-Hinge-Kit-HEAVY-DUTY-1-3-4-Spindle.html

Lots of folks seems to be using 3/16 wall tubing but that seems crazy heavy given I’d drag on my bumper before I hit this. I went with a couple sticks of 2x2x0.125” tubing and doubled up the section at the pivot.

Should vastly improve the moment of inertia where the bending is highest at the base of the cantilever. I also ground all the critical welds smooth to get rid of any notch factor and improve fatigue life. I also have a limit strap (black and yellow webbing sticking out in the above shot) to keep it from over rotating.

Latch is a DeStaCo 344-R w/ redundant safety catch.
http://www.destaco.com/assets/docs/en/ds/324_334_344.pdf

Only downside I’ve found is that the red rubber handle deteriorates slowly in the sun. It faded to pink and then started exuding black sticky crap. I just scrape it with a blade periodically and it’s been fine.

The key twist to my carrier: I designed it to use two positions. I can rock the spare down low when I’m driving on the street so it doesn’t mess up rear visibility but then rig it up high when I’m out wheeling so I don’t compromise departure angles.

Low:

High:

The tire interface portion is held on via two large bolts interfacing to three holes w/ crush sleeves so all I have to do is loosen one, pull the other and then flip the assembly upside down.

Naturally the license plate holder is reversible as well.

I don’t have a good picture of it installed but I found a pretty cool little product for the license plate light. It’s one less reason to get pulled over at night and LED’s bring out my inner ricer.
http://www.4x4xplor.com/ORO-LitePLATE.html

Definitely happy with the end result. It’s within a 1/2” of the hatch, both down and at the license plate molding. Random shot on the trails to give you an idea how tight this is to the bumper…

Jeep flexes well, albeit I keep knocking off the rear fender flares. I probably have some additional trimming coming. The build was just me and chop saw (plus an angle grinder to notch the bumper). Definitely had fun figuring out all the angles to handle the horizontal jog to help keep it tucked tight. Had a friend with a TIG burn it all together for me.

BTW: Props to Luke from Frontier 4x4 (glad you found me fella) for the initial build. I didn’t buy this 2000 miles from home for nothing.

 

[Luke Graham]

Thanks. Nice to see it's getting wheeled.

Alison just saw this and says she kinda misses it, she really liked it. But she's commuting 50 miles each way to work right now so she doesn't miss the mileage.

 

[sunburned]

Awesome looking tire carrier, very well done.

being an engineer, I'm sure you'll figure it out and make me look foolish, but I had to fold down the rear seat, take my front wheel AND my seat off to fit my bike in the back of my xj....

I'm an engineer as well and I couldn't figure out a good way to mount the bikes either. Of course you'll have to take off the front wheel and fold down the seats, but I didn't like having to move the seat as well. I bought a fork mount to attach to the back of the rear seatback, but I wanted to carry the bike without folding down the seats and I didn't want it way up on the roof either.

Came up with this instead. I wanted to mount fork at the top of the hatch, but I couldn't get to the bolts on the backside to put on nuts, so that idea was nixed. Just absolutely no way to do it, so I flipped the bike over. Sucks because I can't get in the hatch without taking the bike off, but it worked for my trip to the Outer Banks last year.

Big ring on the crank misses the window by maybe half an inch. I'm assuming my mtn bike will fit fine with smaller sprockets. Of course now I have a new road bike with a standard crank instead of compact, so it probably won't fit...

 

[Vanimal]

Awesome looking tire carrier, very well done.



I'm an engineer as well and I couldn't figure out a good way to mount the bikes either. Of course you'll have to take off the front wheel and fold down the seats, but I didn't like having to move the seat as well. I bought a fork mount to attach to the back of the rear seatback, but I wanted to carry the bike without folding down the seats and I didn't want it way up on the roof either.

Came up with this instead. I wanted to mount fork at the top of the hatch, but I couldn't get to the bolts on the backside to put on nuts, so that idea was nixed. Just absolutely no way to do it, so I flipped the bike over. Sucks because I can't get in the hatch without taking the bike off, but it worked for my trip to the Outer Banks last year.

Big ring on the crank misses the window by maybe half an inch. I'm assuming my mtn bike will fit fine with smaller sprockets. Of course now I have a new road bike with a standard crank instead of compact, so it probably won't fit...

i have a hitch rack i can use, but something about carbon hanging out in the wind bothers me. maybe it's the retread that my buddy's truck kicked up on the highway and did some pretty nice damage to 2 cx bikes. i typically just use my saturn vue. i can fit at least 2-3 bikes inside without lowering the seat or removing wheels, and i can leave up one section of the 60/40 rear seat.

 

[clean4drxj]

Nice XJ!.. If you want better mileage you can do a few bolt-ons(exaust,cai, oversized TB) and maybe gain a few mpg but don't expect to see anything about 15/16 mpgs. I would seriously think about investing in a double shear trackbar system(rockkrawler/ clayton).