Project Cheap Xj

Well I got the valve cover off tonight. That thing must have been leaking forever! There's definitely a ton of oil leaking down the block from there. I'm going to get a new gasket set and a bunch of cleaner tomorrow, and goto town on it on Saturday.

With any luck, I'll be getting the lift in, and get the radiator replaced, and get the coolant flushed. And if I can find time, I'll be installing my rough country front tow points.

Here she is. It was leaking bad lol. It looks alright on the inside though.

Also, are my rockers supposed to have slight play to them, or should I snug them down?







 
I got the valve cover all cleaned up and installed. So far no more leaks, from that at least.

My AC still seems to be working well also, so that's good that hopefully that is taken care of.

I also got my shackles installed in the rear, and my 1.75" coil spacers up front. So far I'm pretty happy with how it looks.



 
I got a few coats of undercoating on my sliders last night. I may do a few more tonight in hopes that it lasts a little longer this time. Its just the cheap spray stuff, but it looks 100 times better.

I was thinking maybe ill tape it off and do from the door trim down.





 
I got my new CB today, but the antenna, mount, and coax won't be here til tomorrow. I tried to hook it up to the old (circa late 70s) antenna I have, but I couldn't get it to do anything lol. I'll have to try again tomorrow when I get my firestik and everything.

 
I finally got my spare tire mounted where it should go.




I also may look into a new wheel and tire setup for next year. I like the height, but it could be a little taller.........and wider.

 
Last night i got my CB, firestik, and cargo basket installed. I need to find a more permanent way to mount the rack, but its getting there!

The only issue so far is that its really hard to read the display on my CB when its mounted where it is. I will have to address that.







 
Well this isnt what i was hoping for last night on my way home......




My lower radiator hose gave out and was shooting coolant everywhere. I limped it home, and now shes parked for a while.







I guess now would be a good time to replace my radiator finally, along with the upper and lower radiator hoses, and i will be replacing my electric fan that i got to work for 5 minutes a few months ago, but i think i need it now...

I also think i found out where my front end clunk is coming from.

 
So i got started on replacing my radiator and hoses, and flushing the system yesterday. Everything went well until the cooler line froze, and i bent it to the point of no return. I ended up cutting it, and now i need to find a way to make this work again without replacing the whole line......






I guess this is why my hose blew...... It was paper thin beyond all those cracks.






This is what i thought of for a temporary fix, but ill probably get a brass elbow and run rubber line.

 
On my way home from work that day, I believe my transmission overheated and started blowing fluid everywhere, and smoking since it pouted on the exhaust. I found my transmission cooler lines were both kinked, you can see it in my other thread, so I got them cut out and replaced with some rubber transmission cooler line.

I also finally installed my rough country tow points (I still need a big bolt for the frame bracket) and trimmed up my front bumper caps.

I have a new tailpipe and electric cooling fan on order, so that will be next on the list.


Kinked cooler lines





All better.... Hopefully.





New tow points installed





And bumper caps trimmed





I also secured my cargo basket and cleaned up my engine bay a little.

These ought to do the trick




And believe it or not, this is way cleaner than it was, lol

 
Well i finally got it back on the road last night, and had the balls to drive it into work this morning. I guess on the way home ill see if the new (non collapsed and kinked) cooler lines make any sort of difference...

Oh and my new electric fan should be here tomorrow, so ill probably toss that in this weekend.



 
So on my way home, I ran without the AC on. My temp didn't go over 200, and I didn't have fluid blow everywhere.

I did crawl under it when I got home..... I'm hoping this is just residual. I'll have to clean it up again and see what happens. It seemed to be confined to the crossmember and the upper part of the transfer case. The front by the Bell housing was pretty dry, so that's good.







 
I finally replaced my electric cooling fan on saturday. I took it for a beat run, and everything seemed to work as it should, and it didnt overheat or anything. I just need to get my new coolant temp sensor in now, and i will hopefully be ready for the crawl next month.

Id be lying if i said i wasnt nervous about how shes going to do...... Performance wise, and running condition wise. Im just concerned im going to go through the trouble of hauling it there, along with my family and the camper, just to have it last an hour lol

 
Well i got the new (used) exhaust hung, and i figured out my power window/lock issue.

I took all my window switches apart and re-soldered the connections, and then i found a bad ground behind the kick panel. I got that all repaired, and now i have all 4 power windows from the driver switch, and individually, and my power locks and remote keyless entry works!


It looks way better without the exhaust dragging ass all over the place:















So now i have a month until the Crawl, and my to-do list keeps getting shorter.

All i have left is:
-Install frame bracket bolts for the front tow points
-Bend my front brake lines to get a little more reach (and hope they dont snap)
-Hard wire my CB to get rid of the static and feedback



*Thats assuming i drive it for the next week or so without any other surprises lol
 
I picked up some 33x12.5s on (I think) American Racing Baja wheels tonight, complete with matching MTRs and a matching spare wheel and tire. All for the dirty cheap price of trading him an adjustable track bar (I won't mention that I got the track bar for free....).

I can't wait to get these cleaned up and put on next weekend!





 
Well after seeing all the big jeeps in colorado over the last week, I got ambitious when I got home....

I can't exactly turn, but it looks freaking awesome lol. I guess it's time to break out the cutting wheel although I really wanted to keep my flares :(





 
Looks like no more fender flares for this guy......

Now I just need to get the hack n tap installed so I can get rid of these nasty vibrations.

My wife wanted me to keep the bumper caps, so I just trimmed them too. I think it turned out ok.





 
Washed it, waxed it, installed my rugged Ridge tow points, cut my rear fenders, and put edging over the cuts on all 4 corners.

It's amazing what a difference a couple coats of wax makes on almost 20 year old paint!









 
Well im picking up my new control arms and some Bilstein 5100 shocks tomorrow. Hopefully that will make it ride better than the stock arms and entry level rough country shocks..... Lol
 
I got one of my new short arms installed tonight, the 2nd one has that dang bolt stuck in the sleeve, so I'll have to cut it out tomorrow. I also got some bilstein 5125s. I can't wait to get this all in and take it for a test drive. Hopefully it rides better than my white body rough country shocks and stock control arms....







 
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