Write-up: Cowl intake and washer bottle swap

[robsjeepxj]

Ok so here we go. Both of these upgrade kind of go together since I couldn't fit the new washer bottle without getting rid of the old air cleaner housing first. The parts used are an intake tube from a TJ, a washer bottle from a ZJ and a K&N cone filter part # RU-3130.
The first thing I did was to remove the wipers and cowl panel cover. The wipers come off easily with a screwdriver, you just pry up on the part in the center of the picture to release the lock and lift them off.

Once the wipers were off I removed the cowl cover, it has 8 screws in it 5 on the passenger side and 3 on the drivers.

Next I disconnected the washer lines and started to lay out the cut needed to fit the filter I've read a bunch of threads on this on JeepForum and so I had a good idea how it's supposed to look. You can see the area I cut out here.

I cut 3 sides with a jigsaw and did the part along the windshield with a sawzall. You can see the filter fits well inside the cowl with plenty of room to spare.

This is the filter I used, it's a K&N RU-3130. It's the biggest filter that would fit.

Ok so here's what it looks like under the hood before I started, notice the locations of the stock air box and intake tube and washer fluid fill.

And here's after so you can see what we're going for here and how to get there.

The stock air box unbolts with 3 bolts inside that go into the fender, I removed that next as well as the air tube.

After a trial fit of the TJ air tube I found that I wouldn't be able to close the hood without trimming it a little because it was too tall coming of the throttle body, So cut off about 2" or so. Now the TJ air tube was flared at the end from the factory so after I cut it the opening was too small then so I heated up the tube until it was pliable enough then forced it on and tightened the clamp to hold it in place. It worked great but then I had a new problem, it was hitting the throttle bracket now.

So "clearanced" it with a flapwheel. Nice.

Next I cut the stock XJ air tube so it was pretty much straight but left enough curve to be able to let the air filter sit in the cowl at the correct angle.

The XJ are tube is just the right size to fit inside the K&N filter, with a little finagling, and provide a good seal once the clamp is tightened down. I may put some silicon on it later but for now I think it's good.

Next I cut the whole in the cowl. To do this I had move the wiring harness down some. The hole I drilled was a little low so it cut into bottom the cowl a little bit. I filled the hole with some silicon and it was good as new. Don't do that.

 

[robsjeepxj]

All that's left was to carefully slide in the filter with the XJ air tube attached and work the two tubes inside each other. I may rework this later but you can see that it works well.

Now onto the washer bottle. This is the stock XJ washer bottle, as you can see it's mounted inside the drivers side fenderwell.

This has been are real PITA for me in this location for a few reasons. One when I decided to run bushwacker fender flares I had to be be super careful not to cut the screws too long and smooth the ends over really well or they would poke holes in the tank. Second when I was running 33's and 4.5" lift, at full stuff with the tires turned in they would rub on the tank a little which always bothered me. It never wore all the way through but I still never liked it there. And third the pumps and power connections for the F&R washer pumps are very exposed to rocks, mud, rain and debris kicking out damaging them. You can see the old pumps are rusted pretty well from being out in the elements like they are and the connection points are pretty corroded as well. I'm having the same issues with the horns as well they have both been torn off or the wiring pulled out several times already. They will relocated two in the future under the hood like on the TJs.
These are the wiring connections and washer fluid hoses that need to be rerouted. This is a bit of a tedious process because you need to remove them from the existing harness from inside the fenderwell all the way up to where the new tank it to be mounted.

This took a good while to finish. Unbolting the computer will help you gain more room to work on getting the wires out of the plastic wire loom.

The good thing is all the wiring connections are the same so you don't need to do any slicing.

The only problem is the ZJ tank doesn't have a low washer sensor so you'll have to drill the hole and reuse the one from the XJ tank or else the light will be on all the time on the dash.

This is an easy swap though once you get the hole right, take it slow, too big and the tank it ruined so be careful. Here's the sensor installed with the connector.

Once you get all the wires connected take the extra wiring and fold it back into the harness and cut the washer hoses to length.

 

[robsjeepxj]

Now on to actually getting the new tank mounted. One the front of the tank I used an existing hole that was for the computer. As you can see though that the mount on the washer bottle needed to be reshaped to make it work.

You can see it after I cut it a couple pictures up I just took the corner off it a little to match the shape of the bracket better. The rear mount sat above the lip of the inner fenderwell so I had to put a small spacer behind it to support it properly, a large nyloc bolt work for this.

There is a third mounting point on the bottom of the tank but I did get around to drilling the hole to put a bolt through it yet, the tank is very secure even with just the two so I'm not too worried about it.

So here's the finished product, both pumps work well so the whole thing is pretty much a success.

 

[jeepman75]

I have been wanting to do something about my washer tank with my fenders cut and this is perfect, thanks for the good detailed pictures.

 

[robsjeepxj]

Yeah it came out really sweet I'm very happy with the fit and finish. It works great too what more can you ask for.

 

[ehall]

Interesting ideas thanks for the pics

 

[burmonster]

hi.
what yr zj was the bottle off?
also, do you think the bottle would fit with the stock airbox??
thanks
burmonster

 

[01XjKCMO]

How big is the whole you cut in the firewall? Did u cut it with a whole saw?