Wrenchin... Adventures under the hood... Put em here.

[simple]

Lol on the sled deck. That would be awesome

Brakes are in good shape. Got fresh pads back when it was on the road in 1999.

Suspension is good also from what I can tell. I do have some Ceika coilovers for when I blow up the stock ones.

The car was exceptionally well maintained before the 2nd owner blew up the engine in 6 months due to what appeared to be low oil. I have nearly all the receipts from 1988 to 2003.

[Timberridge]

Simple, ff to 8:35...

[Timberridge]

Hey Austin,

[MontuckyFried]

Hey Austin,

While no way I would do that to my car (you see what it did to that LR thermostat?) since I plan on keeping it long term, that stuff might not be a bad idea at all if you're planning on trading it in. ...oh crap. What if somebody already did that to MY car before passing it along. Now I'm scared. Guess I'll find out the truth soon enough when I dissect the bastard. If it's just a head gasket, I should be golden. If there's a crack in the block, I'm screwed. Will keep you all posted. Finally ordering parts today!

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[unitofstuff]

I have a old school drag race gearhead friend/former co-worker who got a 4th gen F-body with the V6 for either dirt cheap or free due to a failing head gasket. He dumped in some of that old school Blue Devil head gasket in a can shit hoping he could limp it along just a little bit. Apparently it lasted for years and years until it got parked/wrecked/sold/something, he couldn't believe it.

I think there are very specific types of head gasket failures where that type of goop will seal them up, but they're a lot less common than overheating your shit and ruining the head to block fit in a big way.

[hawkgt]

Mocking it up

[Todd Zander]

Started with a water pump and its only going to get deeper from here, rear main or freeze/welch plug from the rear of the camshaft bore?

Will be adding a rollbar/canopy for sure, im english.

[gravitylover]

Heh, if I had a tractor I'd need a full roll cage. Possibly one with an external rollover cage because I'd be bound to exceed it's sidehill capacity Something like a typical full cage but with a double or triple hoop about 8' across out of 3" steel tube so it could roll and come back to it's wheels.

Back to reality, so I picked up a 15 Grand Caravan in near rust free condition that runs great but it was cheap(ish). At 160k a few (bunch of?) things are tired so I'm gonna dig in tomorrow and start dialing it in. Damn, the parts for these things are cheap in relation to what I'm used to.

The saga continues

[gravitylover]

Yep, back brakes are shot I'll run it for one more day and see if some of the rust and glaze from sitting for almost 3 months through the used car process comes off the rotor or I'll swap em out tomorrow morning. The tranny was a few quarts low topping it up solved the judder in reverse right away so that's good. The only other thing I found wrong is the front sway links are toast so that's next.

[Timberridge]

[snowaddict91]

Glad you found something that'll suit your needs! Looking forward to you teaching me the wrong ways of the Pentastar V6 as I learn my way around it too.

Currently I'm sitting at a welding shop, simple hitch install on the FKNA Promaster went sideways when a weld nut broke off in the unibody. Should have been a simple fix but there is absolutely no access from the backside, and I didn't want to cut a hole in the floor. Hopefully they can get a stud welded in.

[gravitylover]

I'll do my best to teach things wrong, I've heard I'm good at that. Lol. I have to put a hitch on next week. I'm gonna try to bend the exhaust hanger and lose a washer inside the frame rail so the thing has a rattle for me to complain about

[fatnslow]

My Saab appears to be leaking some coolant near the water pump for the third time in 5 years, last one was replaced 24 months/11k miles ago. It was done at a well respected Saab specialty shop and the leak is most likely just a fucking o-ring thay goes around a coolant pipe that enters the block. The shop only warranties "part" so their quote is $575 labor charge. Anecdotal research shows some techs and enthusiasts using viton orings for the suspected part rather than the kit supplied orings which one as nit dine the first two repairs.
I have pressurized the cooling system 7-8 times and have only been able to get it to drip once. Just had it sit overnight, started at 17 psi with a slightly warm engine and it was reading 15 this morning. Anyone here use GM coolant system tabs to address a minor leak ? I have never used any sort of leak stop and very hesitant. I do have another euro shop I started using 2 years ago that quoted well under the original place and I can source the viton orings from a specialty wholesaler I know. I can do the repair but don't know if it's worth the $3-400 savings for this job. I foresee many cuts on my hands and unintended broken parts.

[Todd Zander]

I specifically did not replace the o-ring on the pipe i presume youre talking about a couple years ago as the aluminum oxidation was enough to tell me not to touch the friggin thing and just replace the one on the outside, good luck

[waveshello]

Halfway through pulling off the leaf springs on my 99 xj. Torch, kroil, angle grinder and sawzall have been my friends. Fortunately this a 3rd car so I can do a little bit at a time--corrosion is turning this in to a big job.

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[Timberridge]

What are you ganna replace it with, a custom milled aluminum multilink suspension w/ Bilstein 8100's?

[gravitylover]

Those probably won't work with the drum brakes

[waveshello]

What are you ganna replace it with, a custom milled aluminum multilink suspension w/ Bilstein 8100's?

Haha no, going back with leafs. Nothing fancy, but I did go for the the "upcountry" spec that provide 1" lift over stock. I'll do the front coils next, same deal, 1" over stock. It's going to feel huge because the existing leafs were inverted and I was riding about an inch over the bump stops. I'm tempted to put OME shocks in there, but the KYBs in there now are only a few years old and I have no complaints, so I'll wait.

Anyone have any tips or recommendations while I have this thing apart? I'm going to go after some of the rust tonight.

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[El Chupacabra]

Haha no, going back with leafs. Nothing fancy, but I did go for the the "upcountry" spec that provide 1" lift over stock. I'll do the front coils next, same deal, 1" over stock. It's going to feel huge because the existing leafs were inverted and I was riding about an inch over the bump stops. I'm tempted to put OME shocks in there, but the KYBs in there now are only a few years old and I have no complaints, so I'll wait.

Anyone have any tips or recommendations while I have this thing apart? I'm going to go after some of the rust tonight.

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I had an XJ that came with the factory off-road package, which later turned into the up country one. Don't expect any lift from those leaf packs - other than that new packs will not be sagged like the old ones.

FWIW, a long add-a-leaf works quite well on a stock XJ leaf pack, gives around 2" lift. Alternatively (or in combination with whatever leaf modification you do), a moderately longer shackle will give a small lift - I had MJ Comanche shackles on mine. They are 1" longer, so provide approx 1/2" lift. If you can find a junkyard Comanche, the shackles will be cheap.

Do not use polyurethane leaf spring bushings. They will squeak, a lot.

If your XJ has a rear sway bar, remove and discard it, unless you tow. Front swaybar quick disconnects are well worth it if you do any offroading.

If you don't have any skid plates, get the factory ones from a junkyard. The gas tank one is quite good, but not easy to install. The transfer case skid is minimal, but it's very easy to install. There is a front end skid that doesn't do a lot, but doesn't hurt either.

Get rock sliders.

[El Chupacabra]

My truck didn't come with any side steps - $600 option from the factory, so I bought some take offs on Craigslist for much less and installed them last year when I got the truck. They fit nicely, but hang down kind of low, so I have some concerns about damaging them offroad.

Picked up a set of steps from a Raptor yesterday, and put them on today in place of the other steps. About 2-2.5" higher off the ground, and they stick out to the sides a little bit more. Much nicer construction - one solid piece of cast aluminum with a bedliner type coating on the top.

Pretty happy with how that turned out. The chrome with black strips are the old ones I removed, and the Raptor ones are all black.

Chrome steps are back on Craigslist.

[anotherVTskibum]

My truck didn't come with any side steps - $600 option from the factory, so I bought some take offs on Craigslist for much less and installed them last year when I got the truck. They fit nicely, but hang down kind of low, so I have some concerns about damaging them offroad.

Picked up a set of steps from a Raptor yesterday, and put them on today in place of the other steps. About 2-2.5" higher off the ground, and they stick out to the sides a little bit more. Much nicer construction - one solid piece of cast aluminum with a bedliner type coating on the top.

Those Raptor steps certainly look like an upgrade. The chrome ones will take more of a hit than I'd expect, but I still pulled them shortly after getting the truck and now have a pair of proper sliders from an aftermarket place on order, if they ever get through the backlog (when they said "over a month" in early June, I should have asked for a specific timeframe, because apparently I'm still over a month out and don't even have a build date yet..but hey, four months is over a month, so I guess that's accurate).



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[gravitylover]

I think I might enjoy working on this silly thing No rust is nice and base model simpleness is a winner. Of course the driver's side rear brake fought me a little bit I'm guessing that based on metal to metal on the inboard side pad and rotor means these haven't been touched in years. The other was less than 20 minutes total. Next week will be shocks, struts, sway links and sway bar bushings.

[El Chupacabra]

Those Raptor steps certainly look like an upgrade. The chrome ones will take more of a hit than I'd expect, but I still pulled them shortly after getting the truck and now have a pair of proper sliders from an aftermarket place on order, if they ever get through the backlog (when they said "over a month" in early June, I should have asked for a specific timeframe, because apparently I'm still over a month out and don't even have a build date yet..but hey, four months is over a month, so I guess that's accurate).



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Who makes real rock sliders for a fullsize truck?

[simple]

I can only tell you who makes real rock sliders for Land Cruisers and Jeeps. Full size trucks aren't off roaders....

[Timberridge]

I'd bet with freight rates now, getting some local dude to weld up a custom set ain't gonna be much more expensive.