A-man930

Well I wasn't necessarily planning on doing a belly-tuck, but that may be the end result! I'm just not sure if I'll be able to keep the stock height with the crossmember design I have in mind. Now if I were to raise it about an inch would I have to raise the motor as well? I have a shortbed, and I'm only planning a 5.5" lift in the end.

it does it sometimes as soon as it settles into an idle, open or closed loop.

I don't have much time, but in short my engine will start fine, but will shortly go into an irradic idle (sometimes down to 200rmp or so) and will occasionally kill itself. I can feel it while in gear as well. So far I'm thinking its spark related... it seems like i'm losing cylinders. Common issues? Guesses?

Does it die immeditately? or does it slowly drop down to nothing and finally die?

I thought of the driveshaft angle... figured I had a little room to spare, but I didn't think of the shifter linkage :wall:

I'm in the process of designing a custom transmission crossmember and I've been wondering exactly how critical it is to keep the mounted height at stock... I know I can get a shorter mount (go from 3" to 1.5") and that may take care of it, but I want to know if it's a big deal to have the whole assembly a little higher than stock... like an inch or so.

Well I'm hearing two different stories now... TNT, did you notice a drop off in torque and/or gas mileage with the 2.5" mandrel-bent system? What series flowmaster did you use?

Sweet. I'll grab a couple of them soon. Any recomendations on which intake/exhaust manifold gasket to get?

I'm wondering as well... do I spend the money and get a mandrel-bent 2.25" or a do a cheap non-mandrel 2.5" or it does it matter at all? I know there will be a slight torque drop off with less backpressure, but I'm not really worried about it. I will say that I'm all but certian that I'll go with putting the exit between the spring and frame rail on the pass. side... nice and out of the way :D

As clean as that particular one is, I'd rather keep the stock bed and make a nice slider bumper... our beds are all but useless as-is, lol.

I'll be replacing a few gaskets on my new motor before its installed. This is what I'm gathering... rear main: Felpro double-lipped valve cover: cork with sealant Oil pan: one piece rubber (95 and up iirc) And has anyone tried that gasket maker in those cheese-wiz cans? I saw them at work...

I was planning on having the exit on the rr above the leaf pack as well... nice and out of the way.

^^ditto

I was able to get about 4 intake bolts significantly tighter and the idle has dropped to about 1450. I'm assuming that there's either another vaccum leak somewhere or the intake still isn't sealed up all the way. Either way its much less anoying. As far as my question as to why it doesn't idle high at start-up I think I've figured it out. At start-up the computer is in open loop mode correct? (preset fuel and spark tables, no imput from the MAP, TPS, O2, etc...) Once everyting's warmed up the MAP detects the vaccum leak (same result as having the throttle open) and the computer adjusts the fuel accordingly. I guess the TPS imput is ignored over the MAP. Does this sound in the ballpark?

No help?

DOH! :wall: I knew that :roll: You would want to be carefull making the range case (the first one) the 4:1... thats allot of torque multiplication for that second case to handle.

'90 renix 4.0L. Idle's between 1600 and 1900 after it warms up. At cold start its around 1K. this makes me think its not a vaccum leak, otherwise wouldn't it start out high? I'm going to try and tighten the intake bolts and check as many lines as I can with a propane torch this weekend. Is my IAC valve bad? I did a check on it a while ago and it was fine (I'll have to look up what exactly the test consisted of later, it was in the Hayne's manual...) Any thoughts?

:???: Uh, that's still only two ranges, just lower.

The major advantages in my eyes are cost and gearing options... keep your highway gears (3:54s in my case) and have two low range options... for waaay less than an atlas or kluneV.

I get some good looks, mostly from other truck/Jeep guys (although I swear I'm sick of all the "Jeeps" around here that have NEVER seen the dirt... so not those Jeep guys.) I've had several modded toy trucks give a salute or a wave as well. The best looks gotta be when I'm all filthy after a trail run, some prick in dad's BMW, or some ricer in a civic... their faces read "yea, I'm not a man" :D

I hesitate... Sometimes I feel all that gunk is holding mine together :roll:

AhHA! Here we go... Again, this is in an XJ, but I like the design. I would go the simpler route and secure it from under the rails (as opposed to the sides as he has it), and the box would be smaller (shorter?) and recieve the transmission mount the same as stock. This shows basically the skid I want as well, skinned of course. However, I think it would be unwise to design a skid without having the doubler actually there to measure... (shown here is this guy's 231/231 "box4rocks" combo) As above, I would use shallower box tubing, and have a shortened tranny mount bolt through the middle of the x-member, stock-style... How big do you guess this box is? Pics of someting like this in an MJ is what I'm looking for. Or if anyone has any different ideas/designs feel free.

Quite well! I did have to sand quite a bit of the poly away on the front portion (I'm still finding red chunks in my eyes...) but other than that it went great! I love the way it drives now :D Pete: How many bolts are holding it to the truck? what thickness is the C-channel? Did the whole drivetrain get shifted up? (if that's a stock mount I see there) Still no luck on the pictures, but I'll try and describe what I'm thinking: Boxed tubing (maybe, 2"x10" .25" wall...) mounted by the extended lower "layer" of the tubing, bolted from underneath to the rails. Probably hard to picture, I may be able to draw something up if all else fails. I may just add the extended skidplate later, just a stock-ish one would suffice for now.

As I was installing my poly transmission mount last night I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the stock crossmember, it worries me... Now I don't personally have much experience with fabrication, but I do have acess to the necessary materials/equipment, and I think a crossmember/skidplate project would be a fairly easy first effort (with lots of help of course.) However, I'm having trouble finding examples to look at. I've seen plenty of XJ pieces, but since the similarities to our trucks basically ends behind the cab, only the furthest-forward portion works, and I want a skidplate that extends almost to the gas tank (this is in a short-bed btw.) I would ideally want one that is flush with the rails, but I also want to keep the design fairly simple, and it doesn't seem those two go together... so one that merely offers improved clearance is fine by me. I'll post up pics of what I've seen that I like when I get my picoodle account to work :hateputers: Until then, post up pics and/or whatever. :chillin: Oh, and I eventually will be running a 321/242 box4rocks doubler, so I want protection for the t-case that will eventually be there... thinkin' ahead :dunce:

I was thinking the same thing... does anybody make 33x11.5 R15 mud terrains? (these would be my off-road tire, with some street time) From what I'm gathering, seems like it would be a good compromise.