Sir Sam

Testing fit of header vs engine mount bracket:

Painted: Pressing in freeze plugs: Started blasting all the aluminum stuff to make it pretty again: Some RTV before oil pan goes on: Pan installed, missing a few bolts: Getting more builtup: Painted head: Ready for head: Valve cover on:

Building a 4.6 stroker for the MJ to move the project along. Starting with a 2000 XJ engine and trans combo, I pulled this thinking it was a good to run engine since the XJ it came from was fairly clean and low mileage, and the engine its self was fairly clean. Turns out it had been replaced before and thats why it was clean, but the bottom end was fairly scored/worn, particularly the rod bearings which even had galled a bit from wear. Internally the engine was fairly dirty. Piston walls were fairly glazed but also had some significant scoring on the walls from the pistons. I debated some refresh options but ultimately decided to go with a bottom end rebuild into a stroker. I had the machine shop bore/hone the cylinder walls to .030 over for the stroker, install new cam bearings, and clean the block up. ~$360. Later I gave up pressing the piston wrist pins into the new rods and paid them $50 to do it(better than me destroying anything). Cam lobe wear: Bearing scoring, this is one of the better ones: I didnt get a picture of the worst of them unfortuneatly. Teardown continues: New Jeep 258 stroker crank arrives: New forged pistons: Box of parts: Block back from machine shop: Pulled it into the sun to try and help it warm up before painting: Ended up putting a box over it with a small heater to get it good and warm overnight.

The 2000/2001/California stuff is all pretty easy to adapt to 1999 and older setup. The main thing you need is a 2000 Federal ECU, or someone who can reflash it to that. The 2001 and California has a couple of extra channels that are used for the extra o2s upstream of the precats. These just become not used if you had them before. I helped my friend do this same conversion from 2001 to 1999, the main thing you need to do is extend some of the 02 sensor wiring to plug into the sensor further back, plus the 1999 parts and the 2000 federal ECU. Since I'm going to reuse a low mileage stock 2001 Main cat I will need to weld in a sensor bung. But a 1999 or 2000 would not require this. I should document this pretty well for others, really I should make a youtube video about it, would be a good traffic catcher.

Decided to get the MJ done with all the other crap I need to do with a 4L, then once it was running go back to working on the CRD swap. Turns out the 4L I grabbed I didn't want to use because of the wear, so I built the stroker. Once the MJ is running and driving, and useable again, I will go back to working on the CRD swap. Really my next step for the CRD swap is the engine bay wiring harness modifications, which are done on a table top, so when I've got all that sorted out and ready to plug in, I can switch back to the CRD plug in the wiring, and start debugging it, and building all the other custom stuff for the engine like ac lines and power steering. But untill then I can do all my suspension stuff, axle work, etc to get the MJ useable. Plus I got other projects that need work, so I'm scaling this one back as a way to make progress and get this one running. Right now its my only project that isnt running and street legal. Also, my CRD got totalled by a little old lady leaving the nissan dealership in her new car. So I'm trying to figure out whats going on with the leftovers of that. I would like to find a good body nearby that has a bad engine and swap that in. But I might also find another Defender and swap that engine into the defender. Plus everything else I have going on, it makes sense to proceed this way.

4L rods. Icon IC944 pistons with 0.030 overbore. These are custom designed for this application of 4.2 crank and 4L rods. Even though they are custom designed they are an off the shelf part. This should give me a compression ratio of 9.3. I'm not really looking to try and crank the compression and have to do extra tuning. If the stock EFI had a knock sensor I would be more inclined to crank the compression ratio higher. Really I just want an engine that runs, that doesn't need a bunch of other debugging to get it to work right. Yes correct. I agree thats a good idea, and I'm nowhere close to the point yet. I think I got one of the better headers with the thicker flange, and it appears to have proper clearance, but when I get to the exhaust shop I will have them weld in a flex pipe. I'm going to buy a new L pipe that runs from the header behind the engine, use a stock cat, and then have them build the rear section out. I'm using 2000 EFI but 99 style exhaust, so I will need to do some wiring changes for the 02 sensor.

Thanks guys. This is the first time I've built a stroker and I'm taking extra time to clean everything and make it look nice. Usually I'm just cranking to install something and get it running again. I'm taking a little extra care this time.

Building a 4.6 stroker for the MJ to move the project along. Starting with a 2000 XJ engine and trans combo, I pulled this thinking it was a good to run engine since the XJ it came from was fairly clean and low mileage, and the engine its self was fairly clean. Turns out it had been replaced before and thats why it was clean, but the bottom end was fairly scored/worn, particularly the rod bearings which even had galled a bit from wear. Internally the engine was fairly dirty. Piston walls were fairly glazed but also had some significant scoring on the walls from the pistons. I debated some refresh options but ultimately decided to go with a bottom end rebuild into a stroker. I had the machine shop bore/hone the cylinder walls to .030 over for the stroker, install new cam bearings, and clean the block up. ~$360. Later I gave up pressing the piston wrist pins into the new rods and paid them $50 to do it(better than me destroying anything). Cam lobe wear: Bearing scoring, this is one of the better ones: I didnt get a picture of the worst of them unfortunately. Teardown continues: New Jeep 258 stroker crank arrives: New forged pistons: Box of parts: Block back from machine shop: Pulled it into the sun to try and help it warm up before painting: Ended up putting a box over it with a small heater to get it good and warm overnight. Painted: Pressing in freeze plugs: Started blasting all the aluminum stuff to make it pretty again: Some RTV before oil pan goes on: Pan installed, missing a few bolts: Getting more builtup: Painted head: Ready for head: Valve cover on: Testing fit of header vs engine mount bracket:

......and its still rusty.

Thanks, I decided Jeeps weren't enough trouble so I bought a Land Rover.

Good. I went just in time too, with everything getting shut down now.

How about now?

Letting the dog out in the morning:

The flat fenders of the land rover make for really good places to set stuff. Hot dog:

You joke but people do this, then others cannot see the cool stuff out in the desert, my favorite old truck in the desert out by moab was taken by someone.

Might get some of truck interior printed, and a large print of the outside of the truck for my wall.

Waking up Friday morning next to my camping buddy Diesel: And fetching a stick in the Colorado river: Then I stopped to get some photos on a boat ramp:

Left wednesday from work a little early from Fort Collins, drove out to rabbit valley and crashed for the night at the BLM free campground, stopped about 10pm so the timing was good. Woke up to this surrounding me in the am: There are 3 diesels here, the 200TDi, my Jeep KJ CRD, and my dog is named Diesel. I took a hike up to Corona Arch first day out: Noticed this on the tracks on the hike up: Posing with dogs for a photo: Then we went down and camped on the Colorado river just below the Arch trailhead, I busted out my SLR:

Pete, 3 6 speed KJs came through the junkyards recent, 1 5 speed, 2 diesels, 1 05 4 banger with 4.10s. And other stuff.

I'd vote you go modern with this. Get the sucker straight, cleaned up, and ready, maybe even mounted to a bumper. Then 3d scan the object, tweak the model as needed. Then see what your next step is, could make a wood positive to form a fiberglass negative on, then use polyurethane to pour into a mold. You could 3d print sections of it out of various materials, hell you can 3d print and then use it for lost was metal casting and make a cast metal one(and as always you need to account for material shrinkage).

Thanks Pete! Haha heck no! The grass is behind the living part of the house, the patio is behind my backdoor and garage, and then the fence/gate is at the end of the patio/garage which leads to the chicken/car yard. See how the grass ends just before the back door and old slab/step? It was the dirt area that that got turned into patio. And that got cleared out for the forms for the patio: Which became this:

Rental house was nearly empty when we had the reception, and the one person living there was a friend of my now wife, so it was all arranged ahead of time to use the backyard, I keep the gate there just to make it easy to get over, otherwise the walk around is surprisingly long. I had a friend at Dewalt, so I was able to get a great discount, so I bought a LOT of tools. Unfortunately that friend no longer works for Dewalt, I'm glad I got what I could when I could. I didn't try to depreciate the tools on my tax returns.

Ya its funny timing that you brought up the little known DJ grill hours after I sketched it, and hours after I took a couple of photos while I was sketching it out. Since you asked I added a whole thread about the patio: Right now the CJ has 7 hangers which sort of matches the number of slots, and I cannot add anymore without the hangers being too close for the keys. An XJ version could be a little wider since it doesn't taper, and I might be able to make 8 work. I think what I would likely do is make the 96- an 8 hanger, and the 97+ a 7 hanger. This breaks down a bit for the J10s and such that don't have a clear grill slots arrangement. I'm trying to decide if the DJ should have 5 key hangers or more right now.

Ooops, didn't think about that geometry quite right, I ended up cutting another piece. Ok thats better: The gap in the frame there is for the door handle box: I really like the way this turned out. This is an interior bathroom style handle that is mounted to a steel box I made. The box is a section of the outer frame, 1x3, with a piece of the 1x1 welded to the end to complete the frame support and to close off the box. With Justins help we drilled a large hole for the handle with a hole saw in both sides. Then a single 1" hole for the striker to go through the outer frame. I was even able to use that little round ring thing that I have never used on my interior doors before: I did have to shave the interior bits of the door handle a little bit since it was not meant to attached to a door that was only 1" thick. In the end though it fit down tightly like it would on a wood door. Justin helped weld the inner 1" frame since I said STFU to the welder and just had him do it quicker. Then I painted the interior 1x1" area with POR15 since it wasn't filled welded, and also drilled some drain holes on the bottom side, this way if some water does ever get into it it will drain and not rust out from the inside. The overall thing got a coat of flat black trim paint. I sized up and glued 2 sections of corrugated steel together and drilled some holes to bolt it on. Its held together with some stainless nuts and bolts. The hinges are welded to the frame, and to that large angle iron attached to the post. I think its about 3 feet long and attached to the outer corner of the post. I debated for a long time about exactly how to do this before I decided on that design. I was wanting to keep the gate dual swing for a long time, but decided moving the hing there allowed it to swing open further, and would keep the hing out of the way if I ever lifted the gate off to get room. This also left a smaller gap around the frame for chickens to get through. The angle iron is held on with several lag bolts on the outside, and the "door jam" side it is held down with coated woodscrews that are counter sunk into the metal so the screw head is flush, the jam clearance is actually tight enough that screw heads would hit the gate when closed!