mjeff87

It is a semi-PITA, but these cores get yuuuuge air pockets trapped in them. The inlet/outlet sits on the firewall about an inch higher than the coolant level in the pressure tank/overflow (whatever you want to call it), so it can never really fill the core completely (and get all the air out of it). Then you don't have good heat inside the cabin area.

To be honest, that whole stuck-spark-plug fiasco on mine was caused by it. It's really convenient to have the heater core inlet/outlet DIRECTLY above the #6 spark plug (that screws into the head vertically). Makes a perfect little swimming pool for all the spilled coolant to live in and corrode the plug. I always took care to blow it all out really good with the compressor and air gun, but I guess I never every got all of it out of the plug well, and you know what happened next. I've just about perfected my method now though. All I do is park it facing uphill in my driveway, then pull off the core inlet hose. I stab a short piece of cut heater hose on it that I jam a funnel into the other side of. Tie up the whole contraption as vertical as I can get it, then fill the core up with coolant through the funnel until it starts spilling out everywhere (plug off the disconnected heater hose end so it doesn't come out of it). Let that all sit a good 15 minutes and watch the little air bubbles pop out of the top of the funnel. Once it's all full and purged, quickly swap the heater hose back on the core inlet, start it up and let it run with the cap off until the thermostat opens. Shut it off, leave the cap off and let it all cool down. Top off the resivoir and clean everything up.

Those that understand it will show their ages......

Now that the weather is turning colder in the mornings, I noticed that the Focus was taking forever to heat up (and not blowing very hot air inside the cabin....), so I put a new thermostat/housing in it Saturday. About a 3/10 job on the PITA scale, and only 2 beers worth of time The old 'stat was not closing fully, now I've got great heat and she gets to temp within a couple minutes of driving. Also did the annual heater core burping on the KJ, so it has heat for the winter. Whoever designed the coolant system on those things needs to be drawn and quartered.....why would you make the heater core the HIGHEST point in the entire system??? I get an air pocket inside of mine every. single. year.

.....was RIGHT. Here's the sign at my local dump today. I helped a buddy haul in a trailer load of home construction debris.

There's three words you never hear put together in one sentence....

My place of employment is a stone's throw from Richmond International Airport. RIC is an alternate landing site for AF1 in the event other airfields are not available. About 2X per year, it does touch-and-go's (no POTUS aboard....) as practice. The pilot does a slow, low CCW circle around the perimeter area, almost directly overhead about 5-6 times, then heads back north. It's pretty awesome to watch.

My wife always gets a new car every couple of years, all Subbies. That covers us both for trips in "fancy" cars or those of such length that makes me question the thought of taking any of my vehicles for fear of never making it there (or back). LOL. That leaves me free to buy and drive beaters and save a ton of cash My stable is an 01 Focus (the hod rod) and my beloved 02 KJ. She's never driven either of them....has no want or need, and besides can't drive a stick anyway (the Focus is a 5 speed).

Here's another weird one, just in case it happens to you one day. Mine threw a CEL awhile back for unknown reason. I don't have a scanner (yet), but you can flash the codes on the odometer with the ignition-key-cycle routine so you can diagnose. Mine came up with a code for the aux fan relay (which is weird because mine only has one electric fan, no engine driven one like with the HD package, so it's not really an auxiliary fan...). Fan circuit was fine, relay box checked out ok. It turns out that my alternator crapped the bed. Apparently, if that fan relay doesn't see 13.8V or whatever, it throws that code. New alternator fixed it in a quick, but I thought that's a really weird way to display a bad alternator. LOL.

We always used to mumble "about 2 pounds" under our breath every time. (What's a hen weigh?)

Life Scout (I joined too late to make the cutoff for Eagle) and OA. Wimachtendienk, Wingolauchsik, Witahemui

I hadn't considered the false-negative option...... Best of luck with ya Tug. Hope it's quick and (relatively) easy to deal with for ya.

Took a mental health day last Wednesday, drove down to Suffolk to help a buddy wrench on an XJ (one of his son's freinds, not his POV). Kid was hanging around and helping out a bit as we un-screwed his poor XJ from what the PO had done to it). Afterwards hit the deck for a few beers and some conversation.....kid disappears. About 2 hours later, he calls my buddy from the front yard (????). He's afraid to come up on the deck to talk to us. Seems he hadn't been feeling well for the last couple days, so he decided to go to the hospital to get a COVID test. Results pending in 24-48 hours. Yay us/me. He couldn't have told us that before the wrench session. So I go home, tell the wife and she freaks out....as I expected. Go to work the next day, tell the boss the story, he says call HR and ask them what to do. Several hundred e-mails later, I get sent home from work for the day. HR says wait until he gets the results. If negative, I can come back to the office. If positive, I need to go get tested and, regardless of MY results, I have to stay out of the office for 2 weeks (I can telework, but it royally sucks). Teleworked Friday, my buddy calls late that afternoon to say the kid tested negative. Yay. Now I'm back in the office, but I had a sore throat yesterday and generally feel like crap. No fever, thankfully, so I think I just caught a cold or the flu or something.

I was teleworking yesterday and stuck on a marathon conference call......it was a total circus show. Yakety sax immediately came to my mind, so I googled it to listen to a version of it to calm my nerves. Found that 2 hour version and played it over the phone to my co-workers. The boss finally got the message and ended the meeting. It was pretty funny

I tried to play the saxaphone way back in high school (we all had to pick an instrument to try to play for a music class). Yeah, I made it about 3 days..... edit: listen to that band backing him up tho, too.....espeically the bass player. They are owning it.

a full 2 hours.....enjoy

Well, that does make sense, thanks Most of my 4.0 experience is/was on Renix blocks. That engine bay was just a complete rat's nest of crap, and I wasn't quite sure that something should have been hooked to it.

I bypass them on every vehicle I own. My TJ was the easiest, all you had to do was put a 5A fuse in the "trans" spot in the fuseblock (for use with autos). On the Focus, it's actually a plunger switch on the pedal arm. Had to pop the wiring harness off and install a jumper wire between the pins. Some people like them, I absolutely can't stand them.

Hey guys, it's been a minute since I last worked on a 4.0L......I got elected to bring a near dead 96 XJ back to life yesterday for a friend. Fixed a TON of little crap (bad plug wires, broken injector clip, broken heater valve, overheating radiator, etc.) and got it purring quite nicely, but there's one vacuum port on the intake manifold that was capped off by a previous owner (XJ came to my buddy via a tow/impound yard, so who knows what it's past was). Among other things, the airbox was booty-fabbed and lots of stuff either isn't there anymore or if it is, it's in the wrong places.....so much fun to try to figure out LOL. I can't figure out what was supposed to be connected to this vac fitting. It runs decent enough now with it capped off, but I'd imagine it would run even better with that vac signal actually doing what it's supposed to. Anyone know what this port feeds? (Not my pic, but the fitting in question I have circled. Interstingly, it looks like it's capped off on this engine as well. Maybe it's capped from the factory?

But you still have to deal with the axle side bushings (UCA) with new arms. The passenger side one is not too terrible, but the driver side can be a real bear. Beg, borrow, buy, rent a good ball joint press kit that has ALL of the adapters. Fiddle around with various ones until you find a combo that works. Also, only do one arm at a time. Otherwise it can be a PITA trying to get the axle lined back up to get all the CA bolts back in.

Small change of plans on the XJ. I might end up buying it from my buddy for $500 I'm gonna run down on Wednesday to check it out. His kid is looking at a Durango now.

Newp...she's a pavement queen. In fact, I haven't even pulled it out of the garage since I waxed it last week, lol. I was gonna take it to work today but it was raining all day, so I just ran the Focus. I still need to get under it and measure for the TC skid plate. I'll probably do that tomorrow while I drain the trans pan and add new fluid (ala redneck transmission fluid flush). My buddy down in the Tidewater area needs my help fixing a 96 XJ that has a vacuum leak...I need to roadtrip down there Sunday to fix that. Its his son's vehicle who got into a fender bender and munched up the front end. My guess is the vac canister behind the bumper got munched. I'm gonna grab a new one from the junkyard and head down there with my tool bag.

I instantly added front/rear lockers, 37's and a crawl box to the KJ over the weekend, courtesy of the junkyard. LOL. Had to get a new head unit to replace my (failing) one, and the KJ I got it from had one of these on the fender. Can't wait to see how much better it does on the trail now......

I use PB Blaster, Knock'er Loose and Kroil, and I keep about a pint of ATF/acetone in a glass jar. It does seperate back out over time, but you just have to shake it back up into suspension and it's ready to go. I've got a couple old timey squirt oil cans with the loooong spouts on them (inherited from my grandfather) that make quick work of getting the mixture into difficult places.

I'm in distribution and logistics. Trust me when I say that even the best inventory management system is only as good as the folks that feed information into it.