terrawombat

Oh how times change. I began disassembling the engine in preparation to do a diesel swap and then I stopped and thought about it for a bit. Tear apart a perfectly good '92 MJ? Sure, the engine has 250K+ on it and it's developed the 4.0L knock that many of us have become accustomed to, but it still runs. I decided to go in a different direction and swap in a diesel on a vehicle that I don't really care much about. So I bought a 1993 Mazda B2200 with a blown engine and started an entirely new project...as if I didn't have enough already. So there my poor '92MJ sat with a partially disassembled engine. And it sat that way for approximately 2 years outside of my garage braving the elements, In it's place I bought a 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 diesel that I was using as my daily driver, but it's time that I retired that for a bit to take care of some rust issues that will only get worse the more I drive it. Since the MJ will likely be the cheapest vehicle to put back on insurance and because I can now tag it historic in the state of Maryland, I turned my attention to it this weekend and get to a bunch of odds and ends that needed fixing. I replaced a couple A/C lines, replaced the rusted/rotted A/C filter/drier and replaced many of the vacuum lines. Vacuum evacuated the A/C system and let it sit overnight to watch for a drop on the gauge, but it held solid. Converted it to R-134A and filled it up. Finally, cold air blows from the vents! Also decided to give it a good power wash to get rid of the tree sap and other organic materials that started to grow from random areas. Need to take care of a few rust spots on the rocker and rear of bed, but other than that she's rust-free.

I found an 30 pack filled with empty beers cans in the back of my truck and got real mad until I remembered they were mine.

LOL! Best quote I have seen on CC in a while. Thanks Don!

Too many of them were made to be a collectible Jeep. The ZJ platform in general has a lot of differing opinions. Many true Jeep enthusiasts (the ones that would actually pay collectible car money) were never on board with the ZJ platform from the start and saw it as a blemish on the Jeep brand. Don't get me wrong - I love the ZJ platform and regret selling my '98 5.9L two years ago, but I moved into a new house with less space and had to decrease my fleet.

Best of luck. We tried a few commercially available products from Lowe's last year. It kept them down, but they returned again this year. It was very dry last year so I was afraid to do the gasoline/torch method, but this year has been on the wetter side so I may change my decision on that...

Stay away from the 00/01 XJ engines. There are a lot of subtle differences on those, but more importantly, they have a cylinder head (casting 0331) that is a turd and is prone to cracking.

I paid $500 for a '98 4.0L longblock from a Cherokee that the junkyard owner said "ran great" and "we were driving that Cherokee all over the lot moving it back and forth." I'm too trusting as the engine had a blown head gasket and the head was slightly warped and needed to be milled - cost about $275 for the complete head rebuild. So, be careful. If possible, find a guy parting out a Jeep that can let you hear the thing run in the vehicle before it's yanked.

You design, engineer, manage and release the part for production. Following it from initial design through to production. Gotcha. Heard the term a few years ago when talking to a buddy I graduated with, but never asked what it actually meant. On a brand new automotive design, approximately how many parts does a single engineer see through from design to release?

What's a "release" engineer?

Did that Drive SRT Racing Experience happen to have a few old Dodge Ram SRT10's lying around? Always wanted to play around in one of those... Although they probably would have been too old and too beat on if you were there any time past 2008...

Installed, but not yet running. I work on it in week spurts here and there when I get time. I'm at the wiring phase right now trying to integrate the diesel engine harness with the existing body harness by using as many stock connectors as I can. http://www.mazdatrucking.com/forum/showthread.php/13955-93-B2200-RF-CDT-2-0L-Turbodiesel

I get asked this question a lot and you'd think by now I would have wrote it down somewhere. To the best of my knowledge, the specs of this particular setup are somewhere around 75-80HP & 150Ft-Lbs of torque. Yea, sounds pretty pathetic, but I nabbed this engine out of a Mazda Bongo workvan (think Ford Transit). Mazda de-tuned the crap out of the engine for the Bongo application but the other vehicles that it's used in (Mazda 3 & 6) had an HP range of 119-141 and torque range between 240-270 (came in standard and high output). So, the potential for increased performance is there - I just need to figure out how to do it. As far as a comparison to the 4.0. Dunno - I got the engine for fuel economy. So, in that regard the 4.0 can't compare ;)

And to think that this thing was de-tuned from the original prototypes...

Well since most new manual transmissions are really autos and some new autos are built like manuals the waters are getting very muddy.

Both have their place. Both have their pros and cons. Both are enjoyable to drive. Therefore, I own both.

Good thing he covered up the rear license plate! Now we'll never know what his plate number is. Oh wait...nevermind

I have left engines outside and uncovered for much longer and they are still running to this day If you're really worried, unscrew the glow plugs and squirt some oil down in the cylinder. I know a lot of folks love using that Marvel Mystery oil crap for this procedure, but regular oil will do just fine. Afterwards, spin the motor over by hand or bump the starter motor over. Now, can you buy the damn thing already? :D

I concur. If any gains were seen from swapping injectors is was because the stock injectors had seen better days. Simply going from a single-spray to multi-spray pattern is not going to produce enough HP/Tq gains that the 'ole butt dyno is going to feel. Many have claimed that the engine feels "smoother" through the entire RPM range, but again, even on the stock injectors I never felt that the engine was rough or sluggish at any point. What a lot of people seem to forget is that when you alter and/or improve fuel (or air) patterns, you also need to re-tune the ECU to get the most out of it. Unfortunately on the 97+ ECU's that tuning is not cheap or easy and there is really only one player in the game that has full access to the entire ECU (SCT Performance).

No problem Don. I was coaxed into purchasing them because of lavish claims of 1-2MPG gains after installation. It seemed like a no-brainer so drop $100 on a set since my payback time would only be a few tank fulls. Over 30K on those injectors and I still have not made my money back...

I went from the single port stock Mopar injectors to the 4-port Bosch 0280155700 on my 2001 XJ. I saw no increase in fuel mileage or power gain. The only thing that injectors seemed to help was my heat soak issue of restarting the vehicle after a brief shutdown, although that was mostly limited to 2000-01 XJs with the precats sitting directly under the intake manifold.

The kid is a legend in his own right. He spawned the term "freakjeeped." And to stay somewhat on topic. Although I don't really care for the angry eyes look, I get it...just like I get why all of the rednecks with diesels (and some without) cut a 6" diameter hole in the middle of their bed and run a gigantic stack out of it. I went out to lunch yesterday with some coworkers and we pulled into the always crowded Chick-fil-a and struggled to find a parking spot. Wound up parking next to two very modded Pontiac G8's. Lowered, tinted, rims, clear corners, etc etc. I bet one of my co-workers lunch that I could walk into the restaurant and point out the owners of those two cars. Walked inside, did a once over of the whole place and immediately picked out the owners of a crowd of approximately 100 people. We ordered our meals, sat down and waited for the two suspects to finish theirs and watched them walk back to their G8's as I collected my $7.50 from my co-worker. When you see vehicles modded in a certain fashion, you can instantly profile the owner and 9 times out of 10 you will be correct. In the case of the G8 owners I talked about, above, I simply looked for two or more individuals that were very poorly dressed with expensive clothing, wearing expensive jewelry and had an aura of douchebaggery surrounding them.

Congrats, Jim! Let's see the 'just married' pics with beer cans and horseshoes tied to the back of one of your Comanches.

I have reserved the use of Seafoam in gasoline in carbureated small engines only. Even then the success ratio is about 50/50.

Roughly 4 years ago I sold a 1999 Cherokee Classic to my GF's mom, who gave it to her youngest daughter to drive while she was at college. The vehicle had 130K on the clock and was in above average condition. She got t-boned by some idiot who locked up his brakes on the ice and trashed both passenger doors and tweaked the frame rail a bit. Insurance company (State Farm) totaled it and cut my GF's mom a check for $5600. They offered a buy-back option on it @ $750. There was some back and forth with the insurance company on the value of the vehicle and she was able to get them to come up in price after providing a receipt showing she paid $700 for brand new tires only a few months prior to the accident. So there is some wiggle room with the adjusters... Just some more comparative info for you.

Interesting - I thought Optima had fixed their quality issues since being absorbed by Johnson Controls in 2000 and moving their manufacturing plant to Mexico. I bought a red top in 2004-2005 right when they started pumping them out of their new Mexico facility and it lasted me all of 3 months in my Mitsubish until it stopped holding a charge. Optima customer service ran me around the ring trying different methods of charging and nothing worked. I did finally get them to send me a new one and it lasted a little longer - around 6 months. I could have called again and received another replacement, but it wasn't worth it to me so I switched to an Interstate battery and it's still in the car to this day and holds a charge. Optima used to have an incredible reputation and was the go-to battery for a while and the fact that they were made in USA meant I could be comfortable that the quality was there and the higher price was justified in my mind. Since the move to Mexico and the quality issues I had with mine, they've lost me as a customer forever. I know there are many, many more that feel the same way.