terrawombat

I've never been a big fan of the ZJ body style so I've declined the half dozen or so offers I've had from friends/family getting rid of theirs and often skipped over the many deals on CL that I've seen. However, pending the cash for title deal that should transpire this afternoon, I will be the owner of a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9L Limited. I figured, if I'm going to get one, might as well go big :D Truthfully, I had been looking at '97-'98 black on black Limited's since my friends father used to own one and I always liked the color combo with the gold rims. I stumbled upon the 5.9L by accident and couldn't really bring myself to justify spending more than my usual $500 on it, but it being bonus season and my inheritance of a portion of my late grandfather's estate, I figured it was time to actually get a vehicle of luxury, even if it is 12 years old, going on 13. I don't know what my plans for it are yet, but I'm excited. I actually remember when I was in 8th grade and this thing came out. That was about the same time I started to really get into cars and wrenching and I remember reading all of the magazine articles about this truck. At the time, there was nothing else like it. A SUV w/AWD and 250HP and 350ft-lb of torque - who would want that? ME! The mileage will be horrendous, gas prices are going up, but I don't care. I just have to have this :D Details to follow once I have the signed title in my hand. I'm basically buying it sight unseen, sans a few pictures, but the price is right. I'll see if I can snap a few pictures of it while I'm there, but it may be too dark by that point.

You mean your upper control arm mounts don't look like his?

My Dad had a '94 Dakota 5.2L for about a year and used it to haul a 16' utility trailer that routinely saw 2500+ lb. It got the job done and it was a nice looking truck, but it had this really strange problem where it would just randomly die, without warning, and would not start back up. Left us stranded dozens of times. We'd often go back to get it with a tow truck hours later and it would fire right up and drive back home. Never had anyone look at it and I was 10 years old at the time, so I wasn't able to diagnose the problem and fix it like I would have done if we still had it today.

They have the coolant temperature sender for the gauge cluster for $10.86. Good for anyone who wants to swap over from the idiot lights and can't pull one from a JY for $2. Headlight switch for $9 is a good deal, too. CPS for $9.96 and $15.83.

Engine, trans, transfer case, rear end, dash, seats, carpet, wiring harness, the whole lot. My MJ that is in line for the 97+ conversion has a drivetrain that is pretty well shot - an engine with low compression across the board, a pukegoat transmission that doesn't seem to want to stay in 1st or reverse, and a D35 rear end that is, well, a D35 rear end. I think the transfer case may be okay, though :D

A couple of times I've e-mailed Craigslist sellers that they spelled 'COMMANCHE' or 'COMANCHEE' or 'CAMANCHE' wrong and that they would likely get a lot more traffic on their ads if they spelled it the right way. This is, of course, after I've decided I don't want the truck for myself :D

Website only shows the smaller items like the ones you mentioned. Gotta go to one of their locations to get the big stuff.

I've got a lead on a '00XJ and a '01XJ, each for $500, both with near perfect body panels, but issues with the engines. If I can ever get an ounce of free time from the 14+ hours days I've been putting in at work, I will drive to get them, flip those for profit, and use the blue one in this thread as a donor for my 97+ conversion.

A better way to check for the crack-prone 0331 head is to look for the threaded bosses on the right side of the engine. They are for the ignition coil packs that are found on ALL '00 and '01 models. However, some '99s came with the 0331 head w/threaded bosses and distributor. I've had to repair two 0331 heads that cracked. Both were because the plastic radiator end-tanks cracked, leaked out all of the fluid, and the engines were severely overheated. I would still buy another 0331 head engine in a second.

I've been extremely lucky with my shop as I've had no thievery yet, but it's incredibly easy to get in, get what you want and get out without anyone ever seeing you. I'm eventually going to put up some networked cameras in the barn so I can keep good surveillance on it when I'm away. The only people that would even know what is it in my shop are friends or friends of friends so I'd most likely be able to identify the person doing the robbing and give them a good old fashioned beat down and retrieve my stolen goods. My parents farm was robbed about 8 or 9 years ago by a bunch of kids that were living in one of those 'halfway homes' for kids in need of reform (didn't seem to work too well). They attempted to steal three of our ATVs, but were only able to get two since they couldn't start my Yamaha because the carb was gummed up. It actually worked out to our advantage in a sense because the insurance company was very generous with the value of the ATVs (they were both less than a year old) and actually gave us close to what we paid for them. About six months later, the police responded to a call at the halfway house and found our ATVs along with about two dozen other ATVs and dirtbikes. Both of our ATVs had been run pretty hard and one wouldn't even start at all. The police returned them to us and when the insurance agent came out to see them, he appraised them really low due to their problems and offered us the chance to buy them back at $400 for both - so we did. Turned out there were some blown fuses on one ATV and the other needed the carb cleaned and they've been running well ever since. On one of the ATVs, the thieves removed the Honda badging and replaced it with a "Cash Rules" logo. Idiots...

Any automatic Eliminator I've seen was a floor shift. You know, all TWO that I've personally seen...

I also like when people put their age, which is a bit more of an embarrassing subject than location, but it's nice to know...at least for me.

I'm not sure to what extent you'll be doing the '97+ swap, but if you're going to do axles, steering, trans, etc. now you've got 242K mile bearings, bushings, tie rod ends, ball joints, u-joints, transmission, transfer case, 242K mile front seats, carpet...ok, you get the idea. I would probably spend $500 tops on a 242K mile XJ and the body and interior would have to be in really good shape.

Cool project and I like the plan you have for it, BUT, if you're going to go through all of the trouble of doing the '97+ swap (or it looks like you may be paying Pat to do it...either way), why go with a donor with so many miles. We all know the 4.0L is a tank of an engine, but a 4.0L w/242K is no spring chicken...

Strange. Did it have a dizzy or coil packs?

I was just speaking of proven reliability of the '99XJ head casting 0630 vs. the '00-'01XJ 0331 head casting. My ideal stroker project will include a '00-01XJ block with NVH and new RMS design, cylinder head casting 7120, and '99+ intake.

The best 4.0L in my opinion is one out of a '99XJ. It will include a NVH (noise, vibration and harshness reduction) engine with the '99+ horseshoe intake, a reliable, proven cylinder head, and the same old durable 4.0L block/bottom end that we all love. Don't replace the computerized system with a carb. It will cost you more time and headaches in the long run. You're doing a complete engine swap - take the time to replace your vacuum lines so that you don't run into this supposed vacuum issue that hurt your 2.5L. There really aren't THAT many sensors on these engine - maybe 5 or 6 that have a direct impact on the way the vehicle runs and only one of those is vacuum operated (MAP sensor).

Yes, yes, and yes. I had an '88MJ with the same cooling system setup as yours and it loved to randomly overheat without warning. Sometimes I could go 10 minutes, sometimes 20, sometimes 5 before the needle on the temperature gauge started straying away from normal temps between 195-210 degrees F. I replaced damn near everything - radiator, water pump, thermostat, expansion bottle, expansion bottle cap with the same results. I "upgraded" to the newer, open style cooling system and the truck hasn't overheated since. I didn't do it the typical way, but here's what you'll want to do: Grab the radiator, heater core hoses, and heater control valve (if you want, you can even leave this out entirely, but then you'll need to have custom length heater hose made up) from a '91 or newer MJ or XJ with the 4.0L engine. I opted to go a slightly different route, which may not have been the cheapest, but it was the most practical for me since I had just put a new "closed system" radiator in my '88MJ. I bought a 1.25" universal radiator filler neck and spliced it into the upper radiator hose. I then removed the existing heater core lines, heater valve, and expansion tank. I installed a 11/16" and 5/8" custom length heater core hoses and bypassed the heater valve entirely. I then found a universal overflow tank at Autozone for $10 and installed it where the old expansion tank was. My costs were as follows: Moroso universal radiator fill neck: $25 16lb. radiator cap: $5 Universal coolant overflow tank: $10 Custom length hoses: $8 Total cost: $48 but round up to about $60 to account for hose clamps and coolant. At local pick'n'pulls, you can usually get the radiator, heater core lines, heater valve, and overflow tank for about $50 or so, but you'll need to drain a bit more coolant than I did with my setup. Here are some pics of mine:

Yea, seems bass ackwards to me, but it's all a matter of personal opinion, I guess. An appearance package with 16" silverstar wheels and unpainted fender flares is contradicting (to me, at least). I just think the unpainted flares look tacky and cheap. The burning off excess inventory statement makes more sense to me now. My girlfriend has an '06 TJ Golden Eagle edition, which is essentially just an "appearance" package with some other odds and ends thrown in. I haven't ever given it a thorough inspection, so it may have things like a 242, but I do know it has a D44 in the rear. Also has unpainted fender flares and gold painted Ravine rims. Again, probably Jeep burning off inventory since they knew the TJ was getting the axe after '06.

Interesting - I didn't know the Freedom edition XJs came with unpainted fender flares. Any idea on what the mileage is on it?

Here are some more shots of the XJ:

Thanks for the feedback. I was afraid that this might be the case in regards to quality. I will likely continue to hunt for a good fiberglass header panel in the junkyard and just make due with the one I currently have. It's not too bad, but the bottom edge near the bumper is cracked and chipped in various spots. I'll likely wind up getting both front fenders, side markers, and headlight/turn signal surrounds from Certifit - maybe even a grille. The plastic stuff is cheap enough, it's kind of hard to justify NOT getting them. I picked up the front bumper and endcaps tonight for free from an NAXJA member. It was dark out so I couldn't really see. Going to drop it off at my shop tonight and inspect it, but I think it'll be fine. Also still has the mounts attached to it. I'm in no rush to get this finished, so I'll keep grabbing parts as they come around.

Can you comment on the quality of the Certifit parts? They're cheap enough...I can basically get all of the parts I need for about $240. However, I have had experience with aftermarket body parts suppliers and the metal is usually thinner gauge and the fit isn't perfect. Now, I wouldn't care if I was absolutely positive I was going to flip the vehicle, but I haven't made that decision yet. If I keep the Jeep and/or use the parts on my MJ then I'm going to be picky and demand absolute perfection :D

I'm slowly sourcing front end parts from various places. I may pick up a passenger fender and headlight surrounds from certifit (never knew about that place until now, thanks!). They have a local store not too far from me, either. Got a guy from NAXJA giving me a front bumper and endcaps. I can work with the current header panel I have if need me and I already have two sets of turn signals - would need to pick up side markers (certifit maybe?) and a new wiring harness. I think I can get the wiring harness off the same XJ I got the header panel from and tape it up and make it look respectable. That would leave fixing the front and rear passenger doors, windshield, passenger rocker (has a hole in it somehow and I don't think it's from rust). The PO gave me a new passenger airbag and cover so I would just need the driver side. Do you know if the airbag control module needs to be replaced once the airbags have been deployed? I would also need to swap out the front axle for one that's geared right :D

Looking a litttttle better. Trying to source 97+ front end parts. Hit the pick-n-pull today and was able to get a header and grille. Header is in poor shape, but the guy only charged me $10 for it. Got it so I could put headlights in and drive it around the abandoned road by my house to test the trans.