benjy_26

Egg-zackly. That's what I meant in my last post.

Longer hose would work, I expect...

I stand by my bedliner suggestion. Unless you've plugged ALL of the leaks in your 'manche, new carpet without rustproofing is asking for more body rot.

Get a few gallons of roll on liner. If you feel like you need more protection, throw a stall mat in there.

Yeah that may be my best option at this point. I've been looking for a harness to replace it with now luck so On the bright side, you really learn how your truck works when you do this.

Good luck! I'm rooting for you. I'll probably end up stealing a bunch of your ideas, by the way. I've been thinking of going MPFI for the sake of forced induction, but then I stumbled upon some stroker builds that seem like they would work as NA builds. I'm honestly torn.

Good progress! I'm very interested in your MPFI conversion. I've been mulling that over in my mind lately.

Yep. It seems like that's what I'm going to have to do...

I too rock the Costco units. Thick, big, and no-flash black. I ran em for 3 years in my Ram, 2 in my ZJ, now they live in my MJ. I went and got another set for the ZJ. They're tough, cover quite well,and hold a surprising amount of crud. I highly recommend them.

I soldered my crimpded connections, replaced frayed wires, and re-wrapped my harness with new split loom and friction tape. I was able to salvage most of it, but did replace a surprising amount of connectors and wire.

Iused Permatex rust reformer followed by Krylon rust togh primer, the rolled on a gallon's worth of Duplicolor bed liner. It works well in conjunction with some heavy floor mats.

Goddamit... Nobody has new dash pads for XJ's/MJ's.

Unless you winch A LOT, the 136A alternator is plenty. I have a tone of lights on my ZJ along with a 1000w amp for my system and it handles everything pretty well. I did upgrade my harnesses for my headlights and spent time soldering all of mt connections, which may or may not help (did it mainly because I have a slight case of OCD). I also run an Optima Yellow-top battery, FWIW.

Thanks. I'll look em up.

Hello all. Does anyone know who sells new interior pieces for our vehicles? I'm specifically looking for a new dash pad in tan for my MJ. I wouldnt mind some new trim for my ZJ too. Thanks in advance, everyone!

Cool update! Where are those last pucs taken? I don't think I've been to that area.

If you haven't thrown the amsoil in the tranny yet, swap it for a synthetic 10-30. It's what Mopar recommends in one of their TSB's and works great in the Aisin tranny's.

Cool build! I'm definately stealing sime ideas from you.

You'd be surprised what a good downpipe does for these trucks. I recently had a local shop make mr a mandrel bent 2.25" down pipe to connect my header to my 2.5" mufflers (yup, two of em in series) and I noticed a big jump in usable torque. FWIW, I'm running a Magnapack in 2.5" running into a large casr Magnaflow with a dump right before the rear axle on my 2.5L MJ. I dig the rumble, quiet cruise characteristics, and the added power over the stock, rusted, beat to crap exhaust.

I used some aircraft stripper for plastic on a pair of rear flares for mj, then hit them with low gloss krylon fusion black. I also hit the fronts with the same paint. Matches pretty well to the rest of the trim, makes the truck look cleaner, and they've held up well to sand and mesquite/creosote bushes so far.

The 8.8 out of an Explorer IS on the narrow side, but it is very, very strong, particularly with a full case locker like an ARB or Detroit. I've never really looked at thr full size 8.8, but it may be worth looking into, especially if you want to keep the weight down. I have a K5 on Tons (60/14FF) and you can definately feel the weight on the street and when trying to go even moderately quickly off road. That thing rides on 37's, and I think I did over-axle it. If low weight is thr goal, I'd go with either an 8.8 in the back or a beefed up 'Yota axle in the rear. The front is kind of hard. Depending on what you're doing, a D30 (even beefed) may not be enough, leaving you with either a choice of a D44, or something exotic like a Hi9.

Keep in mind I never recommended the 44 in the rear. I mentioned a HP44 in the front with an 8.8 in the rear. Is the 60 stronger? Definitely. It's also big, heavy, and IMHO, not needdd for anything less than 39's. I've seen 8.8's survive behind stroked out L6's spinning 37's with the addition of full case locker.

Sorry, nix the trans cooler. I missed the 5 speed part.

For your intended use, I'd go with an upgraded trans cooler, ALL synthetic fluids, heavier duty shocks, new bushings all around, maybe a budget boost in the front along with some 235/75's, and some more aggressive brake pads (I like Performance Friction's carbon-metallics). On the engine side, electric fans, a high flow air filter, and a free flowing magnaflow exhaust would be my picks.

I would try some new bushings first. That is, if you're happy with the ride and height of your current springs.