mnkyboy

My son has been doing his senior year online, our school district didn't even try to have regular classes. My brothers kids started school just like any other year, they are just wearing masks.

D30 works fine for most people,there's not much for bolt in upgrades that are significantly stronger than the D30 so you would be looking at aftermarket axles which gets expensive, or building and setting up axles out of another vehicle which can also get pretty spendy and is a fairly good amount of work especially for someone that's learning. Your best bet will be to buy the most complete suspension kit you can afford, add in anything you feel it's lacking and go from there, lifting the truck will give you a ton of hands on experience and driving a lifted truck will help you decide what you like and don't like, you can upgrade from there. Eventually as you learn more your truck will improve until it evolves into what you want it to be. 13 or so years ago I bought a cheap 5" lift for my MJ and started figuring stuff out, my MJ is now among the most heavily modified trucks in this group, just got to start somewhere and go for it.

6.5" front usually sits pretty level with SOA rear since the rear already sat a little higher from the factory. You could always do a 1" shackle if you wanted to put some rake back in it.

Shock valving will drastically change how the rig rides, unfortunately unless you are buying cool guy shocks there isn't really a way to know what valving your gonna get till you get them, it took a few shocks to find a good combination for my MJ. Spring rate and link geometry also affect the ride but when people complain about poor ride quality,often a lot of it is the shocks.

You don't hear much bad about anybodys coils so whatever you go with should work ok. I had Rough country 6.5" coils on my MJ up until I went coil over, RC is typically considered cheap junk but even those rode decent compared to other brands. I haven't personally tried them but Metal cloaks dual rates sound pretty nice, might be worth looking into. Many companies may not list spring rates until you get into coilovers so you may have to check reviews to see how the different brands ride,any coil sold specifically for an XJ/MJ should have a spring rate that's adequate for the weight of your truck, some may just be softer or stiffer than others.

XJ springs are the same, most of the front end stuff will be the same as an XJ. The coils will typically be listed under lift height so a 6" lift coil for an XJ/MJ should give you approximately 6" of lift. some may also list free length of the coils,longer is typically better as it will give you more travel before the spring unseats when you flex.

As 89 MJ said it can vary a bit, but typically 5"-5.5" sits close to a factory rake and 6"-6.5" will sit about level with SOA rear.

Front stiffeners you can DIY, I make my own with a template. I also have a .DXF file of them if you have access to a plasma table. They are also pretty cheap, the front portion is the same as an XJ so there's lots of options. I believe T&M fab is the only option for a full MJ stiffener kit right now, others are working on it though.

Something like this, you just find the kit for the tube diameter of the axle you want. https://www.barnes4wd.com/Ford-88-Axle-Swap-Combo_p_142.html I like to wait on shocks until I have the suspension on, that way you can cycle the suspension and measure the exact extended/collapsed shock measurements you need. Up front you will likely want about a 12"-13"travel shock but the rear will depend on how you mount the shock tabs, I like to mount them as low as I can to get the longest travel shock I can.

Front axle will probably be ok, I would upgrade the shafts though. All years ABS D30s and all 95 and newer D30s got larger Spicer 5-297x u joints which can be upgraded to even stronger 5-760x u joints, they will be a huge upgrade over the 5-260x joints you probably have now. Even the ZJ CV shafts could be considered an upgrade. Those shafts will however require deleting the vacuum disconnect and going to a one piece passenger side shaft. If you want to keep the disconnect you can get ABS YJ or 1995 YJ shafts which should have the larger joints. Beyond that your looking at aftermarket shafts which are nice but can get spendy.

A steering upgrade is easily done later, stiffeners are best done early on while everything is out of the way. Even with a smaller lift they would be a good idea for any unit framed Jeep running bigger tires. Besides the operating angles, the stock steering is built too light for any serious wheeling and should be upgraded no matter what lift you have, but it will get you by in the meantime as there's plenty of lifted MJs that have been running the stock stuff for years. Although a D35 can be built to hold 33s it's typically not recommended, since perches need welded on anyway for the SOA it's the perfect time to upgrade, even a 29 spline 8.25 from a 96.5-01 XJ would be a huge upgrade and can often be picked up for $100 or less.

Once you decide on what specific set up you want to go with you will have to shop around for each part and see what your options are for the parts you want, or shop for more complete kits that include most of what you need then fill in the blanks on anything missing. Lift kits will vary from all inclusive addressing pretty much everything you need, down to the bare bones minimum to lift a vehicle so pay attention to what's in each kit as you shop. Full kit for frame stiffeners means the complete set of stiffeners to plate much of the unit frame, you can buy everything as a kit or individual pieces. You don't necessarily need the stiffeners but they will make your Jeep hold up better especially if you play offroad alot,doing just the front pieces will help protect the unit frame from cracking around the steering box which is a super common problem with lifted MJs/XJs.

The bumper my brother tossed together years ago, it's still on the truck but I've modified it to run a hidden winch. To lift it I would go SOA in the rear which should make the truck sit about level with 6.5" up front, I usually go with Barnes 4wd or Ruff stuff for the SOA kit, you will need to get the perches welded on with those kits, there is the RRO SOA kit which bolts on but I would recommend welding it on too although you wouldn't need to right away. Up front you want some 6" or 6.5" coils,an adjustable track bar,sway bar disconnects (keep the sway bar regardless what people tell you, especially as a younger driver), longer shocks, and longer brake lines. Then decide if you want long arm or short arm, I suggest doing a bunch of research on the various link set ups to decide what you want, don't just focus on price. There's a ton of options, personally I like short arms with drop brackets for a budget option or 3 link mid/long arms if you have the money. while the suspension is apart you should consider front frame stiffeners,a full kit is best but at the least doing fronts will keep your unit frame from cracking around the steering box. At that lift height you will be at the limits of the stock steering, so it should be upgraded but you could run the stock stuff for a little while,many people do. Depending on the track bar you get you may or may not need a new pitman arm, often times your angles look good with the stock one. Stock brakes will work ok with 33s but should be on your upgrade list, at least a dual diaphragm booster and 1" bore master upgrade from a WJ or 95 up XJ. I'm sure I'm missing some stuff but that's the basic stuff you will want whether you buy a kit or piece something together.

Yep,Kenne Bell/ Autorotor supercharger

Well then hopefully he will read all of this and address what he needs to. I ran a 6.5" lift on mine for several years with 33s, 33s seem to be a good tire size that doesn't require a lot of mods to safely run. Over time I beefed up everything under the truck then eventually moved up to much larger tires. As long as he gets a complete suspension kit, I think he could safely do the same.

I actually put a 6.5" lift under my 17 year olds Comanche, so I have no problem recommending it to a highschooler. As long as he addresses everything that goes with lifting it that much it should be a nice driving rig. I have put together several MJs and around 6" seems to be a good height for them, high enough to help keep the belly out of the way but not so tall that it feels like it's going to tip over.

I have a short box with an altered wheel base, it's currently at 118", it also has a tummy tuck with 2' of belly clearance under the crossmember, I still drag the belly in the rocks which is while I say I prefer a little more lift on the longer rigs. The stock short box wheelbase is ok for wheeling but still a little on the long side, you shouldn't run into driveline vibes on the short box, I have set them up as high as a 10" lift and had no vibes.

SYE is significantly stronger than a stock output so it's a nice upgrade.(assuming you do a full kit and not a hack n tap) Otherwise the MJ has a mile long driveshaft so you could probably lift it over a foot and still not need an SYE to correct driveline angle issues.

An SYE is nice but not necessary even at 6.5" Personally I like to go a bit taller on MJs due to the long wheel base, low cog is cool on short wheelbase rigs but it's a nightmare with a long wheelbase and lots of exposed belly, I would go 6.5"

It seems to be pretty popular on Facebook, I see lots of duck posts. I think it's kinda funny since I have a duck hood ornament on my MJ, it got ducked before it was a thing.

Since I'm still waiting for the headgasket, I decided to play with the ports a bit. I will probably do a little more clean up in there before it goes back together, but they should flow better, I also did a little more work to the intake and supercharger adapter to get them flowing better.

I contemplated going to a thicker gasket to lower the compression a little. At max boost it's something like 16:1

Finally got around to pulling it apart, there was over a month of lead time on the head gasket so I haven't been in a big hurry. Everything looks pretty good besides the head gasket, so luckily I don't think there was any other damage.

The shrouds are different, you would probably want one for a late model 2.5l XJ to retain the stock fan. I run electric fans so I don't use a factory shroud on mine.

Around 7" and 37s.