socal1200r

I did a writeup on replacing the stock paper air filter with a Uni dual stage foam filter. As part of that process, I drilled a 2" hole in the bottom of the airbox. This is the completion of that part. I connected a hose from the hole I drilled in the bottom of the airbox to that plastic trim piece that’s right under the front bumper. Here’s the starting point, the 2” hole I drilled in the bottom of the stock airbox: The parts that I used, 2” X 36” pre-heater hose, and the 2” hole saw: I cut the hole in the lower bumper piece where there was more “meat” to support the hose: I stretched the hose to its full length, then fed the hose thru the lower bumper piece up into the airbox, then cut the end off, leaving about ½” of hose at either end: This is what it looked like when I was done, as viewed from the front: I didn’t like how this looked, it looked too “ghetto”, so I went to Lowe’s and got this black plastic drain part, it’s a 1.5” angled thing of some kind: The new and improved look from the front. I put a hose clamp on the back side of this black plastic drain piece, and put some black RTV around the opening: Cost for parts as follows: 2” hole saw ($0, I already had this), 2” x 36” pre-heater hose ($7 at Advance Auto), black plastic drain piece ($2 at Lowe’s). I’ve done this to other vehicles I’ve owned, and never had any issues with crap getting into the airbox. The way I look at it, for water or debris to enter the hose, travel up into the airbox, get past the two foam filter elements and into the intake system, would be the 8th wonder of the world, lol! If someone’s paranoid that will happen, they can put some type of screen at the bumper inlet and airbox outlet, to give them piece of mind. But I think it’s good to go as is. As you can see, there’s nothing blocking the inlet under the bumper, and it’s a fairly straight shot up into the airbox from there. So this setup should get a good amount of air being forced up into the airbox, at least when the vehicle is moving. Should get a LOT more air into the airbox than from behind the headlight!

I agree with drilling holes and pulling up the carpet. I noticed when I first got my MJ that the carpet on the floorboards were very damp. So I ended up cutting away the carpet on the floorboards, leaving them bare, only covering the trans tunnel and footwells. Where the water was pooling, I drilled small drainage holes, in the hopes that any future puddling wouldn't be as bad. I used some bedliner spray on the floorboards, and hope that will hold up for a while. I checked the floors today, since it rained last night, and have two more leaks. This time it looks like they're coming from the back of the cab, and running under the seats. Once it dries out, I'm going to dry out the floorboards, blow some air into the seam along the back bottom edge of the cab, and either run some silicone with a caulk gun, black RTV, or expanding foam, and hope that fixes those leaks. IMHO, it's ridiculous that these things leak like this, so I'm not going to waste a lot of time trying to find the actual source. I'll deal with what I can, which is where the water LOOKS like it's coming from. If I seal that bottom back seam in the cab, and the leak is gone, I'll consider the problem solved.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of chrome, so I'm glad these door panels didn't have any. Also, glad that the window trim doesn't have shiny bits on them either, to include the new vertical window seals (in keeping with the thread, lol!). I don't know what it is about these MJ's, with all their sources of water leaks inside the cab. We had a good rain here, and I pulled up the floor mats, and looks like I have a couple of new leaks. These are coming from the back, and puddling under the seats. I'll take a look tomorrow, dry up the water, blow out the seam at the bottom of the back edge of the cab, and see if laying down some silicone along that seam will stop the leak.

Sounds like you got the Laredo door panels? :needpics: :D Lol...okay, as requested...I got the gray cloth buckets and gray full console installed, along with the new door panels...definitley breaks up all that maroon...but in keeping with this thread, those window channel seals from JCW are a great fit, and easy to install, great find!

Got my new door panels (the ones with checkered cloth in the middle, "hockey stick" arm rests, and storage bins at the bottom), and these JCW window seals a couple of days ago, and got everything installed yesterday. I didn't remove the windows, so I only replaced the window seals as far down as the window would roll down. Both sides were pretty much dry rotted, so they came out cleanly in sections, lol! But these window seals from JCW fit PERFECTLY, and were only $17 plus S&H for an 8-foot section. I started at the very top, pushed it in and up as far as it would go, then worked my way down. I used a box cutter to cut the bottom, and pushed it into the channel, trying to get it as close to the remaining window seal that's inside the door, so the window wouldn't go off track. Took me probably 5 minutes per side to do this. I still have plenty left over after doing both of the upper window seal sections. Combined with the new lower window wipes, the windows roll up nice and snug now, even into the top of the window channel. GREAT FIND, and thanks for posting the info!

Just checked Avenger's website. Their intercooled supercharger kit for the 2.5L adds 58hp, and costs $4k! So that's roughly $70 per hp. I'm thinking it would be a LOT cheaper to just drop in a built 4.0, or depending on the cost of a donor vehicle, to drop in a small V8 (318 or 302). You'd end up spending a lot less money per hp going that route. But at least there's an aftermarket company that builds these things specifically for Jeeps...

Hmmmm...I'm no physicist or chemist, but I'm thinking O2 injection into a combustible confined space = KABOOM, lol! 'Course all things in moderation, but maybe at a low enough rate, with a fitting under the TB might work, kinda like NOS?

Thanks, but I have the 2.5 four-cylinder. As for vacuum lines, not sure what you're referring to. But on my airbox lid, there was one connector for the valve cover breather hose, and another connection that I'm not sure what it does, so I left it alone. The connector for this mystery line was right at the outlet tube that goes to the throttle body. Interesting note: I was at the pick and pull this morning, looking for a "test" airbox lid, and the one I ended up buying came off a 6-cyl. They had an '86 4-cyl XJ, but the airbox lid was narrower than the one on my '88 4-cyl MJ, and it had "2.5L" stamped on the top, where mine just has a few raised ridges. The test airbox lid still had two hose connections, but they weren't in the exact same places as the ones on the stock MJ airbox lid. Also, and this was a BIG issue, the big hose outlet to the TB was located in the corner of the airbox lid on the 6-cyl test lid, where it's closer to the middle on my 4-cyl lid, so I ended up just using mine. But I think this procedure will go much easier on a 6-cyl, because the fact that the adapter would be in the corner of the airbox lid will give the filter more room inside the airbox.

Just posted this in the DIY section about installing a Uni foam filter inside the stock airbox: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20903

Okay, here’s my first “Do It Yourself” posting for the Comanche forum. It has to do with relocating the valve cover breather hose from the airbox, and installing a Uni dual stage foam filter inside the air box. Here’s a picture of the parts I used to relocate the valve cover breather hose. It’s a box of rubber caps, and a breather filter that goes on the end of the VC breather hose: This is the stock location of everything, with the VC breather hose connected to the airbox lid on the driver’s side of the engine compartment: I unplugged the VC breather hose from the airbox lid, rotated it 180 degrees towards the battery side of the engine compartment, and found a nice place for it right by the rear battery holddown. The trick to getting the breather hose and this particular breather filter to work is you have to remove the rubber neck at the bottom of the breather filter. The end of the VC breather hose fits right inside: Once the VC breather hose is relocated, I plugged the inlet on the airbox lid with one of the rubber caps: To do this Uni filter install, I used these two parts. It’s a Uni dual stage foam filter, part number 6300AST, which means it’s 6” long, has a 3” inlet diameter, and has a slightly angled neck. It’s dual stage because it has a coarse outer sock, and a denser inner sock. The adapter I got from Home Depot, in the HVAC section. It’s one of those three piece heater duct gizmos that has rotating pieces: You have to remove the inner “neck” from the airbox lid outlet hose connection to the throttle body. This is what it looks like as seen from inside the airbox lid: Flip the airbox lid over, and you’ll see this small hole in the neck with a tab right underneath it. There’s also an inverted triangle that serves as an alignment mark for the inner neck. I used a small screwdriver, stuck it inside the small hole, and moved the tab forward to unseat the inner neck. Be careful doing this part, because the inner neck could be stuck in there pretty good, so don’t try to muscle it out, or you’ll end up breaking it: On second thought, that inner neck, once it’s removed, doesn’t really seem to serve any purpose, other than to restrict the size of the opening, so have at it! You have to cut the adapter in order to make it fit inside the airbox. On the rippled end, I made a cut down to the first section, in order to make it easier to install this end into the airbox lid. The cut ends will slightly overlap when you push it into the airbox lid, but it’s still wedged in there pretty good. The second cut was to remove the first section at the other end. Compare the two pics and you’ll see what I mean. Make sure to cut above the “flared” section, to get the narrow diameter, which goes into the Uni foam filter: I sprayed some ArmorAll into the neck and pushed the adapter in there and turned it around to where I thought it had to be, in order to put the air filter on the end, and checked to see that it cleared the edges, and was angled down towards the bottom of the airbox. Once I had an idea of how the adapter had to go in, I took it out, mounted the Uni filter on the end, then put the adapter in. It’s much easier to put the filter on the adapter, then put the assembly into the airbox lid, than trying to put the filter on the adapter once it’s snugged down into the airbox lid. This is what it looks like when the airbox lid is ready to be put back together with the airbox body. Even though it looks like the red outer sock will get caught on the airbox edge, these Uni filters are somewhat flexible, so you just have to give it a nudge and it will fit easily inside: Before I put the lid back down on the airbox body, I cut a 2” hole in the bottom of the airbox, and thru the metal underneath, to give the airbox a better source of colder outside air, in addition to the stock inlet source which is right behind the driver’s side headlight. I also used clear fingernail polish on the metal edges I just cut, to help prevent rust: So how’s everything work? I road tested these two mods for a few miles, and here are my initial observations. Relocating the VC breather hose like I did has no affect on how the MJ runs, and I didn’t see any oily residue at its new location. I’ll keep an eye on that though, and if there starts to be some oily residue dripping down from that new breather filter, I’ll go to Plan B. As for the Uni filter in the airbox, I noticed a couple of things. First, the intake sound now seems to drown out the exhaust tone from my Thrush all-welded chambered muffler, but in a good way, lol! Second, it seems to pull stronger in the mid-range. Didn’t really notice any change at idle or lower rpms, but during normal driving it seems to pull noticeably stronger in the mid-range, from about 1800 rpms on up. Total cost for everything was as follows: rubber caps ($3), breather filter ($9), Uni filter 6300AST ($25, but I already had one on my shelf), adapter ($4). So give or take, about $40 to do these two mods. Oh, one other thing. If you buy one of these Uni filters, you don’t need to buy the “special” filter treatment to oil it up. Just buy a can of regular cooking oil spray (NOT olive oil, it’s WAY too oily, lol), get the red outer sock damp, then massage the oil into the inner sock. Once that’s done, roll the filter back and forth on a paper towel to remove any excess.

It's not that we think our MJ's are race cars, but any little bit to get more hp is worth considering (muffler, TB spacer, engine swap, stroker, etc). Just about any car will benefit from a good cold air intake setup, and depending on how it's done, shouldn't be too expensive. Now a snorkel is another method for a cold air intake, one that is definitely better for someone who would take their MJ thru deep water, than a cold air setup entirely inside the engine compartment. However, I don't plan on fording any rivers in mine, so I'm trying to keep everything under the hood. But if I ever see an MJ on a "Fast and Furious" movie, then I know it'll be time to sell it and move on, lol...

Lol...aw, come on now, stop funnin' with us...

Yup, I agree. If the air filter isn't isolated from the heat of the engine compartment, it's going to be sucking in hot air, not cold. You could use the stock airbox, put a filter in there, and route a hose from the front of the vehicle into the airbox, so it's got a ram air/cold air thing going on. That's what I did on the SRT-4 picture. The Uni filter was isolated in the stock airbox, and I routed some flexible ducting from outside the engine compartment to the airbox inlet in the fender, totally bypassing the heat of the engine compartment. On the pics of the dual filters on my Sky, altho they're not in an airbox, they are directly behind the front grill, and I also have some ducting that I routed from the lower grills, by the driving lights, that feed cold air to the filters as well. All things being equal, you're still better off with an upgraded drop-in filter like a K&N, that flows more air. Next step up would be something like a Uni filter in the airbox, with a cold air hose. I'm going to see if I can rig up something like that. I need to get the inlet dimension of the hose in the airbox lid that goes to the TB, then see what size outside diameter the adapter piece will have, which will determine the inlet size of the Uni filter, and of course the airbox interior dimensions will determine the overall size of the Uni filter. Shouldn't be too hard to do, hardest thing will probaby be trying to find the right size Uni filter at the local motorcycle parts store (Cycle Gear). If they don't have one in stock, I'll have to go online, at the Uni link I posted, figure out which one should work, and have them order it for me. I prefer Cycle Gear over some of the dealerships, 'cuz they give me a military discount! If I get this done, I'll post pics...

Isn't the "rheostat" the same thing as what the dash light dimmer knob does? If not, then you know why I'm no automotive electrics genius, lol...

That's the stock filter on the left, and a K&N filter on the right, correct? If I can't figure out an easy way to remove the stock air box and put a filter on the end of the TB intake hose, then an upgraded drop-in filter would be a good alternative. I popped open the air box, and might be able to put a Uni foam filter in there, like in that pic of the SRT-4 air box, but I'll have to play around with it tomorrow. I'm thinking I'd need a 45-degree elbow, with one end going into the TB hose on the inside of the air box lid, with a filter attached to the other end, sitting inside the air box. At least that way, I won't have to deal with the hoses and other things that are attached to the air box now. However, I still might do something with that valve cover vent hose that goes into the air box. Either put a breather right on the valve cover, or connect some hose to the plastic fitting that's on there now, with a breather filter on the end, and route it somewhere. A trick I learned from doing this on some of my motorcyles was to put a loop in the routing, and try and put the end higher than the source, to reduce or eliminate the oily stuff making it all the way out.

What did you do with the hoses that went into/out of the stock air box (other than the main intake hose)? Did you plug them, route them to a catch bottle or to ground, or? That's the main problem that's stopping me from doing the exact same thing...

Nice XR! Saturns have always been VERY underrated cars, IMHO. I've owned six of them ('94 SW2, '98 SC2, '00 LW2, '01 L3, '06 VUE, '07 Sky), and loved 'em all! I still have the Sky, and wish I still had the SW2, but I'm happy with playing around with the MJ. To make this thread-related, you should put in a drop-in filter like one of those Frams, or a K&N. Either one would be an improvement over the stock paper pleated filter. Or see if you could squeeze in a Uni foam filter inside the airbox, like I did with my SRT-4: Another thing that could help is to route some cold outside air directly into the air box. I did this on the SRt-4, at the very right side of the pic, you can barely see the flex ducting I used to route air right into the air box inlet. I guess the main takeaway is don't discount alternative filters like Unis. Seems like the MJ crowd can get pretty creative, and using a Uni filter, instead of an oiled cotton gauze drop-in or cone-style filter, is a great alternative. http://www.unifilter.com/online%20catal ... ersal.html

Paul's a great guy. He sold me a set of gently used Jeep alloys, which I have now on my MJ, with 31's. He showed me his project MJ, and the attention to detail and all the upgrades is AMAZING! From the obvious things like the lift, paint, interior door panels with power window/locks switches, to the not so obvious like brake booster mod and some others, it really is an awesome MJ. Hope he doesn't do anything crazy with it when he's done, like rock crawling...it'd be a shame for something as nice as that to get damaged.

I've used Uni dual-stage foam filters in numerous applications, from motorcycles, to an SRT-4 I used to own, to several Saturns that I've owned or still own. It's a great alternative to your typical oiled cotton gauze filter, like a K&N, and costs about half of what a K&N filter runs. It's dual-stage, in that the outer sock is coarse, and the inner sleeve is denser, wrapped around a wire coil that gives the filter flexibility in tight spaces, unlike a typical cone filter. Here's a pic of two Uni filters on a dual intake I have on my Saturn Sky. These filters were about $25 each. Here's a Uni filter on the end of the airbox hose on a Saturn SC2. It just needed an angled piece of PVC pipe to connect the two. I'm going to try and install a set of MJ bucket seats later today, along with a full console. If that goes well, I'll take a look inside the stock airbox, and see if there's room to put in one of these Uni filters. I looked at possibly putting a Uni filter on the end of the airbox hose, like what I did to that Saturn SC2, but with the other hoses going into or out of the stock airbox, I think I'll see if i can just put one inside (I did this to an SRT-4 I owned a few years ago). If I do, I'll take some pics and maybe do a DIY writeup!

The WJ lower control arms I used came from '99-'04 models...

An inexpensive way to lift your MJ is like what was mentioned, using 2"-3" coil spring spacers. And for the back, a pair of Chevy greaseable shackles. Do a search on eBay, and you should find sellers for both of these lift items.

Yup, 31's on stock Jeep wheels should clear the fenders, with no rubbing. Only rubbing you'll have is against the lower control arms. That's easily fixed by replacing the stock lower control arms with ones from a Grand Cherokee (WJ). I got a pair of new WJ LCAs off eBay for $75 plus shipping, and paid $100 for a 4wd shop to install them. Also, the WJ LCAs are fully boxed, so this upgrade is definitely worth the investment. This pic shows the slight "S" bend in the WJ LCAs, which allows 31's to not rub at full lock (this pic was taken with 31's on Jeep alloys at full lock) This pic shows what 31's on stock alloys at stock ride height looks like. Tires are Firestone Destination AT's.

Good point...knowing my luck, I would've bought all those LED bulbs, and they wouldn't have worked correctly. Personally, I run with my dash lights at their brightest setting anyway, so the LEDs being all the way on or off, with no dimmer capability, wouldn't have been an issue. I just checked the red 4-bulb LED on that eBay sight, and it says it has an operational range of 10.5v to 15.8v, so maybe they'll dim? I know on my motorcycle, if I put LED bulbs in the front and rear turn signals and brake light, they wouldn't work at all. If I ran just LEDs for the rear turn signals and brake light, they'd work, but blink faster than normal. Apparently, to make all the LEDs work properly in that application, I needed some kind of load equalizer gizmo. I have no skills at automotive electrics, so I just put amber incandescent bulbs in for the turn signals, and left the red LED bulb for the tail light. But I still think red gauge lights would look pretty cool, a la BMW, lol...

Yup, the bulb size you're looking for is 194. The idiot lights in the piece to the left of the gauge cluster, for the brake, seat belt, upshift, etc., are smaller, so I didn't check on those, since they're rarely on anyway. Here's a link to a seller on eBay that has the 194 wedge-base LED bulbs for the gauge cluster. I was going to get 9 of the red 4-bulb LEDs, and 3 of the white 1-bulb inverted cone LEDs for the turn signals and high beam indicator, but decided not to do it. I didn't want to wait to get the bulbs before swapping the gauge clusters. The local auto parts stores had some of the 4-bulb 194s in red, but they were almost $11 for two, where this guy is selling them for less than $4 for two. http://stores.ebay.com/U2-LEDS__W0QQ_fsubZ20691755 But if you're not in a hurry, I say go for it on the LED bulbs. I would've spent about $24 plus shipping to do the red/white bulb mix like I wanted. And I think it would've looked kinda cool, having that red glow on the gauges at night, with the green turn signals and blue high beam indicator being much brighter with a white LED shining down on them.

Yes, even if the gauge clusters are from the same engines, because the half cluster uses sending units for warning lights, not gauges. So you'll have to replace the warning light sending units with gauge sending units. If you read thru this thread, you should be able to get the part numbers for the oil pressure sending unit and water temp sending unit. Hang on, here's the info: Oil pressure sending unit for a gauge: Duralast PS133, $20 at Auto Zone Water temp sending unit for a gauge: BWD WT761, $19 at Advance Auto Do NOT use Duralast TU108 for the water temp sending unit, even though it's listed in that NAXJA how-to thread, because I used one and it doesn't work (I believe it's for a warning light, not a gauge). Since my full gauge cluster came out of an '87 XJ 6-cyl, and my MJ is an '88 4-cyl, these should be the exact same sending units you'll need for your '87 full cluster. Good luck, and the full gauge cluster is SO much nicer than the half cluster. Before you make the swap, and you have the full gauge cluster, you might want to consider putting on white face gauges, and/or replacing the bulbs with LEDs. I was going to replace the gauge illumination bulbs with red LEDs, and use white LEDs for the turn signals and high beam indicator, but luckily no place around here had all the bulbs I needed (9 red and 3 white). But the regular white bulbs seem to light it up just fine...