Smokeyyank

Last thing I got done was the new exhaust. Running a Kolak 3" with a flowmaster super 50 and magnaflow resonator. I did get it finished but it was took dark for my craptastic camera to get a good pic. Sounds awesome! Along with the intake work thing just rumbles. Burning in some more welds. Intake is a beast

Here's the wheels and tires I'm running. Wheels are from mammoth. Took some searching to find, but they only market them for JK's. I love them. Think they are a good looking wheels and don't have a huge offset but enough to give it a little more of an agressive stance compared to just JK takeoff's. Tires are the Falken Wildpeaks AT3's I got LT tires all around. Heavy but I like them.

Got the front all put together minus the ruined brakeline

Fixed the coil buckets. Used the IRO kit. Worked well and didn't take to long to weld it all in. Here's cleaning up the old area. had to grind down the old bucket as much as possible Welded the new buckets together. This is the first project I've actually welded on. I've messed a round a little in the past but not actually throwing beads down. Some beads came out really good others looked like, well.... $h!t Still learning but I totally dig welding. Need to figure out why I got some splatter New bucket mounted ready to burn in new bucket with coil and isolators in.

Well got more done on the WJ this weekend. Still can't drive it because of more stupid things happening. My dad wasn't paying attention when were compressing a side to put a spring in and ruined one of the new SS brakelines. Love the man but he has been fning up more things from just not paying attention and it's driving me bat$#!& crazy. Here it is at least sitting at ride height

The first time I saw/heard about "bluewaffles" I about lost my lunch. I can take a lot but good gosh that made me spew a little......fake or real I don't want to know but it's just flat wrong!

I know I can expect some rub. Not too worried about it.

Yeah, I knew they had issues, but didn't know what level until I pulled off the coil and the bucket was just non existent. Nice looking WJ what lift size if he running? I eventually will get a rear tire carrier.

This brings me to current. Next weekend will add in some more pics and hopefully have it road worthy. Will still have some other items to button up but I'm stoked! Things still to do..... -Finish up the front end (rear is done but forgot a pic) -Replace coil buckets -Add in Aussie to the rear D44 -Get the 3" exhaust in -Wire up the traildash -Wire the stereo -Get the rubber on running 265/75/16

Next was freshening up the underside. I am going to be running a 3" IRO lift along with Bilstiens 5100's, extended sway bar links, ADDCO rear sway bar and some other things. Go figure the coil buckets were toast.....waiting on my IRO replacement kit to finish up the front I also replaced all the control arms, here's the rear. That a arm was a b*@ch to get out. Ended up having to cut the upper ball joint off as it had seized to the a arm. Replaced all the brakes; calipers, rotors, pads and lines.

First order of business was addressing the engine. I had my engine guy rebuild the 4.7HO. It had spun a bearing and was toast. While he was at it I added in a fastman bored 68mm TB and AFE intake and a bunch of other "maintenance" items (forgot a pic but it's a engine.....) Also I went ahead and ditched the silly 247 t case in there in favor of the 242HD. By doing so I get 2wd vs all time 4wd. Also I get to add in a lunchbox to the rear. Freshed up the 5454rfe with new fluid and a filter.

Thanks for checking out my new build thread! Originally I was going to call it Smokey 2.0, but due to a really unfortunate event I decided to name it as a tribute to my furry four legged best friend that was tragically lost right before starting it. His nickname was Potimus. Onward and upward to what I am building. While I love the XJ platform it just wasn't big enough for what I wanted. After my last XJ being filled with gear, 2 dogs and the wife I was tapped out on space. We added the little peanut to our family and there was no way I was getting all the junk in the XJ. Ideally, this is going to be our camping/overland/road trip vehicle. I've always loved the WJ's just never found myself in one until now. Enter the 04 Columbia edition with the 4.7HO. I picked it up at Copart for $500 and knew it needed a new engine (which I wanted). It was a 2 owner car and overall pretty clean with the exception of needing a new bumper. It did not have the factory Columbia seats anymore, but the covers are decent

Ouch......yeah that's going be to be patience tester right there. I would drill them out. Start with a small bit and slowly work up to bigger one. Getting to them will propbaby be the biggest challenge.

Really?! I thought 4.10's where the deepest, but I'll definitely differ to the Jeep gurus on that one.

Good choice ditching the turdy5. I was just looking at the gear calc. With 5.13's you'll be around 2700rpm trying to hit 65. 4.88's you'll be about 2500rpm. Obviously 5.13's are going to get you the low end grunt but you'll be howling on the highway. Another idea http://www.northwestfab.com/NWF-BlackBox-Underdrive_c_7.html More money but you can run less gear in the axles and get a nice crawl ratio.

Guessing you're sticking with stock axles? If so what rear are you running? First check out grimmjeeper gear calculator. It will give you a good idea of rpms at speed, etc. 5.13s will give you the most umph by at the sacrafice of highway speed. Also you're putting a lot of strain on the r&p with that deep of gear and tire size. It can be done though. Just no mashing the skinny pedal. Since you're missing 2 cylinders 5.13 s might be the best for 35 s. 33s 4.88 s would work great.

OEM is about 7 and if you want to maintain on roadability then staying close to that will be ideal. A little more definitely helps. Additional castor beyond factory spec can help with wandering issues with larger tires and helps steering return to "center", but too much can results in heavier steering. If you're not running any type of assist I'd go for 8-10*

Gotcha, well if you are going to swap in some motor mounts I'd look at Stinkyfab.

So you're saying you snapped the bracket at the unibody that actually attaches to it? I don't know of anyone that makes HD frame mounts. Only motor mounts and engine plates.

Not my info but just something I have bookmarked about link set ups from people waaaayyyy smarter than me. Upper Links: The upper link in a 3 link suspension can be difficult. Regarding length, there are some old and new rules of thumb. In the past, it was recommended to make the length 75% of the lower link length. Yes, this will keep your suspension geometry consistent during travel, but it can also cause the pinion angle to aim downward as the suspension droops. Instead, making the upper link the same length as the lowers (or even slightly longer) will allow the pinion to roll up along with the droop. Overall, equal length keeps the driveshaft alive and is especially useful for rigs with short wheelbases and/or driveshafts, or for low-pinion front applications. It doesn't really matter if the upper arm is a little longer than the lower arms. I don't see it being 8" longer just because of the mounting place on the axle. The frame side mount should be further forward than the lower mounts, pretty easy to do if the upper mount is inside the frame. Put the arms where they fit the best, if they're as level as possible it will be fine. If you want to see how much pinion rotation you'll have with different arm lengths and placement, just draw it on the garage floor with chalk and use a couple pieces of string or something to draw arcs of movement with chalk, then mark vertical axle travel in inches and draw a line to the arc and you'll be able to see exactly what pinion rotation you'll have throughout you travel with a particular setup. After you do that, you'll find that it doesn't matter much, but you'll feel better, and feel smarter.

Yep, will only run the OEM 195 temp.

Right on, DIY as in....?

Never said they didn't work. They do work and work well. Issue is losing clearance.