hgeranium

That’s wild that the thief just stole it for some gas. It’s like the homeless people that will break car windows to steal change in a cupholder (never leave visible change!) My personal anti-theft before I add a kill switch is pulling the shifter handle and inner plastic rod so even if they get the club off and get the truck on, they can’t put it in gear. All this assuming you have an automatic. If I’m leaving the truck for a bit in a bad part of town I’ll pull the fuel pump fuse. I’m very glad that the truck is alright. Your scenario really made me get into a better habit about doing the thing I said above every time.

Do you remember what this video was referencing by chance? I know it's a random bump from 2 years ago but cruiser made the mysterious video so enticing.

Looking through the registry, and this is one of the 6 Comanches to share a selling dealer with mine. It's very similar in spec other than it being a pioneer. It's sad thinking that both mine and this one could have been on the lot at the same time, brand new, and now one sits to rot away in a junkyard.

Awful picture but I noticed that the gasket on my few month old oil cap was starting to warp and wasn’t seating properly anymore. Since I bought it at O’Reilly, it was under a one year warranty. I pulled the old gasket off, warranty swapped the oil cap, and double stacked the old gasket with the fresh one on the new cap. It’s on there so tight I felt like I was going to break the thing when reinstalling the cap. A few heat cycles should break it in though. I’m pretty confident about this version of cruisers oil cap mod though. I think it’s a lot easier than the cruiser recommended option of having/buying some innertube and cutting it to fit the cap or outright buying a sheet of gasket material. This should help with my crankcase pressure and VC leakage woes.

Where does the oil tend come out of? I know @Muncherinstalled a catch can on the front CCV hose. He bolted it up to the old ballast resistor point. I think it’s pretty smart. Eliminates any chance of oil on the air filter plus the catch can will trap/filter that nasty oil smell that someone like me gets for venting it out into a water bottle lol. And SX4 recommended switching to an HO valve cover with the improved PCV/CCV system. That could be worth your time too.

Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll be moving back to San Antonio so if I don’t have the rocks to do it myself I’m sure there’s plenty of professional options. The lift is something I plan on doing in a few years when we get more fiscally stable again. I wanted to do my research early to make sure it was a reasonable goal for me. What I'm trying to tell the wife is that if we buy a lift instead of a third car, then I can keep the Comanche and her Taurus running for much longer (and get a project XJ for us a little further down the line).

I love the 4.3 and have had a OBS with that powertrain, but why not a 350?

I like the ring of "Dr. Pete" myself

What's interesting is that, when unplugging the e fan (PO has it to key-on), I was sitting around 195-210 at operating temp. But yeah I have no reason to trust it until I upgrade the instrument panel ground

Woah cool! Great to know. Thanks for the help

Good to know our experiences are similar. And honestly, even with its minor leaks, I very rarely have to top up on oil. I'd say it is at about a quart every 3000 miles in total like you said. Much of this is surely exacerbated by God knows what else is leaking but if I have nothing to worry about other than keeping oil topped up (already good on that) then that's cool to hear.

So since I already have an HO airbox, the HO valve cover would go right onto the air box with its appropriate CCV hose? That's good to know but I would feel so sad swapping out such a good looking valve cover, even if the HO design is functionally superior in every way.

In all this tinkering that I've been doing with the crankcase, I noticed that there's a pretty steady stream of smoke from the CC with the oil cap off while it's running. It's not billowing smoke and clouding vision or anything, but I do see smoke coming out. I understand that 1. it's an old style motor and 2. it's an old (wear-wise) motor. I'm at ~188,000 miles. For similar mileage 4.0 guys, what does the blow-by look for you? Is what I'm seeing just typical ring wear from mileage/age or should I be more concerned? It doesn't feel like there's any of pressure when I cover the hole with my hand and no oil splashes out with the cap off either. The cap doesn't move at all if I take it off and set it on top of the hole. Also, do y'all (renix guys) still get seepage from the PCV grommet/hose even with brand new parts? It's not a lot but I do see a fresh pool of oil on the grommet and around its spot on the VC after every drive. Granted, I haven't done cruiser's valve cover mod yet, but I would've thought the new stuff would fully seal it for at least a little bit.

Any manufacturers or brands that you could vouch for?

I recently bought a house. I'll be moving into it full-time after graduation. There's no garage but there is a nice sized concrete slab in the backyard at the end of the driveway. It's completely open, so I figure it would be a great spot for a two post lift. I would build a roof that accommodates the max height of the jeep on the lift which depends on what size I get Anyone with personal lifts, are there any recommendations or pointers that you may have? I don't want to spend many many thousands of dollars, but I don't want to risk my life, and more importantly my Jeep, with a dirt cheap temu quality lift. I would prefer one with enough height to stand straight underneath it and work(I'm 5'10"), but if the price is right, even one that's a bit shorter where I could sit on a stool to work underneath would be amazing too. Anything to get off the gravel. This will be at least 2 years in the future when money is stabilized and I have enough time to save, but I like to do my research early. Also how does installation work? Is this something that is professionally installed only, or can I save myself some coin and do it myself? I really just don't know what it takes to put together and install a lift. I know I would need some heavy-duty tools to get it situated in the concrete to start.

322532529284489363 is the code. Good till the 26th of December. Happy hunting!

It was kind of(?) sludgy. When I wiped the dipstick, it came off cleanly and smoothly on the shop towel. Definitely nothing solid/chunky and no goop. I still need to change the oil pan gasket at some point, so I can definitely get a good look to see if there's any deposits when I do that. I'll probably just wait until next oil change; I do a 3000 mile interval anyways. I'll see what the other guys say. I seriously bet it's just that rotella doing its work since the stuff wasn't metallic or gritty.

I’ve never seen this before. I pulled out my dipstick to check the oil, saw what you see above, wiped it, checked it again, saw more of it, then checked it again and it was no more. I'm only ~1300 miles into this oil and it looks a lot darker than I’d expect. I’m running Rotella T6 10w30. Could this just be loosened deposits from the extra detergents that will come out at my next oil change? In the past I would run regular conventional, this is the first time running synthetic. Sorry if this is a super dumb question, all this oil stuff happening with the truck just has me on edge.

Supreme Leader?

So to all of your CC children, should you be Uncle Pete or Father Pete?

Yeah that would partially explain why my mpgs are so shoddy compared to a lot of the other guys on CC (things are looking much better after the new fuel pump though!). I'm thinking in the past the fan clutch was starting to go out (or maybe he just didn't know how to burp the cooling system lol), so instead of replacing it, the previous owner put in a low temp thermostat and swapped the electric fan to a key-on situation rather than temp-based. I'm just glad he kept the original AMC housing instead of replacing it with a crappy aluminum unit for no reason when putting on the thermostat.

I understand that the typical operating temperature for a Renix 4.0 is ~210 aka right in the middle of the gauge. I've never had to replace the thermostat yet, but as long as I've had the truck, my temp gauge has always stuck around that first quarter mark at operating temp. I think it's about 160. On rockauto I see that there's a 160 degree alternate option thermostat. I assume there's a good chance PO put one of those in there. Unless my instrument panel ground is causing it to be finnicky, although I only notice a clear ground issue with the battery voltage, so I think it's OK. My question is: what thermostat temperatures do y'all like to run? I live in South Texas so, in the summer, the cooler operating temperature is appreciated, but I'm wondering if there are any benefits/downsides to any of the other (including OE) temp options.

Honestly when I'm bored, I check the online user list and click on any threads that look interesting. You could never blame a man for wanting to click on "Uncle Pete"

Any news on a XJ/MJ first car for him now that he should be 15?

Drop the VIN in the registry