Thunderbear

It was a DD, now it's a parts vacuum.

What wires does it tap into, I have some friends that owe me money :D

Try having your MJ but living four and a half thousand miles away from all your tools. :fs2:

I'm with you on that. Want to get my 86 as reliable as possible, then think about swaps. Post up how the install goes, I might be doing this mod to support a Four Wheel Camper one day.

Fluid seems to be a very optimistic term. I'm leaning more toward a solid... :eek:

Hahah, that 2.5 was born tired. That's why I don't want any lift. :rotf:

Crap. I can't believe I'd ever say this, but I don't want any lift :o Lift is for the TJ. MJ is just comfortably above ground.

Light foot, conservation of momentum and a four banger helps me. I recommend keeping track of your mileage on something like Fuelly. I always take the very high mileage numbers with a grain of salt, that's why I like Fuelly.. keeps a log of actual mileage. You're getting about what I get in my lifted TJ.. As opposed to the MJ:

Last week: New radiator New water pump This week New head gasket STOP OVERHEATING. :fs2:

It's a 2.5, and I did Pete's method twice, just to be sure. I know how those guys felt. It's freaking maddening trying to nail down the problem with intermittent symptoms. PO said it was new, for whatever that's worth. :ack: I'm pretty sure it had a pinhole headgasket leak. After the test drive today, I came back to swap the CTS back, this time with the truck parked as usual facing uphill. I cracked the seal for the CTS.. no fluid. WTF? That can't be right, it should be pouring steadily out. I walked around and found that my right rear tire was doused in a mystery fluid, while my engine compartment was clean. No coolant smell, but I went back around to the engine and checked all the fluids, and they were all good except for the overflow tank. And as soon as I cracked it, I heard drip noises underneath. Put my hand on the block back by the firewall and found it wetter than $#!&. My thinking is that there was a small pinhole leak that evaded me when I was just idling it to check, and today's ride blew it out.

So, after a short drive up and down a local road, I'm working on the theory that the CTS is lying it's little copper @$$ off. It'll swing past 260, then drop down to 240 as I'm driving like it's giving the wrong temp readings. Temp gun says the CTS is 169, gauge says 260. Still no boiling, no hesitation, oil looks great, and the rad is cold at 79 degrees. Water neck at 140ish. Exhaust manifold at 330ish.

Showoff. :ack: Would kill for a tailgate and a 3 spoke wheel up here.

I just noticed that midpoint is 220, haha. On my TJ, it's 210. So, after burping and refilling the radiator after it cools and settles. I have heat now, but it is still overheating. Interestingly, the heater increases in temp with RPM increases, and temp decreases when coming back to idle, while apparently only having a slight effect on the coolant temp. Upper half of the radiator is still cold to the touch, even after temp spikes. Temp gun says 57.9. On the CTS, it says 180ish. On the exhaust manifold, says 339, thermostat/water neck 154. It seems to be improving, I now have heat. I keep refilling, and burping. Will continue to update...

Burp the air out of the system. By overheating, do you mean running over 210 degrees? (Which is not actually overheating and well within operating specs.) Or do you mean needle pegged, steam coming out from under the hood and coolant boiling in the pressure tank? Or do you mean 210 degrees, steam coming from under the hood and coolant boiling in the pressure tank? Also, what do you use for coolant? Premixed? Tap water? Distilled water? Concentrate? Mix of any of these? Overheating means temp gauge swinging well wide of 210 and approaching 260 with no sign of stopping. No steam, no boils, and the rad is cool to the touch when it happens. Oil still looks good, not toasted, and the truck idles just fine while the gauge pegs. I let it get to 240ish and kill it. Coolant started out 100% antifreeze, with no thermostat, and an old radiator/cts/waterpump. Over the course of wrenching, it's been flushed to 50/50 antifreeze/distilled water.. probably closer to 40/60 coolant/water with spillage and refilling.

It was spraypainted black, so it needed one anyway. Also, the last time I had it on the road, half of it was hot, and half cold, so I'm thinking it was clogged. And no, I don't have heat now, but it was working back when it overheated. :fs2: Righto. Now, it's got a new CTS, new radiator, new water pump, and still overheating. :wall: :wall: :wall:

New radiator, same problem :wall: Guess that means water pump.

In answer, I don't know that it was a swap, just a hunch. I hadn't come across anything that suggested -all- of the gauges were an option in the first model year. I may have missed something in my searching. The way the tach rests at 2K reminds me of one of jimoshel's swaps. It's possible, but there's no way to know from the column since the whole column is a transplant from another wrecked MJ, the AX5 donor. Hazards of owning a Frankentruck. :D Akula, I might PM you soon. I like the underhood light, but I bought a manually retracting Chevy light I'm going to use instead. I'll try to fix the ITT and sell it.

Ahah! The pivot is the one in the -middle- Got it. Inspection plate back on! Fixed the backup lights by ... ahem .. altering the plug to fit. So, in the middle of all of this, I scored some stock XJ wheels, cleaned em up and spraybombed them black, along with wiring up a new license plate light, and spraybombing the back bumper and the ridiculous fart cannon exhaust tips. So, until I get more pictures, that brings us to today [last month before my radiator took a $#!&]

What's this? AW4 shift cables and cooler lines? time to go.. there's enough mystery $#!& on this thing already.. Naked flywheel huh? So that's what this thing is for. Hey neat! Balls. It needs work, and I don't know get it open to fix it. Who let the smoke out? :fs2: That one cost me a new valve cover gasket, and a new valve cover. Stupid plastic. And then, hell, I might as well do plugs wires cap rotor belts hoses battery terminals air filter pcv oil change/filter (not fram) Hmm.. speaking of belts, how the hell does this work?

But, new projects are always fun.. Red/Maroon 86 2.5/AX5 longbed. Wanted something good on gas, unique, 4x4 and pickup. Not much more unique than an MJ. I've had only one Jeep, my TJ, but I've been the wrencher on many a friends Jeeps.. XJ, ZJ, CJ, YJ. So I wanted something cool, but I found this instead... :rotf: You'll note, please, the X-racing 'eyebrow' sticker, and the light up washer nozzles... and the tracks of what used to be racing stripes... on a 2.5. Someone needs to be smacked. Thrush, Hurst, and K&N.. I'm pretty sure two of the three don't even make anything for the MJs that isn't generic. Well, that's bare. Man, I feel short. Also, it's @#$%ing up my hair, which is unsatisfactory. There are some pros, someone did a gauge swap. Although I want the newer gauges already. These just look .. dated. Have nothing against Thrush and Hurst, but they don't belong. Took a friggin chisel to get the eyebrow off Cherry bomb :doh:

So far for me, Rock Auto has the best price shipped, but I've seen a couple places that offer free shipping.. you guys Outside are lucky when it comes to shipping. :ack: Horn, I think he means for applying adhesive, it's like a headliner, you adjust, stretch, and be patient when adhering it. That's my experience with YJ and Early Bronco carpet kits, anyway. They never seem to fit correctly when you first pull them out of the box.

They're not doing the discount anymore, unfortunately. I just ordered a pair. Still worth it at $16/ea + ship, in my opinion.

I really need to remember to stay out of Sam's and your build threads... :wall: So much want.. Was there a link for the quietcar stuff I missed?

Continued to stockpile parts...

That goes without saying for most everything about the VM, no? So this was the source of the odd noise, even though the timing belt looked fine, right? That said, I still want one. And now I'm seriously thinking about changing the timing chain on my 2.5 while I have the radiator off.