DirtyComanche

I'm surprised there's no smoothies available. I'm guessing it's some weird metric bolt pattern? Those with some skinny lower profile tires would be a good start. I'd do that, and skirt the rear wheelwells. Also get one of those electric door popper setups for hot rods/Mexican cars, then take the doorhandles off and bondo the depressed area smooth. Rear window wiper, ditch that, along with the antenna. Ditch the badges. Passenger side rearview, garbage that too, along with the driver's side if that's legal in your area. I'd say definitely yes to the lowering springs, but there's a good chance you could just cut a coil off the ones you have and they'd be perfect.. After that you've really only got weight savings left as a viable option, so I'd say start with pulling the carpet and headliner. Maybe there's some stuff under the hood that you can trash, the A/C sounds pretty optional/detrimental and I'd probably start with that. I'd say you could definitely gut the power windows out of all the doors but the driver's, but check if that it legal first. Maybe replace the back seat with just some stretched canvas or something? I bet you could pull 400lbs out of the car if you try, maybe more. At least then you can tell anyone that questions you driving it that it is literally entirely about saving money on fuel. Because otherwise there is nothing redeeming about those cars.

Yeah, NTC means "Negative Temperature Coefficient" in reference to a thermistor. You should be able to see what resistance it is from that pin on the battery connector to the B- to get the room temperature resistance. Then just go buy a little resistor that is near that resistance or higher and wire it in on your new battery. You also can probably cut that old battery open and fish the thermistor out of it, if you want to be more proper. You're going to need the connector off it anyways. Edit, assuming the board you have is a multilayer or such and there is actually something hooked to the NTC+. Otherwise just nip the connector off your old battery and put it on the new one.

I debated it because a topper is nice half the time, and an open box is nice the other half... But I don't think one would hold up to the snow loading it would see here when I leave the truck parked outside. I've debated building something like a modular topper, say a steel frame with individual panels on it that can be removed. That way I could pull the topper off without other people/my hoist, 'fold it up' and store it in my shed. However that's just a thought for the time being.

Same but cheaper: https://www.ebay.com/itm/STAINLESS-RACING-MANIFOLD-HEADER-EXHAUST-FOR-91-99-JEEP-WRANGLER-CHEROKEE-4-0L/172820117735?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D49923%26meid%3D19bfb96dc7e34250b87fcead6282ff11%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D180803180801%26itm%3D172820117735&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851 Tempted to order one for my MJ, for if I ever wind up going to a HO head on it.

That's the header I have on my XJ. You'll need the HO intake manifold and everything to make that work. It will not clear the Renix one. You will not get it to clear by grinding anything or lightly denting a primary tube on the header. I don't know if the collector flange is in the same location as a stock HO one is. I cut mine off and put a V-band flange on it because I needed the clearance to get a flex pipe in before it would foul my driveshaft. I added a stainless O2 bung from Summit as well. BTW, it is actually made mostly of 3XX stainless. The flange is 4XX I believe. It's amazing how cheap you can build a header when barefoot children are bending the tubes and welding them together in a dirt floor tin shed in China.

You've got three wires on your current battery and only two on the replacement. What is the third wire for? I'm guessing there's a thermister in there to monitor temperature during charge. You likely will not get the battery to charge without it, although you can probably use a resistor to simulate it.

Thanks, just used it.

That's cool.

How much oil is it consuming? You don't have any other leaks, back of the valve cover, rear main, timing cover, filter adapter, etc? Blowby into the air filter/airbox? That could just be that you need to go to the new style PCV setup...

Maybe on the WJ? I don't recall how they're set up. The ZJ still uses a manual tensioner, it's a lot nicer setup than in the XJ though.

I'm curious to see the gears/carrier out of the axles. I'm wondering if they have better bearings or a third pinion bearing to make them live, as they are smaller than the last generation. There may be more hypoid offset, based on how high that high pinion looks. Those inner Cs look beefy. The knuckles themselves, I would wait on that one. I would not be surprised if Crane and Reid are making replacements in short order. Better brackets is great, too bad they're boat anchors, like on the JK. Tube improvement is good, but not surprising, the weak tubes were costing Chrysler money as they had to warranty axles over it. CAD sucks, one more thing to go wrong. I'm sure there will be delete kits for it in a hurry. However it looks like it hangs down too, at least on the old CAD XJ axles you weren't really losing any clearance to using them.

IMHO, and we're into the whole can of worms that oil is, you would have been a lot less likely to see that issue with a full synthetic. The Valvoline is a decent product. Mobil1, Quaker State, and *gasp* even Pennzoil make some quality full synthetics.

Which one, the synthetic or the synthetic blend? What filters are you using? Change interval?

Use better oil.

Cool, please keep us updated.

If you have a plugged injector the O2 sensor will read lean and enrich the ones that work, effectively making the other cylinders rich (and that one will remain dead). You can try to clean it by throwing it in a container of solvent, Seafoam, kerosene, etc and cycling the injector with a battery (9V will work for this). If you have an ultrasonic cleaner that will work well too, or put it in a cup and leave it on something that shakes (generator, air compressor, washing machine) for a while. Don't blow yourself up or burn anything down.

Optimas went through a really rough time when they moved production to Mexico (I believe). Apparently the quality is back up there, but I'm not likely to ever buy another one after OptimaJim was so kind as to tell all of us with dead Optimas that it was because we didn't use an approved battery charger (he now denies ever having said such a thing and insists that it is other manufacturers of AGM/Gel batteries that have only a few approved chargers).

I don't have Autozone here, so I'll just speculate that they probably have multiple lines of batteries. As they are not making them themselves, their different lines of batteries can be made by entirely different manufacturers. Even different group sizes from the same line can be made by different manufacturers. So whatever ones you bought might suck, but others might not... So please be more specific which ones didn't work (not that it matters to me, it might to somebody that has an Autozone nearby). At work we didn't have great luck with NAPA import line batteries... No idea who made them, but they didn't last in the cold.

I'll watch this tomorrow... Posting so I remember. I think I'm going to keep my JK either way.

If somebody wants to do a LS swap how-to, I'd appreciate it.

Yeah, normally the down pipe has a dent in it there for clearance. If it's tighter to the oil pan or run a bit different it doesn't need the dent. Who knows if that was an aftermarket pipe or something an exhaust shop bent up, but it's not good if it's hitting. The only real problem with the Renix stuff is it probably kills some high end power and the exhaust manifold (header) always cracks. Did your truck get jumped? The oil pan doesn't look so happy either.

Maybe, maybe not. Acceleration and held throttle would likely be bad, but it's surprising what will or won't happen. Did you verify you didn't suck water through the engine? Looked at the air filter? Pulled the plugs? Last engine that I saw suck water was mysteriously low on power, then a couple days later it popped the top off a piston and blew the ring into the cylinder head...

I would @$$ume that the wire going to the cluster is for the charge indication idiot light, and you won't need it unless you have that type of cluster. With a keyed (ignition) wire and a battery connection that should be all it needs to charge. That said, not all alternators are the same. Is this a unit that is listed as being a direct replacement, or are you trying to retrofit something else?

If the signal out of it is garbage it will cause the ignition and injection timing to be wrong. Personally they've always either worked or not for me, that is either the trucks runs or it doesn't. When the signal from them is weak the crank time will increase, until eventually you'll get a no start (typically when it's hot the first couple times, it will normally restart once it cools). There's no reason not to clean the connector on it, but I doubt it is the issue. I'm guessing the TPS is producing erratic output through its range of travel. You can test the sweep on it with a multimeter if you have a decent one. There may well be something else that is wet and unhappy, but this happened last week... Unless you're parking it in a lake I doubt moisture is still the issue. Your original TPS may have dried out enough to work by now too. Especially if you put it somewhere hot.

My money would be on bad TPS out of the box. What brand is it?