Jeep Driver

Just remember- If you do what you did, you'll get what you got. Rethink and come up with your own solution. I know what I'm going to do and I see what others are doing. Look around. Lastly, for the price of three you could have bought once. And no I'm not referring to Mishimoto. Quality ain't cheap, neither is quantity.

Yes and no. Starter is going to be wired exactly as the 2.5 is, nothing changes there. All you need is an ignition wire to run to your control box or coil...........that exists already. Or you can use it to trigger a new relay controlled circuit. You have a red wire which connects to an existing fused link, that red wire runs to the firewall near the blower, it's used for the retractable hood mounted light which likely no longer exists or never did exist. It's an always hot red wire with a single prong connecter, easy enough to find. It's fused, you can use this wire to supply 12+ to your new ignition relay. Your gauges have nothing to do with the ecu. Your tach wire already exists, trace it to the existing coil. Oil and temp wires should be easy enough to locate, attach to new senders or reuse existing senders. ECU serves no purpose. There is nothing for you to piggyback. The only thing the ECU would do......and not in your case now.....is to turn on the fuel pump. You'll need to wire the neg wire at the fuel pump relay to ground and then run the red wire to the ignition circuit. Your existing 2.5 pump will work perfectly with your carb......regulated of course. Somewhere here is a wire schematic for the '88. Someone will point to it. You should have labeled your wires as you disconnected everything. See jeepair.com for your AC needs.

Bear in mind the cost and time, time is money. Cleaning, cleaning materials. Intake and exhaust gasket. Head gasket. Valve cover gasket. Head bolts. Oil and filter change. Coolant. Repair any parts damaged in the process, vacuum tubes, sensors........etc...... Couple of extra quarts of oil to flush pan if contamination occurs. If oil contamination occurs you'll need a second oil change. Retorque head bolts after a couple of heat cycles. My point is that half-@$$ is expensive.

Factory wheels came with 5.25" backspacing. That number is the number you need to be concerned with. A 235/85/16 tire has a diameter of 31.7" so yes, regardless, you are going to rub. Whether you stay with stock BS or move the wheel out. That is essentially a 32" tire. Even most 31x10.50s are sub 31" tall.

Your '88 knuckles will be desirable to anyone doing a Wilwood brake conversion, don't discard those. You will now order brake parts for a '98 XJ. Keep it simple and do not try to explain anything to any of the parts counter idiots. Axle shafts will interchange, steering and TB will interchange, brakes will not. Again, when it comes to unit bearings, keep it simple, '98 XJ. And your '98 should come with the larger axle shaft U-joints, that is desirable. IIRC..........

Here is an example of reading your head/deck/gasket. This is the head off my old 2.5. Notice the area between cylinders 2 and 3, the area is discolored. Notice the plug in cylinder 3, clean. Gasket was blown between 2 and 3, also coolant escaped into cylinder 3. Compression was lost on 2 and 3 as compressed gasses were passed from one to the other. This is also a reason I would never use a used head without having it resurfaced.....and no, I do not trust a straight edge. This head is surely warped. Also, without a resurface, the outside of the pushrod galley, the thin area, you will not get good compression on your head gasket and it will weep oil down the outside of the block.

Take the head off and read the gasket, chances are it will tell you what you need to know. If you are getting exhaust gasses in the coolant there is a strong chance you are losing coolant. If you are loosing coolant..........pull all your plugs and read them, if coolant is getting into a cylinder the plug will be exceptionally clean. Read your plugs, that costs you nothing. Reading plugs, gaskets.......magnaflux..........there is overwhelming information at your fingertips. All kinds of vids. If you think you are a car guy or want to be a car guy...start here, this episode explains magnafluxing .

No. You would not install a used head without having it serviced. Have your head inspected before you do anything.

Since it's show and tell......... Because a man needs a handful. CZ P09

No. Remove the head and take it to a competent local machine shop. Valve job and have it resurfaced if no cracks are found. Cost should be around $350......it's been a while and prices may have gone up but that will be close.

Local to me. He's a good machinist and I'm grateful we even have one around here.

I was finally able to get my cam order in today. Better than 10 weeks for Howards to grind me a cam.

It's an archive of past auctions. Nothing more.

Driving across the state of Texas. 70mph and relatively straight interstate. One axle is disconnected. What do you think is happening inside the differential?

Which flywheel or flex plate?

He's got a timing issue for certain but I didn't want to be the first to say. He needs to resolve his problem, those short idles are going to ruin his camshaft.

Drag/street tires are soft compound tires, they don't last long on the street. Cars and Coffee.....and guys with money to burn. Steel wheels and drag tires that are swapped on track day. Think weight distribution and traction devices and brakes. If you do achieve 600hp and you are able to make it stick, nothing behind your tail shaft will survive more than a few passes. Drive shaft, axles shafts, Eaton or other, brakes, drive shaft loop........if you are running stock springs with no devices.....you'll wrap them like pretzels. Transmissions......auto or stick........that's another matter. Spool up 600hp....when s--- goes sideways, you got to cut power to the rear wheels. You're going to be light back there. Auto's don't come down fast enough and will power you right into the wall...or a tree or someone else. Just something to consider. The occasional light-to-light romp......that's one thing.

Interestingly I just watched these vids this morning. My guess is they will have somewhere around $150K invested. Go here......most recent 4 vids are the electric series. https://www.youtube.com/c/SalvagetoSavage/videos

Tentative cam choice, I'll know next week about availability. HYDRAULIC ROLLER RETRO-FIT CAMSHAFT; 1955 - 1998 CHEVY 262-400 1500-5600 HOWARDS CAMS 111145-14 Camshaft Series:  Retro-Fit Year: 1955 - 1998 Make: Chevy Engine: 262-400 Camshaft Type: Hydraulic Roller Basic RPM Range: 1500-5600 Valve Lift Intake: .525 Valve Lift Exhaust: .525 Duration Intake: 272 Duration Exhaust: 278 Duration at 050 Intake: 219 Duration at 050 Exhaust: 225 Lobe Separation: 114 Intake Centerline: 110 Firing Order: 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 Quantity: 1 Each Country Of Origin: United States If any of you are looking for performance parts, Winners Circle has been extremely good to me. https://www.winnerscircle.com/pages/contact-us and still no tax for non-Illinois residents.

Used long block core. $250.00 Rotating assembly, ARP balancer bolt, brass plugs, balancer. Jegs $895.96 Flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, bolts. Silver Sport Transmissions $640.72 Machine work, clean, bore, deck, cam bearings. Myers Machine $630.00 Machinist labor, check balance of rotating assembly, good for 8500rpm $200.00 ARP main cap bolts $109.00 Head location pins $ 9.53 AFR dual plane intake, AFR directly. $359.31 195 Street Heads, AFR, Weingartner Racing, 50% deposit, $962.00 Melling oil pump, ARP intake bolts, ARP timing cover and pan bolts, ARP head bolts, Moroso carb lift plate, Milodon oil pan and pick-up, Milodon timing cover. $492.11 To date: $4,448.63 More parts came this week. Got the rear bumper installed along with some suspension parts. Even though the exhaust is going be replaced I installed that as well. Next up will be to media blast the block and get it painted then to a final wash. Color will be Midnight Blue. In the mean time I'm working on choosing a cam shaft. Still doing well with only American made products.

A lot of engine builders are reporting flat tappet failure in the last year. Common problem now. Lifters are not hardened as they should be. Once the lifter has failed it also wiped out the cam. If your lifter does not have the line near the bottom as this one does it has not been hardened.

OK. Forget I said anything. I know you don't care about the next guy. Added value is to YOU, it's what you can sell to the next guy. Further, I still don't understand the fill dirt, completely unnecessary. Also, footer for lift is added value to you, it's cheap insurance. Further, REBAR.

Few points here- In my 40 years of residential construction I've never known a GC who was also an engineer, they are almost always exclusive. GCs don't 'certify' anything. Common language- 'signed set' or 'sealed set' or 'engineered set' as it refers to a set of plans or prints. Likely your GC has a signed set for a common garage that he has built dozens of times before. Since you pulled your own permits you are known as an 'owner builder', you are solely responsible for the construction of the garage. Your GC should have pulled his own permits. If your GC fails to perform it is not him and his license who is on the hook for the failure, it is you. And you have no recourse other than suing him in court. There was no upside for you to do this. Another downside- Your local building dept is not there to inform you. One thing you did not mention is a survey, you really need a survey and a plot plan. You mentioned flooding, you are apparently building a raised foundation, what is the minimum elevation of a finished floor in your flood zone? If you do not know that answer you need to stop and get that question answered. Even though it is a garage and not a dwelling there still may be a requirement. 1" low at final and you are totally screwed. I've seen it happen. Also, do yourself a favor, rough in for a water closet (toilet and sink), cost is minimal now and think not of yourself but the next owner. Just get the pipes in the slab and out the footer. Also, generally the stem wall foundation is installed before the fill is brought in....case in point- You mention you are installing a lift, if it were me, regardless of the recommendation of the lift company/instructions.....I'd dig and pour a 24x24x24 footer for the lift (X2 for a two post lift). That footer can be monolithic (poured with the slab at the same time) but needs to go down to virgin soil.........NOT the fill. Plenty of rebar there also. Also make sure the GC knows there will be a lift to make certain you have enough head height with no collar ties or bracing in the way. Consider any electric you want under slab now too.