ftpiercecracker1

You and me both brother. :(

Extremely well outlined and defended :thumbsup:. Honestly I couldnt agree more with your decision. The only other "common" option you left out was a small block swap, but i suppose the Cons to that would be non jeep power and cooling issues. IF you were to build a stroker at some point, i would advise buying an engine already pulled, which can be had for as little as a few hundred bucks so your truck would still be perfectly usable. Build the engine and when the time came take a long weekend to swap/break it in. One of the hardest parts about building a stroker is just sourcing the parts, do you know how long it took me to find a 258??? Months and months; and even then you don't even know if the crank is usable. I was not lucky, as the first 258 i bought had an unusable crank, didnt know it until my machinist looked it over. Buyer be ware. As a once rabid stroker researcher it does seem that they are, in general, nortoriously difficult to build such that they are reliable. Its got a lot to do with finding the perfect combination of quench height and compression ratio. FWIW jeepstrokers.com is a really great place for all kinds of 4.0 performnace talk. Strokers, turbo, supers, meth/alcohol, even propane There is one build thread where a guy built a TWIN turbo 4.7 stroker. :brows: Its in a YJ i think.

Ok, so if i am reading the details correctly it would be roughly $400 for a pair of springs from General and 456 from hell creek.

Mmmm j10 :drool: :popcorn:

Is there a big price difference between General and Hell Creek? mpace6a, What was it for the springs from Hell Creek about $570, right?

Can you not find the Crank sensor itself or can you not find where it plugs into the harness? Cause if it is the later, its up to you to find out where it went. This where the crank sensor itself is located.

This thing was rolling along pretty nicely what happened? :peek:

Sweet Baby Jeeeezuss is that thing sick. :drool: don't know if this has been posed to you or not, i didnt see it at least. Why not stroke it? A simple 4.5 stroker could cost as little as a grand. With 6k you could even do both and have a supercharged stroker, at least in my area anyway.

Stuck throttle cable? :dunno: Have you ever cleaned the Throttle body? Its would seem you have pretty much covered all the trouble areas, but then again i am not there to see it with my own eyes. You may be missing something obvious and we would never know it. Take some carb/choke cleaner and spray around all the vacuum ports and manifold to head mounting surface areas, if the engine sputters there is a vacuum leak in that area. Also, disconnect and cap your power brake booster vacuum line where it attaches to the manifold. That is a massive vacuum line and Intuition is telling me that if you booster was bad enough it could be the source of a pretty big vacuum leak.

So just by putting on MT springs you are gaining a significant amount of lift. You might not even need drop brackets. And thats still spring UNDER, imagine if you went SOA. O.o

Oh ya definitely get the ZJ springs too. I am going to use both "coil spacers" and ZJs springs together. Even brand new ZJ coils aren't going to net much lift. Here is how it breaks down. . . . ALL ZJ coil springs regardless of year (92.5 - 98) will give you between .5 and 1 inch of lift, depending on how worn out they already are. Buying new springs would be the best, but then again this is a budget lift. However, ZJs with the UpCountry/Orvis package will give just a little bit more, 1 - 1.5, again depending on wear. Then you have the holy grail, in 1998 and ONLY 1998 you have the 5.9 V8 ZJ which will give you a solid 2in of lift, but 5.9 ZJs are exceedingly rare. This is the link where i got my information . . . . . http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1043473 So figure, you get a pair of run-of-the-mill ZJ coils from a junkyard. Thats roughly .75in lift, plus the 2in from the spacers = 2.75 inches. No need to fool with the steering, and it should give a nice rake, Front just a touch higher than the rear, i like it.

This sounds like an excellent setup for a good budget lift. I plan on doing the exact same thing in the near future. FWIW I discovered some heavy duty PVC flanges at my local plumbing store when i was looking for a cheap way to help my sagging springs. I bought and installed a pair of them (1 per spring) and to be honest how well they work/fit is down right freaky. Its like they were actaully made for coil spring spacers on an MJ. To keep it from looking completely cheesy i spray painted them black. I think i paid somewhere between 10-15 bucks for two of them. They give somewhere around 2in of lift.

Well that sucks. No, I didn't. It was a cold morning about a month ago, I had the wife and son with me and we stopped at the local salvage yard, I left the truck running to keep them warm while I was looking for some plate to build my hitch with. Just because a switch has a stated heat range does not mean it will operate within that range, or in my case can it be trusted to operate at all. Yes, each of the TPS lasted about a year. And what about the other stuff How does the SPAL hardware allow for a consisstant temp?

Few questions. . . . What does BWD stand for? I will probably remember it once you say it, but its 12:00am and my brain is running slow. Is it a supplier, brand, part abbreviation? So you have had 4 BWD TPS(s) that have been defective? As far as the cycling temp gauge, if all it is is a simple coolant switch that goes on and off at a predetermined temp how would the SPAL make a lick of difference. Unless it was operated through resistance, meaning as the coolant got hotter the fan pulled more air, and vice versa. That would be the only way for the coolant to remain at a constant temp, right? And another question. Did you not see that your temp gauge was pegged or were you in a situation that there was nothing you could do to have prevented such a catastrophic failure? Cause D**N that thing must have been HOT to blow a hole that freakin big. :eek: FWIW, I too run a dual (97+) electric fan setup. After much poking around on the internets i, somehow, stumbled onto this. . . . http://www.rodneydickman.com/n20.html I eventually, bought the 210/ON 200/OFF switch and installed it in one of the thermostat housings. It has been about a year and have had zero issues, knock on wood. However, while my temp gauge is rock solid during driving (205*), it is very cyclical at idle.

Jeep gift, but from mom to me. Freakin awesome CC T-shirt, this makes my 3rd one. :D

Anything past 3in really REALLY needs to have so kind of control arm angle correction. Unless you have new rear leaf springs, 4.5-5" of lift is probably what you will end up with doing an SOA. Bastard packs are used a ton, but i have never heard of someone gaining that much lift from one.

Appreciate it fellas, I will add wheel bearings to my rapidly growing list of items needing to be maintained.

Nothin good to pull at all? Tail lights? You check that rear axle?

This is for autos right? Cause mine are 3.07.

Started up just the other day completely out of the blue. A very distinct "bad/worn bearing", "tire on your fender" sound emits from somewhere on the front passenger side of the truck. The sound ONLY occurs when turning to the left, even the slightest amount of steering wheel manipulation from off center to the left results in the sound. I.E. changing lanes on the high way, tiny corrections while driving. It is actually kinda of difficult to hear, but if you turn off the radio and listen carefully you can not miss it. It does not get worse with speed, acceleration, or G-force (hard left turns). There is no debris under the fender well (sticks, branches), although the truck does see mud on a nearly daily basis and is not washed/cleaned but once in a blue moon. :thwak: I have had the truck inspected recently, last 2 months or so, and have been told my wheel bearings (4 years old) are still tight as a tick in a dogs arse, but my ball joints (factory upper & lower) need to be replace soon and my universals (1.5 year old) on the stub shafts have a fraction of a fraction of an inch of play.

All three of these links have a ridiculous amount of pictures and diagrams. This first link, IMHO, is truly the most professionally edited, arranged, and written jeep specific automotive guide. I highly, HIGHLY recommend everyone to read it. It contains basic information that i think every single club member here would do well to learn. I was able to get about 1/2 way through it before my head started hurting from knowledge overload. Title: "Steering, Suspension, and Driveline Basics (with How Lift Kits Change It)" http://files.meetup.com/4119962/Steering-and-suspension-basics.pdf Another supremely well done write on high lift steering, extremely custom. http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Steering/Steering_Index/SteeringIndex.htm More high steer, with a stupid amount of pictures. http://77cj.littlekeylime.com/flatop_knucles.html

First and foremost check your fuses. Pull each and every one of them.

When you bought it, it already had the utility bed, yes? I wonder what the dude got it off of.

If you are referring to the fabric material underneath the carpet, like this then yes it holds water like a sponge and it would be in you best interest to remove every scrap of it from your floorboard. But if there is carpet material behind the back board thing . . . . [ I would leave it and the backboard in place. The odds of it getting wet are highly unlikely, as opposed to your floorboards. FWIW i replaced mine with some of this stuff I had ^this^ stuff, then a new layer of that fabric stuff, then new carpet on top of that. Can you say quiet? But of course i missed a few leaks and the nrand new carpet eventually became utterly soaked, so out it came. After about the third time i just left it out. No, i have not had time to find the leaks.

Slant 6? :ack: Anyway. . . Killer base truck man. :thumbsup: Sounds like you mean bidness (business). Very much looking forward to your build. That Cuda is a mean piece of work too, not to mention that Cherokee, d**n. :drool: And I actually REALLY like that little Civic, that little sucker must get 40mpg. *Jealous* :fs2: