NotMatt

Wrong Also wrong. The hose circled in red in the picture is the Crank Case Ventilation System (CCVS) fresh air inlet. This hose should have a slight vacuum on it, because the REAR line hooked to the valve cover is hooked to vacuum on your intake manifold. The rear line is hooked to manifold vacuum in order to pull positive pressure and oil fumes from inside the valve cover into the intake where they can burn up with normal combustion. The hose circled in red is the fresh filtered air inlet, to normalize the pressure inside the valve cover. It should NOT be pushing fumes/oil out, it is hooked to the air filter to allow for a filtered fresh air inlet for the CCVS system. If it is puking oil fumes into the air filter, the rear orifice on the valve cover (hooked to vacuum) is clogged or not hooked up correctly. Again, the part circled in red is not a "vent" or "pcv valve"... is is a fresh air inlet for the CCVS and needs to be hooked to your airbox or some other source of fresh filtered air. As far as the OP goes, make sure you hooked all the vacuum lines up correctly, and make sure you didn't damage this inlet. The inlet on the CCVS may puke oil/fumes out and make noise if you did not hook up the rear line on the valve cover to manifold vacuum. I can't tell you how many XJ's and MJ's I've seen where these parts are "buggered up" due to the previous owner not understanding how this system works, or not caring. If it's not working correctly, you can have issues like a high idle (vacuum leak), an oil clogged air filter, a constant burnt oil smell in the cab or outside the rig, and in extreme cases you can blow out valve cover gaskets if too much pressure builds inside (like if you plugged both valve cover holes).

Warrior Products makes a 2" XJ lift shackle that will give you about 1" lift on an MJ. They're not adjustable (no multiple holes) unfortunately. That's what I installed on the back of my rig, 5.5" RE coils with an extra coil isolator, and stock 2wd rear springs in spring over. It levelled the truck out perfectly.

GM Synchromesh. Gear oil and others are hard on brass synchros, and cause notchy shifting in my experience.

I've replaced two different batteries from 2007 for friends since the cold weather started here in the Northwest. Good you got it fixed up.

I would be pretty suspicious of that battery... 4 years old and left to drain overnight is a pretty good indicator that you may have a bad cell making for a tired battery. Yes, jumpstarting it and letting it run for a while SHOULD recover the battery... but if the battery is iffy, it may never recover fully. Jumpstart it again and take it to a parts store and have them load-test the battery... or just go ahead and replace it since it's 4 years old and will need replacing soon anyway.

You're using confusing terms here, because these motors do not have a standard "PCV valve" like most motors. They have a "Crank Case Ventilation" system, or CCV system. No PCV valve needed. The rear grommet on the valve cover needs to be hooked directly to the intake manifold so that vacuum is applied to it with the motor running... but you can't run just any old grommet in there, it needs to be the one with the small 2.2 or 2.6 millimeter opening, otherwise it will create a huge vacuum leak and your engine will idle super high. Go to any parts store that carries Dorman products and get Dorman part number 46005, which is a kit with the right grommet and the tube that goes to the intake manifold. The front grommet is the fresh air inlet, no PCV valve goes here or anywhere. This simply needs to be a filtered fresh air source so that when the vacuum sucks the fumes out the rear, the motor can take in fresh air to replace. You can put a grommet in it with a properly fitting small air filter, or you can get Dorman part numbers 46003 and 46004 which is the complete vaccum tube assembly for the front and includes the grommet for the front hole in the valve cover and has the entire tube that replaces the part that's cut in your original picture. This tube would then connect to the airbox for a filtered fresh air source. Either one works, the 2nd option is the way the factory did it, and if you have emissions inspections, probably the best way to fix it. Go to rockauto.com and look at their parts catalog and drill down to the model/year of your rig and under "Emissions" section you can see a picture of the Dorman parts numbers I listed above. They are under "PCV Valve / Crankcase Ventilation hose" and "Vacuum Harness".

Since it sounds like your rig has already been converted to the open cooling system, that radiator will work. Stock your 87 would have had no filler neck on the radiator and an expansion tank with cap on the firewall, but it sounds like someone has already converted it.

[EDIT]: Nevermind, guess I should read better before typing a huge long response.

As long as the filter is a good fit in the hole in the valve cover, so that the air that gets sucked in through the Crank Case Vent (CCV) system is filtered, it's alright to leave it like that. It's hard to find parts store ones that are a good fit though, usually. So if you want to leave it like that, clean it up and put some RTV around the hole and make sure all air going in is going to be filtered. Otherwise, hook it back up to the airbox like factory. Here's the gotcha though... a lot of times people remove that tube and put an aftermarket filter there because their air box filter is getting soaked with oil. Usually what happens is then the whole engine bay gets soaked in oil, because their CCV system is not working right. This should not happen on a properly working system, even IF the motor has blowby. The fumes get pushed out the front valve cover hole and the airbox air filter gets soaked on a stock system when the small hole in the REAR grommet in the valve cover gets clogged. It's important that this small hole is not clogged and is connected to manifold vacuum. This manifold vacuum draws oil fumes from the rear grommet in the valve cover into the intake to be burned by combustion. The small vacuum also draws fresh air in through the front hole on the valve cover, which is why it's important that this front hole is filtered. [EDIT]: And yeah, Like ParadiseMJ said... it will probably not pass an emissions inspection like that.

It would help to know the specs on your rig... what year, engine, etc?

Year of your MJ would also help. Do you have the vacuum disconnect on the front axle? If you do, it's highly likely that the t-case is not stuck in 4wd, but the CAD is stuck engaged, since it is what controls the 4wd light.

If you disconnect the linkage, can you manually shift it out of 4x4?

I understand what the function of a resistor is. In this case, it lowers the voltage to the pump to reduce noise at idle and part throttle, not significantly lengthen the life of the pump, IMO. The load on the pump is not a factor, since the fuel pressure regulator will bypass any excess pressure above the preset and not allow the pump to struggle. It only SOUNDS like it's struggling because it's spinning faster and making more noise. Does it NEED to when the rig is just idling or at part throttle? No, but it's not hurting it... as long as the fuel pressure regulator is successfully doing it's job and bypassing excess pressure created by the fuel pump back to the tank. Without the resistor, it simply has to bypass a bit more pressure. The ballast resistor is not a necessary part of the fuel pump electrical circuit, unless you are annoyed by the extra noise the pump makes without it. You can take it out like I do to avoid potential issues with the ceramic cracking and breaking or connectors becoming loose or corroded, you can leave it in and carry a spare jumper wire for when it fails, OR you can do what hornbrod did and replace it with one that's less prone to failure. It's up to you. You should hear the externally mounted Airtex pump running at full 14.1 volts pulling from the fuel cell on my YJ if you wanna talk about loud. :D

I always thought the ballast resistor was a Renix-only thing, but either way... I remove it when I see it... just a part waiting to fail and leave you stranded. I don't think there was ever any reason for it other than people complained about the fuel pump noise on the 87's so they band-aid'ed it on to quiet the pump down... In my opinion it doesn't have any effect on fuel pump life. :dunno:

Yeah, it's all the same... the only difference is the rear driveline length. I used parts from a donor 88 Cherokee to do the 4wd swap in mine... trans, transfercase, front axle, driveline, etc. It was a bolt-in deal. The 2wd AW4 is the same in the XJ's as it is in the MJ's... so there's no reason it would be any more difficult.

You're on the right track... and yes, the 2wd trans CAN have the pieces swapped to mate up a transfer case to it... BUT.... You're going to need a 4wd output housing to swap on (the part on the back of the trans that the t-case bolts to) AND a 4wd output shaft because the 2wd one is longer. To change the output housing and the tail shaft, you have to almost completely disassemble the transmission. So, unless you have a junk 4wd transmission laying around to scavenge the parts, have the know-how and tools to tear apart and rebuild a transmission, and don't mind getting your hands dirty.... you're better off finding a good used 4wd unit to swap in. They're a dime-a-dozen in wrecking yards, and you can most likely get one out of the same rig you'll take the transfer case, front axle, linkages, etc from. You'll need to match the output spline of the trans you choose to the input spline on the t-case... 87-90 AW4's and 231 t-cases are generally 21 spline, while 91 and later are generally 23 spline... though things change a bit on the newer XJ's and I'm not familiar with those.

Dead on. I've removed it from every Renix-era XJ/MJ i've ever owned and never had a problem. Just tie the two wires together (solder and heatshrink, no butt connectors or electrical tape!) and tuck them back into the harness.

Just need a driver's side tail, anybody got one they want to let go of for a decent price? Maybe you've got a few pairs and one extra driver's side one kicking around. For some reason, I have two spare passenger side lenses but no driver's side... maybe you want to trade a good passenger side one for a driver's side? :D Anyway, my driver's side one is cracked and I need a new one... so let me know what you've got and what you want for it shipped to 98801. Send me a PM on here and we'll work out the details.

Just ditch it, it's useless.

It's pretty straight forward, do one at a time and support the motor from underneath on the oil pan with a large piece of wood on the oil pan, and a floor jack. The driver's side one is kind of a pain to reach, and the passenger side one you may need to remove the oil filter and oil filter adapter to get the bolt out depending on which way it was put in, so plan it for your next oil change interval. [EDIT]: If you're going through the trouble to replace the motor mounts, and haven't bought new ones already... I'd also recommend going with an aftermarket rubber or poly mount (like from M.O.R.E. or brown dog) rather than parts store OEM style stockers. You'll get much better life and less engine movement out of the aftermarket ones.

It'll be interesting to see what the coolant pressure test and contaminant test comes back with, but I'm still wondering what kind of fans are installed, since you said "two electric fans"... A lot of people think you can just slap an electric fan on in place of the mechanical one and it will cool just as good or better than the mechanical fan, which is not necessarily the case. All electric fan setups have their place, but the setup needs to be well-designed to work with the system and keep things cool. A 50 dollar parts store curved blade fan that only pulls 700 cfm slapped on in place of the stock mechanical fan is going to make things worse, not better. So, before you go concluding that your rig needs a head gasket, you need to make sure you're actually pulling enough air through that radiator to cool off your motor, especially since you didn't install the fan, the previous owner did.

How much air do your two electric fans pull CFM-wise? Also, how hot is "very hot"?

I ran like that for a week and a half or so while waiting to get my rear driveshaft built after a 4wd swap. No slip yoke eliminator. My t-case was full when I started driving it around town like that (every day give or take a few for a week and a half), and I had to add about a quart into the t-case after... it was fairly low. Soooo, I'd say, it's perfectly do-able to drive around town for a bit with just the front driveline, and I never had any mechanical problems... but I wouldn't do it for very long, and I would keep a real close eye on the t-case fluid... and no hot-rodding, drive it like grandma on sunday going to church lol.

I know you said you replaced all the wheel cylinders, but I would double-check the rears after driving it for a bit and see if they are leaking. What I've seen happen is that the wheel cylinders start leaking a little bit onto the inside of the drum, and the brake fluid will actually cause the drum brakes to lock up easily as if they were being over-pressurized. You'll notice this about a rear wheel cylinder leak FIRST before you see any brake fluid leaking out from the drum or coating the inside of your tire. After enough fluid leaks out, the shoes get coated and they stop doing this, but eventually so much fluid has leaked out that the brake pressure switch gets tripped (turning the brake light on) every time you step on the pedal. I would also do like Eagle said and look really carefully at the internals in that prop block, and then investigate for leaks elsewhere in the system. The brake light coming on is an indication of a pressure imbalance front to rear in the system, whether it's right near or inside the prop block, or all the way back at the wheel cylinders is anyone's guess without looking at the whole system. You could also have a leak in the front, which would cause the rears to want to lock up easier since there's no stopping assistance from the front brakes.

The 6-71 name comes from the fact that this particular engine is an inline 6 cylinder, with each cylinder being 71 cubic inch displacement. What's commonly referred to as a 6-71 blower is just the supercharger that came on these motors. Since they are a 2-stroke diesel, they actually NEED the supercharger to run. My pops has a 4-71 motor on a skid at his shop, and it is MASSIVE... no way it will fit inside a comanche engine bay. A 6-71 is going to be two cylinders longer, with even less chance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Diesel_Series_71