rustys air intake opinion

[ratrapp]

anybody ever use rustys air intake for the xj?thinking about buying one but not sure.

[btm24]

I'm going to get one asap for my K&N cone air filter. Ive heard good things

 

Brandon

[Fire4755]

Yea in gettin one soon hopefully an intake and throttle body spacer should kick a little more.

[jpnjim]

:thumbsup:

[Pete M]

tb spacers aren't worth their weight in dirt on an mpi motor.

 

does the rustys system separate the filter from the hot air in the engine bay? if not, you're just trading a restricted system suckin cold air for a less restricted suckin hot air.

[88pioneer]

The rusty's intake is garbage in my opinion. As pete stated, no heat shield so all your doing pulling in hot air from the engine. The only reason I had one on my 92 was that I had no air box, and had a cone filter lying around. You get what you pay for

[89eliminator]

i run it for one reason and one reason only, so i could fit the solenoid box for my winch in place of the air box. otherwise, i would just be running a stock air box with K&N drop in.

[jpnjim]

The air tube is one of the few Rusty's parts that are still on my Jeep.

It's made well, and actually fits decently.

 

I threw together my own cheesy heat divider to keep the header heat off it,

and later replaced the K&N for an no-oil type, and have run it like that since 2001, or so.

[87mjdriver]

I will see if I can get a picture up, but I used some cardboard and spent a little while cutting, measuring and taping a shield together then took that template to a HVAC company and they bent up a shield for me for 25$, I put some door edging on it so i wouldn't cut myself and it works great.

[Fire4755]

thats actually an awesome idea

[Fire4755]

by the way why does everyone hate rustys so much. my cousin and a guy at work both us them for parts for their xj's and they loves them.

[jpnjim]

by the way why does everyone hate rustys so much. my cousin and a guy at work both us them for parts for their xj's and they loves them.

 

Since you asked....

 

I ran RE stuff on my first real trail MJ,

when I bought a daily driver/sometimes wheeler 98' XJ in 01' I decided to try Rusty's stuff out instead.

 

Trac-bar, first one was about an inch too long (which is a big difference when you're talking about trac bars).

excuse was they were experimenting with a longer bar for bigger lifts (must've been a 14" kit to be that long :nuts: ).

Replacement bar was the right length, but the TRE did not fit the factory upper mount right.

Taper was wrong for every OEM XJ/MJ bracket I ever tried (only would engage far enough to get 1/2 the cotter pin in).

Ran it for a few years, the replacement TRE's were also a mismatch.

eventually replaced with RE HD trac bar.

 

3" coils

initially got 2.75" out of them (mostly stock XJ, stock ft bumper).

After 2 wheeling weekends/4 trail days they were bent, and settled down to 2.25".

I ran them for a couple more months, with 2" spacers they sagged to ~2".

I replaced them with RE coils, and the Rusty's coils are now in my 2wd MJ (perfect leveling springs with the stock 2wd rear leafs).

 

Steering Brace

Bought this for my MJ.

It fit perfect, and was a decent item for the price.

At the time I was surprised it fit so well, since that MJ had a bent front 'frame' horn.

The joke was on me, when I tried it on an MJ with a straight frame a few years later, and it did not line up with the factory holes. :rotf:

 

I'm still running this, but had to cut & paste it a little to work with a winch bumper (not the parts fault, winch sits inside frame rails)

 

 

Doesche Tech Shocks

got from Rusty (tho not manufacured by him).

In my opinion too soft for his soft ft coils. Were a good balance with the stiffer RE coils.

I did get 6-7 years out of them (before they went dead), and they were a decent length for the application.

 

Goodrich Stainless brake lines

I actually had very good things to say about them till they started to weep, and gave me a soggy pedal that would go to the floor if you pushed for long enough.

Another part Rusty offered, but did not manufacture.

I only add them to 'the list' since they were part of his package, and they eventually failed, and had to come off the Jeep.

 

I also bought RE arms, and JKS sway disconnects in 2001, and those parts are still OK, and usable.

 

FWIW, the RE coils I bought in 1998 & 2002 are still great, and within spec, as are the 3" Rancho coils I bought in 1994 (have been in continuous use for 16 years).

 

The Rusty's intake is the only Rusty part still on my XJ, so i was glad to give it the :thumbsup: in my first post. :doh:

 

I also run some of his tow hook brackets on my MJ (also take off parts from the XJ).

they aren't bad, but the powdercoating didn't stand a chance, and they were thinner than the C4x4 ones I compared them to a few years later.

 

Also,

I don't hate Rusty,

he was actually a very cool guy to talk to on the phone.

But I was disappointed in some of his stuff, and don't usually go out of my way to recommend it.