jeff351 Posted August 27, 2023 Author Share Posted August 27, 2023 Gas tank and filler door relocation project complete! After final body work, I used some green Eastwood internal frame coating up inside the filler door and quarter panel area, then a couple coats of undercoating. For paint, I rattle canned it with Behr "Toasty Grey" that I had laying around from something else, but its a close match to the worn factory jeep white paint. After a couple days of drying time, I reinstalled the door and filler neck, hoses, and rear bumper. Then bolted the bed back down, plugged in some wiring, and DONE Next up, I guess I need to put an axle in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted August 27, 2023 Share Posted August 27, 2023 That came out great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 very impressive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted November 5, 2023 Author Share Posted November 5, 2023 The donor XJ came with a Dana 30/Chrysler 8.25 with 3.07 gears. Not the best combo, so I'm changing them to 4.10 ratio. I just finished the front axle, came out pretty good. Patience is the key, after 3 tries with various shims I got the rotational torque, back lash, and gear pattern spot-on. One side-project my wife and I have is capturing feral cats in the area and getting them spayed/neutered. This one, who we named Lucy when we caught her almost a year ago, suddenly made a reappearance last week, and is now sleeping in a heated cat bed under Scuzzy. Super friendly and is good at catching crickets in my shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted January 1 Author Share Posted January 1 Well, another new year. Hope you all stayed safe Among all the other projects I have going on, I'm almost ready to drop the freshly rebuilt 4.0 into Scuzzy. The head is at the machine shop getting a valve job and a once over. This block (I forget if its an 88 or 89) is .030 with a Stage 1 cam from Cleggs. A couple differences I discovered between the 98 block in my donor XJ and this block: there is no coil mount or head dowel pins on the older block. I'll get over it. Also in this picture you can see the beginning process of making an engine cradle to stow the spare engine until I decide what to do with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 Finally got a lot done in a day. A friend came over and we installed the new 4.0 in Scuzzy, pulled the old driveline from the donor, got the donor 4.0 on the engine cradle, and swapped the doors over. Nothing broke and it went relatively smooth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drahcir495 Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 love this - A lot of good here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H3ADBANG4L1F3 Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 WOW! Absolutely amazing build thus far. One to keep an eye on for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted April 7 Author Share Posted April 7 Long time no post. Still picking away....on one shoulder i have the OCD devil saying "make that engine shiny and spotless" and on my other shoulder is one saying "just finish the darn thing." Exhaust-wise, I added a flex pipe to the down pipe and v-band clamp at the end. (One of my pet peeves is not being able to remove exhaust once a u-bolt style clamp has been used. ) I remember putting my hand on the passenger floor one time after driving and it was dangerously hot to the touch. So I took some laminated aluminum heat-shield stuff left over from another project, and used riv-nuts to secure it. That gives it about 1/4" standoff which should help. Otherwise...just little ankle-biter projects that arent news worthy but eat up my time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvagedcircuit Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 2 hours ago, jeff351 said: laminated aluminum heat-shield stuff Curious what you ended up using. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted April 8 Author Share Posted April 8 On 4/7/2024 at 2:38 AM, Salvagedcircuit said: Curious what you ended up using. Thanks! I've had several sheets laying around for about 10 years, but it's very similar, if not the same, as this: Amazon.com: Exhaust Heat Shield Automotive Embossed Aluminum Heat Shield Material for Heat Barrier, Fire Wall, Exhaust Wrap 20" X 47.2" : Automotive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvagedcircuit Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 4 hours ago, jeff351 said: I've had several sheets laying around for about 10 years, but it's very similar, if not the same, as this: Amazon.com: Exhaust Heat Shield Automotive Embossed Aluminum Heat Shield Material for Heat Barrier, Fire Wall, Exhaust Wrap 20" X 47.2" : Automotive Thanks! Going to experiment with this on the underside live you did Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted May 2 Author Share Posted May 2 another status update Fun step was adding fluids - Coolant, no leaks. Power steering, no leaks. Brake fluid - realized which fittings I forgot to tighten Interesting enough, just gravity bleeding via leaks left me with a really good brake pedal feel, before I even did an actual bleeding process! (yes, I'll do an official bleed once I quit screwing around with everything else) While the grille dries, I couldn't resist plugging in the sockets and checking lights. Its starting to look like a Jeep again. Little stuff like this is motivation to get it back on the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 Exhaust complete. I bought a new cat from Rockauto, a couple of 2.5" mandrel U-bends and a https://www.summitracing.com/parts/APH-709025 muffler from Summit (disregard the image on their website, its wrong) and got to cutting and welding. With the XJ gas tank in the rear, I was limited with exit routes so I'll play the guinea pig and see if my idea works; the tail pipe comes off the muffler and snakes around the shock and between the frame and leaf spring. It is higher than the bump stop - I'm no hardcore off-roader so I don't see this as a problem, but we'll see what happens. The other night I was making a mental list of what's left before i fire it up... Gas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted May 27 Author Share Posted May 27 Scuzzy lives again! Did a quick once over to see if I missed anything, got my fire extinguishers and garden hose posted 'just in case' and gave it a crank. Fired right up. Has a super high idle which wasn't intentional but perfect for a 20 min break in period. Kept it between 3000-4500 rpm, temp sat right at 210, and no leaks or surprises! I think the high idle is from me screwing around with the IAC previously. I have a replacement I'll pop in tomorrow and see what happens. But the anticipation of worse-case scenarios is over 20240526_150859.mp4 20240526_150538.mp4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted June 2 Author Share Posted June 2 Muffler update - this sounds pretty good. I'm impressed with the sound quality with it being a $38 muffler. Even in my garage I can have a conversation while this is running. 20240601_154157.mp4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olddude Posted June 2 Share Posted June 2 Looking good, keep on keeping on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted June 4 Author Share Posted June 4 another milestone.... Carolina Driveline built me new driveshafts that bolted right up. Price came out to about $950 for the pair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiatslug87 Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 Ooooo, shiny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted July 4 Author Share Posted July 4 More wiring; I picked up a set of lights from Harbor Freight after reading some good reviews, and I admit they are pretty nice. Amber daytime running light and high/low beam. I already had the wiring somewhat complete so I skipped on their $70 harness and made my own..although with my OCD it took me a couple of weeks to get it done where there wiring looks presentable (aka not a rats nest) and the circuits are labeled During this I discovered the headlights that came with my donor XJ also had the DRL feature in them, so I got them wired up. (they really aren't blue like they look here) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted July 14 Author Share Posted July 14 Scuzzy lives again! Did a final crawl-around checking lug nuts, fluid levels and any tools I may have forgot...then fired it up and did a loop around the neighborhood. Only drama was the transfer case linkage needs adjustment and kept popping into neutral. Otherwise it runs/drives like a 'normal' Jeep. Looks weird being parked in a different direction in the garage. Somewhere on a different post a person asked how long to expect for a 97+ conversion to take. Mine was 2 years and 4 months! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted August 1 Author Share Posted August 1 I'm using a Boostwerks transfer case linkage and for whatever reason, the turnbuckle was only 2" long and it needed to be 3". I fixed that by cutting it in half and welding in an extension. Then we did a 10 mile 'official test drive' down an empty country road so I could bed the brake pads and do the 'smell/noise' test. Scuzzy did great, other than 3 minor issues. 1. the speedo is way off, I'm assuming because i changed the axle ratios (3.07 to 4.10) 2. passengers door doesn't lock. 3. windshield wipers don't work now. They did recently, so I need to dig and see if I blew a fuse. At some point I need to remove the Cherokee logo from the doors Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvagedcircuit Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 1 hour ago, jeff351 said: I'm using a Boostwerks transfer case linkage and for whatever reason, the turnbuckle was only 2" long and it needed to be 3". I fixed that by cutting it in half and welding in an extension. Then we did a 10 mile 'official test drive' down an empty country road so I could bed the brake pads and do the 'smell/noise' test. Scuzzy did great, other than 3 minor issues. 1. the speedo is way off, I'm assuming because i changed the axle ratios (3.07 to 4.10) 2. passengers door doesn't lock. 3. windshield wipers don't work now. They did recently, so I need to dig and see if I blew a fuse. At some point I need to remove the Cherokee logo from the doors Lookin good! Curious, does the 97+ front clip mount to the original pre-97 front fenders, or do you need 97+ fenders for it to match? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torq_Shep Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 2 hours ago, Salvagedcircuit said: Lookin good! Curious, does the 97+ front clip mount to the original pre-97 front fenders, or do you need 97+ fenders for it to match? Thanks! IIRC they will technically bolt up but the 97+ fenders have a rounded top edge to them that lines up with the rounded edge of the header panel. It isn't too far off but definitely noticeable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff351 Posted August 1 Author Share Posted August 1 16 hours ago, Torq_Shep said: IIRC they will technically bolt up but the 97+ fenders have a rounded top edge to them that lines up with the rounded edge of the header panel. It isn't too far off but definitely noticeable. Yup. If you are going through the work of changing the front clip, you might as well change the fenders. Thats the easiest part of a 97+ conversion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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