Ghosty

[WranglerMangler]

Going through Facebook Marketplace recently, this Comanche really caught my eye. Unfortunately it was priced above what I could afford for another project truck. The truck remained for sale through a couple of price drops and was getting within reach of my non existent budget. I found myself falling in love with this truck the more I looked at the ad and I wanted to at least go check the truck out. The rear bumper and great body condition really drew me in, so I set up a meeting. 
 

While looking at the truck, everything was in excellent condition and exactly as described in the Ad. Interior is clean. No rust to be found anywhere and new parts everywhere I looked. The only real body damage is behind the driver rear tire. 
The owner had just finished installing a freshly rebuilt High Output engine but had no plans to do the wiring harness swap. He installed a HEI distributor and had made an adapter to install a carburetor. Upon first start up, the engine caught fire. They got the fire put out with an extinguisher and it caused minimal fire damage. They disassembled some stuff, including removing the fuel rail and injectors. Then just left it alone for the last 5 years. Now it’s time for the owner to move and he cannot take the truck with and was fairly motivated to sell. After a little negotiation, I struck a deal with the guy for $600. This is what I got. 
 

1988, Sport truck, 4.0, 2WD, Peugeot 5 speed, D35, bucket seats, 239,766mi. 

 

 

 

 

Has barely been used as a truck. 

 

Only real body damage on her. 

239,766 on the clock, not sure how I feel about the green. 

 

Cosmic headliner 

 

Cool 2 tone engine paint job. He painted all the brackets and pulleys too. Aluminum 4 core radiator with dual fans 

This is how I found her. 

 

Nice motor mounts 

 

3 to 1 header 

 

The previous owner to the guy I was buying the truck from was there and she had named the truck “Ghosty”.  She also asked me if I had heard of Comanche Club and said she was a member. So I told her that I would keep the name so she could keep an eye on her truck. 
 

So now that I have Ghosty home, I want to make her run. I am at the very least going to remove the intake manifold to be sure there are no rat turds sitting on the valves waiting to drop into the combustion chamber. I feel like the head may need to come off by what I am seeing looking through the fuel injector holes. Appears to be some minor corrosion on the valves.  
 

I don’t like the whole HEI/Carburetor route the PO was going with the build. My intention is to make it appear factory with a HO harness swap and back to a throttle body and injectors. I believe once she is running, it will make a solid little truck.  Once running, I’m sure it will take some sorting out to get her road worthy. The fuse box has some rotted out terminals that will need to be replaced. Then it’s on to modifications. AX15, D44 rear etc. 

No plans on really doing anything with her until after Christmas. Hopefully I’ll have her on the road next summer. 
Will post as updates happen! 

[Drahcir495]

The deal of the year! Wow it looks like it is in excellent condition. I’m floored about your good fortune. Congratulations 

[WranglerMangler]

24 minutes ago, Drahcir495 said:

The deal of the year! Wow it looks like it is in excellent condition. I’m floored about your good fortune. Congratulations 

I agree with deal of the year. I still can’t believe it myself.  I just really wanted to go look at the truck and really couldn’t afford it, especially right before Christmas, but I pulled out as much cash as I could “spare”just in case. He was filling a moving truck when I went to pick it up so he was getting to the point of needing it gone.  I believe it helps showing up in an MJ  to buy another MJ. Thanks! 

[Drahcir495]

You have a herd of trucks .

Comanche addiction has a serious grip on you - no 12 step programs for us 

[WranglerMangler]

38 minutes ago, Drahcir495 said:

You have a herd of trucks .

Comanche addiction has a serious grip on you - no 12 step programs for us 

Yeah. It got me bad, right out of high school and has only got worse over the last 20 years. This one makes #7 in my yard right now. I find them cheap enough, I can’t pass it up. I do kinda feel bad because if I only had one, it would get all of my attention, but they’re not in the junkyard or deteriorating any more or getting hacked apart by some kid so… whatever. I love them all and won’t hesitate to buy up #8 

[WranglerMangler]

 I’ve been dying to know what is hidden beyond the injector holes left open for the last 5 years. Tonight I took off the intake and exhaust manifold and found this: 

 I guess the head is coming off. About what I expected. Hopefully the pistons are ok. Most of the debris wiped out with a shop towel but there’s still some surface rust on the valves. Soaked everything down with a heavy dose of WD40 for the night. 
Probably going to start removing the Renix wiring harness and cleaning up the engine bay tomorrow night after work.  
I'm thinking about just getting another donor XJ to complete the harness swap, that way I have time to be gentle with all the electrical plugs and get everything from under the hood without being in a rush at some dudes house on a part out. 
1994 2wd 5 speed Cherokee is what I have in mind for the donor vehicle. I’m most familiar with that HO configuration and it would have an external slave AX15.  Staying 2wd with this one. I don’t want to go Obd2 with the truck either. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

Keep the fleet strong my dude

What a find!

[WranglerMangler]

13 hours ago, Salvagedcircuit said:

Keep the fleet strong my dude

What a find!

Thanks, still need an 86, 87 and ‘90 too! Keep finding these damn ‘88s! 

[WranglerMangler]

Got home tonight and decided I was going to remove the engine bay wiring harness. Went fairly smoothly. 
 

Before picture of the rats nest of wires

 

This auxiliary fuse panel was screwed to the firewall. Believe it was for the dual electric fans and possibly a HID headlight set up. Thinking I’m going to run the fans into the new under hood fuse box through a relay. 

 

After removing all of the aftermarket mystery wires and factory harness, it looks much better. Can’t wait to find a donor XJ! 

 

Clump of harness in the bed. It was actually in decent shape for living through a fire. 

 

Next step is removing the head so I can clean the valves and maybe do a home brew port and polish while I’m there. 

 

[WranglerMangler]

Got the head off today and was pleasantly surprised by what I found. 
Started off with assembly lube still on the fasteners. 

Cylinder 5 had obviously been open for the last couple of years. I’m glad I never moved the crank while the purchasing the truck. I brought the tools to, but am now thankful I didn’t. 

 

.030 over pistons, just as PO said. It’s nice not being lied to by people on the inner webs. 


A couple of rust boogers on the bottom of the head. They came right off with a mini screwdriver poke. 

 

This rust basically wiped right off with a shop towel  

Before: 

 

After: 

Still need to do some cleaning up but I’m happy with what I found today. 
 

After initial clean up, came out decently. Still planning on removing each valve and cleaning them. 

 

Still need to do some work on the cylinder walls too. Only went after the rust today with aggressive blue shop towel sessions. 

 

Now that I’m this far, my friend mentioned that I’m at the point of pulling the block out to clean it up, and I keep thinking about how right he is. Lol. Might pull it out and repaint it. The last 5 years hasn’t been very nice to the custom paint job. Maybe I’ll get the head back on, then repaint it in frame before installing the new wiring harness. Idk yet. One thing at a time. Next is going to be removing and cleaning the valves up. 

[NorthwestMJ]

On 12/10/2023 at 4:55 PM, Drahcir495 said:

You have a herd of trucks .

I’m dying! 

 

I have some donations to make. Stop by when you got time!

[WranglerMangler]

1 minute ago, NorthwestMJ said:

I’m dying! 

 

I have some donations to make. Stop by when you got time!

Yes sir. It’s been too long. 

[WranglerMangler]

Spent some time today cleaning up the cylinders, Started with shop towels but ended up getting a little more aggressive with some green scotch bright. 
Before:

 

After:

Not sure if it’s pitting left or I just need to scrub it more. Fingernail can’t feel anything. 

Figured I’d pull a lifter just to check the condition.  Got a peek at the cam too. 

 

So now that I’ve got most of the rust cleaned up in the cylinders, I feel comfortable enough to try to make the bottom end turn over. Grabbed a wrench and went to the harmonic balancer bolt. It didn’t move as hard as I could crank on one wrench.  I doubled up another wrench and was still unable to get the bottom end to move. I cranked on it pretty hard, and still got nothing. 
Guess it’s going to be off with the oil pan and out with the pistons as well. Knew it was all too good to be true! 
 

I got a couple valves removed tonight and most of the corrosion was wiping right off with shop towels. 

 

There are a few spots of duct tape residue on the cab of the truck, looks like the back window was out at some point or for some reason, something was duct taped to the truck? I soaked the residue spots with WD40 and am hoping they kinda melt off. Seemed to definitely loosen it up so I’m going to let it sit overnight. Hopefully just wipes off with a rag. 
 

 

 

Usually I leave any stickers put on by PO’s but I’m not into the parts catalog stickers. Think they’re going to meet the razor blade here soon too. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

1 hour ago, WranglerMangler said:

There are a few spots of duct tape residue on the cab of the truck, looks like the back window was out at some point or for some reason, something was duct taped to the truck? I soaked the residue spots with WD40 and am hoping they kinda melt off. Seemed to definitely loosen it up so I’m going to let it sit overnight. Hopefully just wipes off with a rag. 

 

Usually I leave any stickers put on by PO’s but I’m not into the parts catalog stickers. Think they’re going to meet the razor blade here soon too. 

Rubbing alcohol and Goo gone work wonders. Rubbing alcohol attacks clear plastics (can make opaque and crack), so avoid in that specific case.

[WranglerMangler]

8 hours ago, Salvagedcircuit said:

Rubbing alcohol and Goo gone work wonders. Rubbing alcohol attacks clear plastics (can make opaque and crack), so avoid in that specific case.

Awesome, thank you. I’m very familiar with GooGone. Great stuff. I just happened to have the WD40 on hand so it got soaked down. Will probably have to go to GooGone for final clean up of the residue mess. 

[WranglerMangler]

Well unfortunately I believe we are in for some head work on the old girl. Finally got all the valves removed tonight and it wasn’t looking good. 
Not exactly sure what it all is, just crud all built up over the years. 

 

 

After wiping off with a rag, it was still ugly. Such a shame. 

Not happy with what I’m seeing on the valve seats either. 

 

 

I was planning on removing the oil pan tonight but it started to downpour as soon as I got out there to work on the truck so I went in the shed to disassemble the head. 
 

A few of the ARP head studs backed out with the nut still on the top from bad corrosion. I ran a snap on thread fixer die down the stud and cleaned up all the corrosion off the threads. 
 

Custom valve compressor tool worked out well. Lol. 

 

 

Maybe the weather will cooperate tomorrow night. Want to get the oil pan off. 

[Gojira94]

15 hours ago, WranglerMangler said:

Maybe the weather will cooperate tomorrow night. Want to get the oil pan off. 

 

Have you drained the pan yet? I'm fearing a decent amount of water made its way to the bottom of the crankcase and found a pair of rod journals sitting low...

Great find at a great price, regardless. Congrats and looking forward to more updates.

[WranglerMangler]

37 minutes ago, Gojira94 said:

 

Have you drained the pan yet? I'm fearing a decent amount of water made its way to the bottom of the crankcase and found a pair of rod journals sitting low...

Great find at a great price, regardless. Congrats and looking forward to more updates.

I did just drain the pan last night, yes. Fortunately the oil came out very clean and Red. PO stated it still had Amsoil break in oil which is also red, no moisture that I saw. Hopefully I’ll be able to get the pan off tonight to have a better look. Thank you for looking out! 

[WranglerMangler]

No real work tonight. Still raining too hard to go out and lay in the grass. Especially after standing out in the rain all day at work. Engine is still locked up, I switched my soaking fluid to a heavy oil mix 2 stroke gas. We’ll see what that does. Also dumped like 4 gallons of oil into the crank case, just to keep everything heavily oiled during all this rain. Don’t want the crank rusting since I just drained all the oil out. 

[Pete M]

Xylene dissolves most anything made from petroleum   

[WranglerMangler]

13 hours ago, Pete M said:

Xylene dissolves most anything made from petroleum   

Won’t harm the paint? Have never used it before. 

[Pete M]

do not let it linger and it should be fine.  always test in an inconspicuous area first. 

 

but I'd probably start with some of the lesser options before bringing out the big guns.  

[WranglerMangler]

13 hours ago, Pete M said:

do not let it linger and it should be fine.  always test in an inconspicuous area first. 

 

but I'd probably start with some of the lesser options before bringing out the big guns.  

I’ve always seen the stuff in store not knowing what it is but have just always gone to Acetone. Thanks. I’ll try it out. 

[WranglerMangler]

My parents hooked me up with a nice assemble yourself car port for Christmas, so Ghosty got a new home for the time being. Since she is now under cover, and out of the rain. I decided to do some more investigation into why the rotating assembly is locked up.

Goal was to get the oil pan off first. 

I started getting the truck on jack stands, front axle hanging in the air. Next, I unbolted the oil pan to see if I had enough clearance to drop it out. Unfortunately it wouldn’t clear. So I removed the entire front axle.  I’m too old and fat to screw around with sliding myself under the axle then maneuvering the ratchet around and through the steering and track bar to get at all the fasteners and all that hoopla.
I did first try to get the oil pan out by only unbolting the shocks and sway bar, didn’t have enough clearance, so out with the entire thing. What’s 4 control arm bolts, track bar bolt and brake lines? Easier than maneuvering around it through the whole process in my opinion. The 2wd axle might not even be going back in anyway but that’s a while away. 
 

I didn’t like what I was seeing in the oil pan upon removal. 
 

 

Magnetic gray sludge…. Uh oh. 
Up inside the engine was all looking good. No rust or corrosion to be seen. 

 

 

New and tight timing chain. 

 

ARP Main cap bolts. 
 

The inside of the cylinder walls all appear to be in good shape from the bottom side. 

 

I started with unbolting the connecting rod caps. 
 

Front 3 

 

All 6 

 

So after finding this, I wanted to see if the pistons will move, I took a rubber dead blow and bumped the stud sticking out of the bottom of the rod. The first 5 all moved easily. #6 took a good whack to get freed up but they are all now not in contact with the crank. 
I went back to the breaker bar on the balancer bolt to see if the rotating assembly would now move, it would not. So off with the main caps! Broke the first main cap loose, still locked up, second cap, Hallelujah it moved! Unfortunately this is what the crank looks like.. 

The grooves in the crank feel like extra sharp ridges around the outside of a quarter. 
 

Here’s the #1 main cap. About the same as the rest. Trash. 

 

I didn’t remove any more main caps for the night. I had seen enough. Crank is trash. Now, what to do, what to do… 

[watchamakalit]

STROKER..........