I'm no stranger to Jeeps. This is number 13 for me - I'm in the Marine Corps, move around a lot, so it's sort of a weekend hobby for me, and I never feel like driving them across country when it comes to switch posts. Long story short, my newest is a 91 YJ.
My neighbor (Army guy) called me on a Friday and told me a soldier was selling a Wrangler for $250. Without even looking at it, I called the guy and told him I'd take it. I figured, hell, my last 2 Jeeps have been XJ's, it's time for another Wrangler.
I figure, hey, $250, this thing is going to be a piece of crap. Well, we meet at the Firestone that the Wrangler's been sitting at for the past 4 months, I give him $250, he gives half of that to Firestone to pay for the diagnostic they ran on it 4 months ago. They diagnosed it with a blown head gasket - so he just assumed it scrap metal, bought a new car, and just let it be. It's cherry red, has hardly any rust, and is overall a pretty clean Jeep. It ran and drove, but only a few miles before it'd overheat and spew coolant out everywhere.
So now I'm tearing this thing apart. It's a 2.5L 5-speed. I picked up a 2.5L, also with a 5-speed, out of a 97 TJ, and am swapping them out this weekend. Besides that, going to strip the tub down to the metal to take out the horribly-laid rhino liner and re-do it, blah de blah. It's got trail master seats, too!
Overall, I'm ecstatic! When I start on the swap Saturday I'll take bookoo pics and post em up for all you picture whores! Jake's back!
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So we got the old motor out and the new one in yesterday. We'd been prepping it since last weekend - so it was pretty good to go. Only ran into a few little snags really
- Broken (sheared off) motor mount. Took it up to a local 4x4 shop and they welded on some new metal for me.
- Originally planned to use the 97's tranny. However, 93 and before had a totally different place for the hydraulic clutch line. So, I decided to mate my old transmission, which is in fine condition, to the new motor.
Besides that, ta daaaa new motor! Today going to start putting the motor back together - accessories, blah de blah.
Took tons of pics - I'll post them later
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I'm looking forward to the pictures. I just dropped 3K into my TJ on brakes, u-joints, steering box, exhaust, full tune up, belt, thermostat, temp sensor, shocks, steering damper, tie rods and miscellaneous other little stuff.
All I need now are two new front fenders, Por 15 on the frame and a new soft top
I'm trying to decide what kind of top to buy, too! All in all I've got about $900 on this one so far, and it'll be up and running next weekend (knock on wood!) That leaves a lot of money to spare before I have to start worrying about going negative if I do decide to sell it when I leave this post. I don't think I will, though - I really like this one!
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From my JF thread on the swap... keepin y'all updated!
Alright, got a lot more button'ed up. I'm an every-saturday-for-a-few-hours-while-my-wife-watches-the-kids mechanic, so I apologize for the slow progress! I've taken tons of pics, but am yet to find my transfer cord, so those'll have to wait for now.
Also started stripping the tub out because the guy who had the YJ before me laid down rhino-liner without cleaning or taking up the paint, so it started rusting underneath and bubbling up. I started out with wire wheel/grinder, then saw the light and moved to chemical stripper! My buddy enlightened me to some aircraft-stripper-type chemical they use to take paint off of concrete and wood, and it eats right through the herculiner. Let that sit in the sun for 5 minutes, and it just peels off with a scraper.
But to the motor! Here's a little list of what I used from which year motor...
97
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Block
Alternator
Distributor, wires
Fan shroud
Radiator
91
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ECU - all sensors
Tranny
Tensioner pulley
Exhaust manifold
Intake manifold
Motor mounts (had to re-build one, just welded a new 1/4" plate to the bottom, was rusted and sheared off)
Fuel rail - injectors, etc.
Intake/airbox
Had it all tacked up minus cooling system and just wanted to try and crank it - wouldn't even try to crank. Started motor was clickin away at it, but no action from the motor. I honestly wasn't expecting it to crank up first time - that'd be too easy!
I'll try to get some more time on it tonight - if not, it'll continue next Friday/Saturday! And I'll continue my search for camera wire...
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