New to the Jeep World and i have questions

I recently traded my mustang for an 91 xj, and i want to lift it!!!
My question is can i just buy a lift kit and is that all i will need or will i need more?
and what are some CHEAP things i can do to make my jeep a little more special than an other jeep, and i stress the CHEAP part......i work at bk :*(

some data would be good...

year/motor/tranny/Tcase/rear axle

also, what is your budget or what do you intend to use it for?

its a 1991 xj with the straight six and all stock

i intend to use it for off roading, and daily driving, like i am a highschool kid still so not every day use but it needs to be street legal, but im also leaving for the navy once my school year is over so i dont wanna dump to much money into it

personal opinion here...

save your money, enjoy your school year and summer, throw your money at young biddies... and build the piss out of it when your done with boot camp.

Welcome! Glad to see another young guy get into one of these great Jeeps. One thing I will warn you when posting is try your best to use good grammer, punctuation, capitalization, etc. when writing as some of the guys on here are older and don't care for that and will flame you for it as I was. So just remember this isn't a text message so try your best.

When asking questions we need to know certain specifics about your Jeep. We now know the year and motor (which by the way is the 4.0L), but what we still need to know is is it automatic, 4x4, what transfercase (the thing that mounts behind the transmission that makes four wheel drive possible), and what rear axle you have (this rear axle could be different depending on options but usually would be either a chrysler 8.25 or Dana 35)?

Most lift kits include everything you will need. Some of them don't include shocks in the kit so make sure to figure out if they are or not. And not knowing your skill level it can be hard on what to suggest to you while something may not break the bank but could be beyond what you know how to do.

well once get done with bootcamp and A school im just gonna build it up more insteading of buying a new jeep cause it only has 70k on the engine and tranny. but for know i wanna lift it like 3 inches

its a stick, and has 4 wheel drive.

and its my first jeep so my skill is none.

Since it is a stick then you should have the NP231 transfercase so remember that name for future reference. I would start with the lift and then go from there. There are alot of good 3" lifts out there just depends on what you wallet can handle. If your budget is on the larger side I would spring for the Rubicon Express 3.5" super flex with full leaf springs and not the add-a-leaf as it is fairly complete kit and their mono tube shocks are great I have them and were a good ride improvement over the BDS shocks I was running before. Bilstein also makes a great shock and many of the guys on here seem to love them. If your budget is smaller then Rough Country isn't bad and has really stepped up there game in quality in the past few years. They still have issues in they're shipping department as some customers still don't seem to receive all the parts and pieces of their lifts sometimes but their customer service is very good and they usually fix any problem with little headache.

Get a 2 inch budget boost from rough country, 31s and trim your fenders.

Budget boost, recovery points, and rock rails

For the personalization on the cheap, start with stuff that is broken: recovering a sagging headliner, or replacing some beat up seats really makes the jeep feel a lot nicer.

twodoorXJ said:

Get a 2 inch budget boost from rough country, 31s and trim your fenders.

Click to expand...

souske said:

Budget boost, recovery points, and rock rails

For the personalization on the cheap, start with stuff that is broken: recovering a sagging headliner, or replacing some beat up seats really makes the jeep feel a lot nicer.

Click to expand...

X2 these are also both very good suggestions and a budget boost would leave you much more money to play around with and recovery points are crucial! I sometimes forget to advise that to new Jeepers since my Jeep came with that stuff front and rear already. My cousins both lifted their XJs and they keep telling me the other stuff they have planned and I keep telling them rocker protection and tow points and a gas tank skid for sure. The pre-97 body style XJs can actually get away with just a slightly larger tire per lift height than the 97+ XJs but this also depends on what kind of tire you choose.

well i was looking at a RC three inch lift for like $345 so i replace everything, would i just be better getting a Budget boost ?

Georgia91xj said:

well i was looking at a RC three inch lift for like $345 so i replace everything, would i just be better getting a Budget boost ?

Click to expand...

If you go with a full lift kit you should really go with a full leaf pack and not an add-a-leaf like that kit includes as your Jeep has a 99% chance of having sagging leaf springs and adding an add-a-leaf to it will not level it out with the front. The add-a-leaf won't last long either and give out pretty fast.

A Budget Boost can be had for very cheap and get you started. The Budget boost can also be used in conjunction with a full kit to add more lift later on.

oh so, so what your are saying is that i can get a budget boost for now, than later add a full lift kit and have both correct ?

okay, so i found two lift kits, but the same besides one thing. one has lower control arm and the other one does not. my question is do i need one them ?

depends on the height. but when it comes to control arms, if they have the option for them, its probably preferred that you have them.

Georgia91xj said:

oh so, so what your are saying is that i can get a budget boost for now, than later add a full lift kit and have both correct ?

Click to expand...

Yes essentially you can do both the budget boost and the full kit. Say you got a 2 inch budget boost and then later on added a full 3 inch kit, you could use the kit to get to 5 inches but you would need a bunch of other necessary parts for a 5 inch kit like extended brake lines, adjustable track bar, shocks long enough for a 5 inch lift or you may be able to cheat a little and do bar pin eliminators which add and extra inch of droop to the shocks so you may be able to get by that way, upper control arms along with the lowers although I have been told you can get away with stock uppers but it is highly advised to not do it that way as a permanent setup, and I think that is all you would need in addition to the 3 inch kit and budget boost to make it all work properly.

You don't need lower control arms with a 3 inch kit. My BDS 3 inch kit that I first had on my Jeep did not have lower control arms and I ran it that way for 3 years before I swapped out the lower control arms for some adjustable ones.