rlandrum
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Sterling VA
I bought my XJ (Big Red) from a club member. It has 35s, a Rusty's 6.5 long arm kit, Bosch 4 hole injectors, and 4.56 gears.
When I first drove the XJ, it had plenty of power. I cruised home at almost 80 in some parts of the beltway, so I know it used to be capable of keeping up with traffic.
In order to pass inspection, I had to replace the exhaust from the header back.
After I first installed the new exhaust, my first trip out on the highway I blew the cat back off the front pipe. I figured I just didn't have the clamp tight enough. I didn't notice any issues accelerating or getting up to speed when it was (I assume) not connected. After I reconnected the exhaust in a parking lot, my XJ has no power to get it down the road. It struggles to get up past 3000 rpms, and when it does, it doesn't produce any torque to get me up hills.
My initial assumption was that I had cooked the tranny, with the exhaust heat blowing right under it. The XJ has 215000 miles, so the tranny wasn't 100% as it was. After an AW4 swap, the problem still remains, and seems worse (probably because the tranny isn't slipping as much).
Now that I know it isn't the tranny, I've started hunting for the cause. So far, I've checked fuel pressure (45psi), and manifold vacuum (20ish psi).
Since this was a brand new Dynomax 17340 exhaust and Magnaflow cat, and Walker front pipe, I hate to think that the issue is there, but that's where my investigations are leading me.
After googling, I'm wondering if I installed the exhaust backwards. There were no markings on it to indicate flow (at least none I saw, as I checked for that first). I have two conflicting diagrams from Dynomax, one showing the centered pipe as inlet, and one showing the offset pipe as inlet. I currently have the inlet pipe centered.
Has anyone experienced this before?
When I first drove the XJ, it had plenty of power. I cruised home at almost 80 in some parts of the beltway, so I know it used to be capable of keeping up with traffic.
In order to pass inspection, I had to replace the exhaust from the header back.
After I first installed the new exhaust, my first trip out on the highway I blew the cat back off the front pipe. I figured I just didn't have the clamp tight enough. I didn't notice any issues accelerating or getting up to speed when it was (I assume) not connected. After I reconnected the exhaust in a parking lot, my XJ has no power to get it down the road. It struggles to get up past 3000 rpms, and when it does, it doesn't produce any torque to get me up hills.
My initial assumption was that I had cooked the tranny, with the exhaust heat blowing right under it. The XJ has 215000 miles, so the tranny wasn't 100% as it was. After an AW4 swap, the problem still remains, and seems worse (probably because the tranny isn't slipping as much).
Now that I know it isn't the tranny, I've started hunting for the cause. So far, I've checked fuel pressure (45psi), and manifold vacuum (20ish psi).
Since this was a brand new Dynomax 17340 exhaust and Magnaflow cat, and Walker front pipe, I hate to think that the issue is there, but that's where my investigations are leading me.
After googling, I'm wondering if I installed the exhaust backwards. There were no markings on it to indicate flow (at least none I saw, as I checked for that first). I have two conflicting diagrams from Dynomax, one showing the centered pipe as inlet, and one showing the offset pipe as inlet. I currently have the inlet pipe centered.
Has anyone experienced this before?
