Building '89 XJ for 16yo niece..questions???

Hey,
My brother and I are going to build a '89 XJ 4dr for our 16 yo niece. We're in the middle of swinging the engine now, and will drop the tranny/xfer case. Need links, or advice about converting the cooling system, replacing the vacum axle with a 1piece axle, the sunroof must have leaked because the previous owner siliconed it all shut, so if anyone has a sunroof for sale, or a link on fixing them that would be helpful. We're planning on a 2 inch budger boost, so if someone has one for sale. Also need some rear springs, these are pretty shot,a long with the rear bumpstops. Think that's it for now, so if you can help us out with advice or the links about this stuff, I know she'll appreciate it. She's already looking forward to going on a Jeep Jamboree and driving on the beach this summer!!!!!!!





Craig W

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Search and you shall find everything you need to know. I also have an '89. Don't convert the cooling system. If maintained it works well. Ask 5-90, he's got a ton of Renix rigs. He converted one to open and said he regrets it. Just my .02 though, you'll have some for it and some against. Since you want to do the budget boost, you probably want a cheap rear lift too and since the rear is already sagging, longer shackles would make that worse and blocks are not the way to go. Type in "bastard pack" on the search and you'll find write ups on how to improve your sagging leaf packs.

you can always just lock the CAD (center axle disconnect) up all the time. It is reall easy and it is free! My favorite mod. Just go here http://www.comancheclub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2001&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

it's about half way down the page

cstilesiscool said:

Don't convert the cooling system.

Click to expand...

There are plenty of us out here that will disagree. Even Jeep finally got smart and did away with the closed system in '91. While it works okay to start with, once it starts having problems, it is just more pain than it is worth.

A few good articles (there are many out there) are:

http://xjnation2.homestead.com/radiatorconversion.html
http://jeep.off-road.com/jeep/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=257864
http://www.olypen.com/craigh/rad.htm

Most of the articles are a little old, but they are still an excellent guide. I was not able to find the GDI radiator, but I recently got a CSP 3-core from 1-800-radiator for $158. I had to replace the top transmission cooling line because the fitting on the radiator was changed in '91, but it was only $8 at the dealer.

A secondary problem with the closed cooling system design is that no matter how many times you flush the system, the heater core never gets flushed. You definitely want to flush the heater core while you are at it:

http://www.olypen.com/craigh/heater.htm

Also important, use only distilled water to mix with your coolant and use an extended life coolant. This makes a major difference in protecting your cooling system and reducing crud buildup.

Thanks guys. We always use distilled water. Previous owner apparently didn't from the amount of rust you can see in the block. It's got a blown head gasket, so we've got to fix that first. The owner had just put a brand new radiator in. I found a link that let's you use the original radiator, but changes to an open system.

Craig W