What are you doing to your rig - the continuing saga

Hesco water pump, my 4.1L is built with a high compression HO head, and runs around town with barely reaching temps. This is with a cheap two row aluminum radiator.

Fred said:

Hesco water pump, my 4.1L is built with a high compression HO head, and runs around town with barely reaching temps. This is with a cheap two row aluminum radiator.

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Cheap ASI performance single row radiator and triple fans from eBay 23year old water pump and can't break 200 on trail unless I blow a lower radiator hose;-)... I don't much like 190hp but you can't beat the durability of a 4.0 we knew we had a leak started running 210 ish and pushed it then it pegged the temp Guage and we shut it off and it was missing badly let it cool to 200 ran it for a short distance let it cool to just underv200 ran it to the top of the two big dirt hills which were pure mud in the thunderstorm shit it off cooled to 160 ran it a few minutes cooled again and after a lot of that got to the trailer which by that time it was running well . Filled it today and it seems the head gasket survived... keep in mind I've hit 260 about 5x in the driveway warning up the jeep and getting side tracked and forgetting to turn the fans on only to be reminded by what sounded like tea kettle boiling and coolant dripping everywhere from the recovery bottle overflowing .

I finally found an answer to cooling down my 4.7L stroker. I went through everything and ended up swapping in a replacement fan clutch. The stock XJ units are just not up to the job. I put one from a Grand Cherokee and absolutely dropped the temps 30 degrees.

It is a tight fit. Make sure your motor and trans mounts are good or the fan will end up in the radiator. I actually pulled the top radiator crossmember and leaned the radiator forward to get it in, then put everything back again.

I made it through an Arizona summer pulling 6% grades at 80mph with no issues.

Moving the xj out of the way to make room to swap in a non slipping np245 into the commander. The current 245 makes a terrible pop pop pop under initial acceleration if you don't feather it I have been easy in it until today after getting the new case I dumped the pedal and didn't let off waiting to see what happened and pretty much the same pop pop pop then it stops .I could feel it shudder on my way home Sunday so I figured it's time to find a Case luckily a 4x4 shop had used a WK as a 5.7 / trans donor leaving the 12k Mike case behind I didn't want to use some 165k high mileage case . The old cases only had a 6 bolt circle these have like 12 and some look like shit to reach ;-)

6-7 hours of labor swapping in the new low miles 245 into the commander Tuesday and ony way to work got my commander turned to shit on the pecos off ramp from i76 east . Just b4 the exit a box truck driver makes a last minute exit to the ramp just missing me so apparently he almost missed his exit and a near death gamble was better odds than going and turning around to come back ...then heading down the ramp as the ramp opens up from a single lane he puts his right turn signal on which makes sense of you're going to get into the south bound Pecos only ramp lane , so as I start to pass him on the left on the left lane he makes a right I'm halfway up his side so I slam on the brakes and steered left as much as I could and he just kept coming and swiped my passenger door and fender . I pulled over to south side of the ramp onto the breakdown lane and got out to see what isn't messed up he did stop at the bottom and cane up and asked " what did happen , what happen , what did happen , did you rear end me ? " ...I said no you made a left into my passenger side he then said " he was in his lane" I said there's more than one lane you were in the Right lane and made a left you didn't see me ? ...And you had Right turn signal on and made that left . He said "we're good he has no damage" I said yeah how about that . He asked if I wanted to exchange information for insurance reasons I said yeah but let's do it right around the corner at the Navajo yard 64/Pecos....So we shook hands and I limped around the corner on a front right flat tire at 5-ish mph and as I turned onto 64th I realized he was ...lol....gone . I couldn't even see a plate on that truck and I really didn't care about arguing with him over fault since either way it's going to be covered and he's not going to admit fault so most likely my insurance would end up paying so I wasn't going to bother with him anyway . If they total my commander I'm putting the motor and trans into my XJ .

Dang George! If it wasn't for bad luck. . .

Man that's a bummer. I got side swiped last year going up Vail pass. Truck was in the right lane I was passing on the left. He decided to merge as there was a stopped trooper way up ahead. He obliterated the side of my car and told the cop I rear ended him even though there was no damage to the front of my car and you could see where his skid punctured my door. Cop gave me the ticket, got the ticket dropped but insurance wouldn't cover.

Towed the commander home. That thing weighs a lot it feels about the same as towing the bigger xj up the grades vs when I have towed stock xj which feels like nothing behind me . Was going to use a U-Haul but when I arrived to pick it up I realized I left the keys to the adjustable hitch on the commander 65 miles away and the 2-5/16th ball I had it set on the U-Haul won't adjust to . I find U-Haul's towing criteria laughable I had to tell them I was towing a Cherokee down size in order to rent the trailer as Apparently a jeep commander is beyond the capability of a 6.7 diesel ...lol... It wasn't that it was beyond the rating of their super heavy duty 5 lig axled trailer it was beyond a 3/4 ton diesel tow rig . Obviously from what I've seen on the road with U-Haul no one tells them honestly what they're towing .

Installed my REM unit this weekend. Pretty sweet little gadget. I have a TPS problem I need to get fix. Would probably explain the low RPM issues I've been having.

Well they were going to fix it then they totaled it...lol ...I had already bought new fenders , fender flares head lights and some trim and paint from the automotive paint shop to do the new parts so now I'm committed to fixing the commander...I don't want to put the factory bumper back on I want something that can take out a deer since it will only carry liability after totaled there isn't any mechanical damage just cosmetic. They really don't seem to make alot of bumpers for the XK I don't have time to make a good looking one it would end up boxy like the DIY move bumpers the Jeepsteel bumper looks to be decent looking but I don't know there turn around times I want something quick-ish ...I may even put their rear bumper and carrier on if turn around times are good .

Well alright just when I thought I had enough shit piled up to do on my 1.5 days off at the end of my 7.5 day work " week" I got jury duty on my one full f'n day off $#@& @#$& !

Alright after two trips to oriellys fur a caliper first trip I got home realized the banjo bolt is on the bottom of an S10 caliper which I didn't realize in the store so after more looking I found I need a k5 blazer caliper . I then got home and since the crane knuckles are thicker than the oe ford I had to grind the new caliper down and then I started the jeep to final bleed and though I was leaking brake fluid from master cylinder then I quickly realized it was FUEL from the #6 injector at the rail .I didn't have any issues with leaks on these injectors for a year and it's only the #6 I'm wondering if the over heat caused the ring to leak ?...Either way it's a good thing I got picky and wanted my brakes solid or this fuel leak would have started on trail .

Hoarding more jeeps. Picked up a 92 MJ, 4.0HO, 2wd, auto, SWB. Still undecided on what's going to happen with it. Since 92's are so rare, less than 1000 made in final year, not going to chop it up, but in stock form boring af. Might convert it to 4wd, might make a street comanche since someone is making kits, might sell it. Problem becomes now deciding which MJ may have to go. Got three and for sure one is getting parted out, other two don't know. Wife is telling me I have too many jeeps, at 5 spanning 4 decades now. Surprised I haven't been killed in my sleep.....yet.

Lol. I miss my Comanche.

Fred said:

Lol. I miss my Comanche.

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I love them, obviously. If it wasn't for needing a back seat to haul gremlins around I'd just poke around in the MJ all the time. Apparently my wife thinks it's unsafe to have kids ride in the bed or a car without airbags.

Out with the old

Are you swapping in headers or just replacing the exhaust manifolds?

smokeyyank said:

Are you swapping in headers or just replacing the exhaust manifolds?

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Doug Thorley long tube headers, 08+ cams, 08+ rocker arms, valve stem seals, Comp Cams beehive springs and retainers, Airram solid lash adjusters, plus a 70mm throttle body. Still need to source an '08+ intake manifold, AFE air intake, Bosch 12 EV6 injectors and a tune.

Oh damn! All the go fast goodies. Are you going to redo the heads and try to get in front of the valve seat issue? Where did you get Doug Thorley's from? Thought those where just on indefinite back order? I run a SC traildash in mine for the tune, but flyinryan would be the best for a custom tune. I have the aFe intake, bored TB and 3" exhaust, but still keep the stock tune. I ran the 91 tune for a bit, but turned it back with gas over $4/gallon.

Grabbed the Thorleys from Kolak, he has one more set in stock, though DF shows them in stock as well. Anyone who has installed these with everything else assembled is a saint. The space I have with no axle or suspension in, plus having the engine bay half disassembled for the valve cover gaskets makes this a pretty painless install. If you ever watch Martinbuilt's install it's a flippin' nightmare. Flyin' Ryan is likely where I will source the tune from, probably an SCT file. No head work being done. If anything catastrophic happens that just gives me a reason to stroke it.

Do you have good picture of the left over space next to the AFE filter?