Muddy98
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Medford, OR
This is my third XJ.
It took me three years to find the body I always wanted and I finally found one about a month ago.
It has 250k on the odometer and I bought it without knowing about the 0331 head cracking issue but after alot of trial and error found out the head was cracked and decided to replace the engine before I started with the suspension.
I picked up 97 grand cherokee with a stack of papers and new parts new tires etc with a freshly rebuilt front end, 120k on a very well maintained engine. It could potentially be 75k miles and the second engine but I can only go by what carfax and the paperwork can prove.
i got it for 800$ and started the swap knowing I had some modifications to make it work
First I ordered a set of brown dog rubber motor mounts and then begun work on the swap
Bought kilmat sound deadener and double din panel for whenever I get around to the interior amd started ordering parts
Pulled the engine then taped everything off and "redneck" power washed the engine bay with one of those jet nozzles for a garden hose, degreaser and simple green. This thing was caked with grease
Parts starting to pile up
Flushed the heater core and radiator.
Heater core was black
Always label everything, (Tip) if you leave a large peice of cardboard in the sun for a few days it'll get brittle and let's you press bolts and nuts into it so they're kind of locked in and then you can label things on the cardboard.
I went ahead and replaced the oil filter adapter seals, front seal and timing chain/gears, Then i replaced the rear main and oil pan gasket the next day.
I bought this odb2 scanner for 20$ for when I go to install the o2 sensor adjustable non foulers (they come with different size inserts in the foulers) so that I can check the voltage and adjust amd make them read stock.
Cleaned the donar engine up amd taped it up to get ready for paint
Been cleaning parts the whole way and painted the intake
Bought 4 hole injectors and a flowmaster 44
And replaced the power steering resevoir seal.
Replaced the harmonic balancer added new water pump and grabbed a thermostat
Painted the fuel rail, throttle body and thermostat housing. I really like this paint.
Replaced freeze plugs (although I may redo them tomorrow because I think they're messed up)
Took the 97 header to an exhaust shop to get a cracked fix amd weld some bungs for the downstream 02 sensors, then pulled the exhaust and just went ahead and ordered a 99 downpipe as it was cheaper than what my local shops were quoting me.
Ended up trying that new northeastern non crinkled pipe and waiting for it to show up through the mail.
Bought new gates hoses while I was in town, looked to be the best form fitting ones.
Painted the coolant resevoir after cleaning it for 3 days then accidently got electrical cleaner drip on it while I was spraying all the connectors out tonight but even if I gotta touch it up no biggie I think it turned out good.
And here the engine sits as of today
Today I did some more cleaning of the engine bay and painted the oil and tranny dipstick that same red anadized color. And cleaned all the electrical connections. I plan on just doing the valve cover anadized blue.
I also had to clean and repaint the other fuel rail as i overlooked that there were specks of rust inside the the one I had painted before :/ so I used the one of the 97 and gonna have to double check the fuel system. The injectors wernt clogged so I don't know what that's about..
I apologize if anything out of order or if I missed anything I'll add it to the next post iv been pretty busy with it and couldn't figure out how to upload pictures until I downloaded the taptalk app and wanted to start this thread before I got to behind on myself.. there's still alot to do and I'm trying to get her back up and running before fire season starts but if you have any questions feel free to ask. Iv been wanting to do one of these build threads for quite awhile.
Sent from my SM-A516U using Tapatalk
It took me three years to find the body I always wanted and I finally found one about a month ago.
It has 250k on the odometer and I bought it without knowing about the 0331 head cracking issue but after alot of trial and error found out the head was cracked and decided to replace the engine before I started with the suspension.
I picked up 97 grand cherokee with a stack of papers and new parts new tires etc with a freshly rebuilt front end, 120k on a very well maintained engine. It could potentially be 75k miles and the second engine but I can only go by what carfax and the paperwork can prove.
i got it for 800$ and started the swap knowing I had some modifications to make it work
First I ordered a set of brown dog rubber motor mounts and then begun work on the swap
Bought kilmat sound deadener and double din panel for whenever I get around to the interior amd started ordering parts
Pulled the engine then taped everything off and "redneck" power washed the engine bay with one of those jet nozzles for a garden hose, degreaser and simple green. This thing was caked with grease
Parts starting to pile up
Flushed the heater core and radiator.
Heater core was black
Always label everything, (Tip) if you leave a large peice of cardboard in the sun for a few days it'll get brittle and let's you press bolts and nuts into it so they're kind of locked in and then you can label things on the cardboard.
I went ahead and replaced the oil filter adapter seals, front seal and timing chain/gears, Then i replaced the rear main and oil pan gasket the next day.
I bought this odb2 scanner for 20$ for when I go to install the o2 sensor adjustable non foulers (they come with different size inserts in the foulers) so that I can check the voltage and adjust amd make them read stock.
Cleaned the donar engine up amd taped it up to get ready for paint
Been cleaning parts the whole way and painted the intake
Bought 4 hole injectors and a flowmaster 44
And replaced the power steering resevoir seal.
Replaced the harmonic balancer added new water pump and grabbed a thermostat
Painted the fuel rail, throttle body and thermostat housing. I really like this paint.
Replaced freeze plugs (although I may redo them tomorrow because I think they're messed up)
Took the 97 header to an exhaust shop to get a cracked fix amd weld some bungs for the downstream 02 sensors, then pulled the exhaust and just went ahead and ordered a 99 downpipe as it was cheaper than what my local shops were quoting me.
Ended up trying that new northeastern non crinkled pipe and waiting for it to show up through the mail.
Bought new gates hoses while I was in town, looked to be the best form fitting ones.
Painted the coolant resevoir after cleaning it for 3 days then accidently got electrical cleaner drip on it while I was spraying all the connectors out tonight but even if I gotta touch it up no biggie I think it turned out good.
And here the engine sits as of today
Today I did some more cleaning of the engine bay and painted the oil and tranny dipstick that same red anadized color. And cleaned all the electrical connections. I plan on just doing the valve cover anadized blue.
I also had to clean and repaint the other fuel rail as i overlooked that there were specks of rust inside the the one I had painted before :/ so I used the one of the 97 and gonna have to double check the fuel system. The injectors wernt clogged so I don't know what that's about..
I apologize if anything out of order or if I missed anything I'll add it to the next post iv been pretty busy with it and couldn't figure out how to upload pictures until I downloaded the taptalk app and wanted to start this thread before I got to behind on myself.. there's still alot to do and I'm trying to get her back up and running before fire season starts but if you have any questions feel free to ask. Iv been wanting to do one of these build threads for quite awhile.
Sent from my SM-A516U using Tapatalk
