No buck XJ build

[Bobs boot camping]

Howdy all.

Im new to Expedition Portal but old to XJ's. I have a teenager coming up that needs a rig and I want a weekend wheeler. Between a new house and a new baby our budget is less than 0. So i am starting a build thread that is a no or lo $ build. I will be pulling out all the stops for all the little XJ tricks i have picked up over the years. The idea is to build a rig for little money that will be a capable expedition rig but also a dependable daily driver for a teenage girl.

The project starts with a '92 HO XJ for $300 bucks. Blown motor and a wrinkled right front fender. I have some spare XJ/MJ parts to help out. I pieced together a 4.3 stroker kit to replace the motor that had thrown the #1 rod thru the pan. Guy i got if from said " it started making a clicky noise then lost power and stopped running.":Wow1: The Head was salvagable and was a 7120 but the block and crank was junk. Russ at Bishop - Buehl put the kit together and did the machine work. This ups the compression which helps the fuel economy. Russ has a really nice kit. Its .30 over HO pistons with HO rods and 258 heavy crank. The cam is a comp cams custom that moves the power band down and gets you out of the hole nicely. You can still run 87 with out an issue but it does like 91 better. I had these parts left over from a build i was going to do for my '93 XJ before it found a new home.

Now that its running and smogged (the joy of living in california) its time to look at what I really want to be able to do and in what order the build should go.

Suspension
4.5 inches of lift Trail master kit. Part number TM3745-40023. I work in the industry and I looked at a lot of kits. Dollar for dollar you get a lot with this kit for what you spend. Sure it doesn't have all the extras and bells and whistles but it is a good starting point to add the extras that you think you will need without having to put cash up front for them. You can add things latter as you find you need and can afford them. Nice things I plan on later are a rubicon track bar and sway bar disconnects. I need to give the upper control arm bushings some love. There's no rubber left in them.

Brakes
Just make em safe for starters. A 2004 WJ or Late model XJ dual diaphram kit will be in the works to help slow bigger tires.

Axles
The Dana 35 has got to go. I have an 8.25 sitting on the garage floor with busted spiders. Looking to put in a lunch box locker and some G2 alloy shafts and call it done. I had a Disc conversion on my old jeep and it was nothing but problems. The front 30 will get some Alloy shafts and I havent figured out which locker yet.

Armor
Frame stiffners from Dan at ruff stuff specialties to help the ol unibody last just a bit longer. I will need something to weld the rock rails to. I would like to build an endo exo cage to put a tent on but thats gonna be a while down the road. So its gonna be front and rear bumpers. Remember this is for a teenager an I expect that she is going to trade some paint some where.

Interior
I will have to address the AC system, busted seats and radio some day but those are less a priority for dear ol dad.

Well, thats the plan. I will post pics when i start putting wrenches to it. Wish me luck

 

[besthaticouldo]

I would love more info on your stroker. My XJ has 275k miles and rising fast, a low budget refresh would be awesome.

 

[tarditi]

Sounds interesting. Is this for overlanding or are you building a weekend 4x4?

I wouldn't mind driving a beater XJ on a couple OHV trails from time to time, but living out of one for a multi-day/week, off-highway, self-reliant excursion is a different story.

 

[Bobs boot camping]

@ besthaticouldo-

I took a standard '93 HO block. bored .30 over. I chose the 258, thats the old 4.2L out of a CJ. There were 2 versions, heavy and light. I chose the heavy crank. With an Aw4 it doesnt make that much difference but the AX guys will notice. First thing you will need to do is find a core that you can pull apart so you dont down you daily driver. Taking the core apart is a good way to understand how to put the new one back together. Remember you can put an HO in a renix but not the other way around. We used the stock HO rods and new +.30 4.0 part number 677ap pistons. You have to use a Feldpro "thick" head gasket. Its thickness is 0.051. The piston should come up out of the hole about .02 inch. Once the short block is complete, we have to address the cam. The standard valve springs just wont keep up with the cam. We went with a bee hive spring to reduce the seat pressure but still give us the spring rate. We deshrouded the valves and opened up the ports to match them to the intake and exhaust manifolds. A late model intake would make a huge differance but wasnt in the finacial cards right now. A new set of 4 port 32lb injectors would make a big difference and is on the list as well.

 

[Bobs boot camping]

The idea is that it will be a daily driver for my daughter. Short hop from school dance and home. Then it will be my toy on weekends. Trails like mojave road, big bear and ocationaly something harder like John bull or claw hammer. Im not planning on going bigger than 33" tires. My goal is build it not to carry a ton of spares or tools but be able to drive it comfortably to moab from southern california, wheel then drive back so my girl can go to school on monday.

 

[besthaticouldo]

@ besthaticouldo-

I took a standard '93 HO block. bored .30 over. I chose the 258, thats the old 4.2L out of a CJ. There were 2 versions, heavy and light. I chose the heavy crank. With an Aw4 it doesnt make that much difference but the AX guys will notice. First thing you will need to do is find a core that you can pull apart so you dont down you daily driver. Taking the core apart is a good way to understand how to put the new one back together. Remember you can put an HO in a renix but not the other way around. We used the stock HO rods and new +.30 4.0 part number 677ap pistons. You have to use a Feldpro "thick" head gasket. Its thickness is 0.051. The piston should come up out of the hole about .02 inch. Once the short block is complete, we have to address the cam. The standard valve springs just wont keep up with the cam. We went with a bee hive spring to reduce the seat pressure but still give us the spring rate. We deshrouded the valves and opened up the ports to match them to the intake and exhaust manifolds. A late model intake would make a huge differance but wasnt in the finacial cards right now. A new set of 4 port 32lb injectors would make a big difference and is on the list as well.

Ok, interesting. Would you mind if I PMed you to get some help on stroker stuff? I have a lot of questions and not a ton of answers haha.

 

[Bobs boot camping]

@ Besthaticouldo-

Sure, hit me up. I will help you out the best that i can. There are a couple of stroker forums out there but a lot of different ideas on what a stroker should be. Engine geometry all depends on what you are looking to get out of the end product.

 

[Bobs boot camping]

Wish me luck, lift kit install day is on wednesday. Supposed to be 97* in my drive way, great :sombrero:

 

[Bobs boot camping]

Well, I got the lift kit in yesterday. Went pretty smooth. There were a few snags but thats normal when modifying the 22year old oem parts. Over all I was impressed with the completeness of the kit. The instructions were a little bland and assumed that you could figure it out. An example was, "Install the brake line relocation bracket using the supplied hardware" Would have been nice if they had a little more description of which end was supposed to go where. They should mention that you should "gently" straiten out the bends in the existing brake line to give you the lower mounting point. The lower control arms are massive and stout. The bushings are monsters. The larger the rubber bushing in the arm the more flex you are going to get out of it. I like the idea of running rubber instead of a flex joint being that its going to be a mostly daily driver and fire road rig. The twin tube Nitro charged shock look fantastic. I cant wait to get them on the trail and see how they perform. It looks like the total lift is more than the 4.5 inches listed but we will expect the lift to settle in after its been down the road a few times. Over all it is a solid basic kit for the price. I will update how it rides after I finish up a few things and straiten out the front tires. A few things that hung me up were the upper control arm bushing on the driver side was almost completely shot. I replaced it with a poly insert. I have done a bunch of the oem replacements and i have to say, if the rubber is gone the poly is the easiest by far. Clean out the old rubber, lube it with a little PB blaster and it slips right in to the old metal shell. The rear spring center pins put up a fight going into the spring perches. I had to get out the dremel and clean up the holes a bit. One other issue was the exhaust tip. It was going to hit the rear shackle, so had to give it a trim to get it to fit. I am editing the video and should have it up tomorrow. I have a couple of short vids that show specifics and a couple of time lapse vids. Im still trying to re hydrate after a light case of heat stroke

 

[jscusmcvet]

How did you clean the rubber out of the upper control arm mounts when you replaced them? I think this is in my future, just have not see an reasonable way to accomplish thi spart of the job.

Thanks,

John

 

[Bobs boot camping]

@jscusmcvet

Well there are a couple of ways. Some depend on if the axle is a bench build and how much smoke and stink you can handle . Mine was pretty gone, like 30% there so i got in there with a 1/2 chissle to get the big chunks out. There were still some chunks on the metal sleeve. I used a carbide burr bit, then a wire wheel to finish it off. I have used a ball joint press to push out the liner before. In my younger and more wild days i have used a propane torch and just burned them out. if nothing else, heating up the center sleeve to get the rubber to melt to allow it to push it out is good starting point. The big issue with the poly is that you need to re use the metal shell but get rid of the rubber. If you are using stock replacments then you just hammer out the old metal sleve, rubber and all. Another option is the Currie press in flex joint, which is then is rebuildable in the axle.

 

[Bobs boot camping]

Ok folks, vids are up on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD2cmt3omZ1xETM71-zFy2Q

 

[Bobs boot camping]

Lookin down the road, in my younger days i allways just slept in the jeep. problem is im about an inch too tall for that to be comfortable. Does any body have experience with a roof top tent on an xj? I have my reservations that a drip edge mounted rack could handle 2 adults and the weight of the tent.

 

[OttawaXJ]

The drip edge is fine, I had one, I used the JCR drip edge mounts to a rack I built. It was fine with myself and my girlfriend in there. 350lbs worth of people roughly. I used SIX mounting points, to be safe 6 to 8 is perfect.

 

[Bobs boot camping]

just a touch stink bug. figure about a weeks worth of gear should fix that.