Project "Family Hauler" 2001 xj

[1cleantj]

After spending years with my Wrangler (TJ) , breaking everything at least once i sold it and went on to my next fun ride, my 81 c10 with a 355ci v8/4speed. well while having that truck I came to find out a second child is on the way, a baby boy to be exact! I knew it would be not only rough fitting 2 carseats in a c10 and still being able to shift, not to mention the lack of saftey issues a 81 c10 doesnt have (abs, airbags, seatbelts that lock, etc). I began looking for a Jeep again, this time a Cherokee. I happen to look through the site one day and bought a 2001 Cherokee from CntStpTheStnk06 for $900 with a blown motor. I let it sit all winter and waited till recently to start working on it.

The Plan - pull motor out of donor grandcherokee and swap over intake, ignition system (distributor to coil packs), header, accessories. Get it running. put in ZJ seats, storage compartment setup in hatch area, mild lift/tires.

Cost so far : $900 for jeep
$120 u-haul car hauler rental + gas
$48 for gaskets/paint


how it sat when i picked it up


drove it up on the trailer and across ct trip home



current state 05/29/11

last week pulled out the motor out of the donor grand cherokee and started prepping it. engine block, oil pan and valve cover were covered in 16years of gunk and grime so first step was cleaning it all down


before shot.- this was the cleaner side, after i scrubbed it once... wish i took a pic of the dirty side.

[1cleantj]

spent about 2 hours to degrease and remove all the sluge/oil build up on the motor, oil pan and valve cover.





cleaned up, prepped and painted all VHT engine/exhaust paint.

Found out I'll need to swap over a/c compressor bracket also, diffent mounting over the years, also still need to swap in coil pickup and intake/exhaust. All which will receive the same prep and paint (silver/black theme).

[Pat]

Ahh, I know that jeep Cool that its being revived

[1cleantj]

Since this will be my daily driver, I figured i'd swap out the Xj seats with something more comfortable- Grand cherokee Seats.

Swap is pretty straight forward

XJ seat on left , Grand cherokee seat on Right


bracket swapped over, painted to keep surface from rusting anymore.


Keeping with the clean theme (motor etc) I gave the carpet a real good cleaning. Jeep may be 10years old, but it will be looking like brand new

[Trailer Ray]

my god that is the cleanest carpet ive ever seen in my life. mine looks like people throw up on it every weekend.

[wannabejeep]

my god that is the cleanest carpet ive ever seen in my life. mine looks like people throw up on it every weekend.

oh this is awkward... I've been driving to your house every saturday and puking in your jeep...

[Trailer Ray]

thats ok, at least noone pissed on my floor.

[clean4drxj]

carpet and interior should be easier to clean!

[1cleantj]

not to much done lately , ended up spending money to do all 4 brakes and full exhaust on the honda civic . going down the highway a few days ago it instantly got louder as a rot spot on the exhaust broke open . cant have any exhaust fumes leaking with a newborn on the way.

[clean4drxj]

I know that feeling.. everytime you feel like you have money to do something to it then something else comes up and takes that money!

[1cleantj]

I know that feeling.. everytime you feel like you have money to do something to it then something else comes up and takes that money!

I hear ya on that



$782
My Advance auto parts orders of recent. these are the prices with discounts of between $30 to $50 each order

Not to mention the 4 tires I just put on the civic 1000 miles ago.

Lucky I get to do all the repairs for free at work on a lift. makes life easier. Only thing I didnt luck out on was the civics radiator going at walmart. Although Civic's are nice to work on, changed it out right in the parking lot

[1cleantj]

finally some time to work on this thing. been swamped with overtime and the rain isnt helping any.

Got to pull the front end apart, radiator/ac condenser, torque converter bolts, lower transmission bolts, engine wiring harness and started swapping over everything.

at this point i got about 3 transmission bolts and the motor mounts holding the motor in






junker jeeps and 2x4 make excellent spot to paint things


figured id swap over the new water pump and new thermostat in / new gaskets.



one step closer to being complete and ready to swap in

[1cleantj]

more progress today. pulled out old XJ motor. yet again I find the hatred inside me for the stupid to reach E12 external torx's on top of the bellhousing... what a challenge it was to line up the torx bit from below with a swivel socket and bajliion extensions

Figured while the engine was out I would degrease and clean the engine bay and take care of any cancer (err rust) spots. just a few surface spots that I found which was great news.








one step closer to being driveable.

[1cleantj]

cleaned up and painted intake and exhaust (2,000 degree paint).
so many o2's on this thing. 4 o2 sensors on the manifold alone + 2 pre-cats. stupid emissions




Here is the reason the original XJ motor was swapped out. Surprisingly it still ran after this happened. i drove it onto the trailer when i bought it, and drove it 1/4mile uphill to my house when i dropped it off and a handful of times to move it around.





Ka-BOOM

[OWEN]

yet again I find the hatred inside me for the stupid to reach E12 external torx's on top of the bellhousing... what a challenge it was to line up the torx bit from below with a swivel socket and bajliion extensions

When I had my shop, I put an engine in a 2000 Cher for a girl I know, I was able to beat some kind of wrench on them to get them out. When I put the new engine in I went to the hardware store and found some hex cap flange bolts to replace them.