Bluelight

09-15-2014
I did some tests to see what was missing and why. I tried unplugging spark plug wires, but that didn't really reveal anything. I than tried unplugging the fuel injectors while it was idling. Injectors 1, 2, 4 and 5 all made it idle rougher when disconnected. I skipped #3 because it was hard to get to but #6 made no difference when it was unplugged.

I "borrowed" a compression tester from O'Riley and did a test. They ranged from 110 PSI at the low end to 130 PSI at the high end, with most being around 120-125. The seemingly dead cylinder had the best compression. Next, I took an old spark plug I had laying around from my '99 and put it on the #6 plug wire to check for spark. No problem there. Must be a fuel issue.

With the junk I found when cleaning the pressure regulator, I figured that the #6 injector maybe plugged up.

Bluelight

09-16-2014
I didn't do much today, but I did swing by NAPA and picked up a new fuel injector, an electronic flasher module, a door dome light switch, and a lift gate strut (they only had 1). I did get the flasher module and door switch put in.

Bluelight

Picked up another lift gate strut, and a piece of hose to connect the CCV breather to the air box. Installed the lift gate struts, so now I don't need a stick to prop the thing up anymore. Pulled off the fuel rail and started removing the injectors. The inlet port to #6 was completely clogged up with brown grit. The other 5 were fine. I cleaned out the fuel rail and cleaned up the 5 good injectors, and started re-installing them. I decided to put the new one up at #1 and shifted the rest down 1. Put the fuel rail back in, and installed that breather hose. Pressurized the fuel system. No leaks. Fired it up. Was a little hard to start, but idled smooth now, so I took it for a test drive. The shutter and miss is gone, and it's nice and smooth. Can accelerate from 55 on that hill in 5th gear, and spin the rear tires with no trouble. Throw some insurance on it, and it can now be driven

Few minor issues though. I still haven't swapped that thermostat gasket yet. The plastic accessory vacuum hose is still broken. The only thing it connects to on this Cherokee is the heater controls and the vacuum ball. I currently have the manifold port taped over, and the heater just works on defrost. I have to find a radiator fan shroud, and the electric cooling fan is missing, though I might be fine without it. The rubber boot under the center console around the gear shift is almost nonexistent, so there's a lot of noise from below. Added to the noise is a leaky muffler. All in all, I think it's a success. Another XJ saved from the junk yard!

Bluelight

This last winter, I cut out the frankenwiring that someone had put in to connect trailer lights, and installed a Curt T-connector with a 7-pin plug mounted to the hitch. With the Jeep able to move under it's own power, I was finally able to back it to my trailer and test it out. Works like it should

Bluelight

Today I replaced the fuel filter. Found one of those gas line magnet things on the line between the pump and filter. Removed it. Than I installed a new vacuum ball, and mended the broken vacuum line. Finally I cleaned out all the tools and boxes from the back.

Bluelight

Been driving it the past 3 days. Drives great! It starts up easy, and the engine is strong. I wasn't feeling much love for the AX-15, but with it firing on all 6 cylinders, I'm warming up to it. Still leaking quite a bit of coolant through the thermostat gasket. If the weather cooperates, I may replace that this weekend.

Aside from driving it, I haven't done anything too exciting to it today, though I did replace the windshield wipers and rear window wiper. I also decided that since it's running, it's worth a set of hubcaps, so I put some black Jeep hubcaps on.

Bluelight

It's now official. I'm no good at working on cooling systems. I can never get them sealed back up

When I drove home from work yesterday, I discovered the heater was hardly blowing any heat, and it was blowing steam from the housing, so I decided it had to be done. I was off work today, so I decided to tackle that job. When I removed the housing, no coolant leaked out. However, I poured a little in the radiator and it didn't take long to show in the head. I cleaned it all up and prepped it to put together. Decided to try a Fail-Safe thermostat this time. Carefully put it all together and started filling. So far so good, with no leaks. Fired it up and as it warmed up, there was heat blowing out of the heater. However, as the system came to pressure, the gasket started leaking again It's a different leak at least. Before it was leaking from the bottom left, and now it's leaking from the right side. Time to turn it over to those who know what they are doing and have a shop replace the gasket.

Scott'sXJ

Before you do that, try this.
Put a 1/8th bead of red gasket maker around the thermostat flange.
Let it sit for about 5 minutes, or however long it takes you to smoke a cigarette. (if you smoke)
put the paper gasket on the flange, and then draw another 1/8th bead of red gasket maker on the gasket.
let it sit for about 5 minutes, or another cigarette.
insert 2 of the bolts in their respective holes, and gently put the housing into place, threading those 2 bolts enough to hold it without falling off.
Put the last bolts in and tighten them like you would a wheel, only gradually.
Let it sit for about an hour, before you put fluid in.
Viola! Bob's yer uncle, you should be leak free.
If it still leaks after that, then you may have a warped housing, or flange on the head.

Bluelight

Thanks for the advice

Gave it a shot. This time I also took the fan belt off, as it got in the way last time. I also put a couple of dots of RTV on the thermostat to hold it in place while I put the housing on. Last time, it kept falling out, and I'd have to reach down and go fishing for it. Not helping, the bottom bolt would get bound up underneath the fan belt. Also decided to replace the recovery tank hose. Where it pushed onto the radiator was kind of torn up, and I'm afraid it could have been sucking air through that instead of coolant from the tank. Also going to wait until tomorrow to put water back in, to make sure the RTV has a chance to cure.

While I had it apart, I tested the coolant. Way too much glycol. I had a plan for filling it up that would give me about a 60/40 ratio of glycol to water, but that all went out the window when things started leaking. Hopefully refilling with distilled water will get it back down where it needs to be.

Bluelight

Had it detailed today. Sure it doesn't look much better, but it smells a lot better! The tires on it in these pics are actually the winter tires for my '99 XJ. Decided to throw them on here to get a little shine up. When I got home, I put two of the original tires back on the front, and two old studded tires I have on the rear. Left it running for a while with the heater on full blast to help the interior dry.

Also seems that the cooling system leaks are under control now.

Time for some pics...

Bluelight

Filled it up with gas for the first time since I got it running. I had just filled the tank with gas the day the head blew out, so the gas had been there nearly a year, but it was a full tank. The gas mileage seems very good since I got it running again. Don't have a trip meter, so I haven't tracked it that closely, but it seems better than my other XJ, and when I first got it, the mileage was noticably worse than my other XJ.

Since it had been the first tank, I also changed the oil. Ran the oil for 1 tank's worth to clean out anything that fell in while the head was off. I also put in winter weight oil. Used Castrol GTX 5W-30 and one of those "high mileage" OCOD filters. Not my first choice, but i had the filter on hand, and I had a 3 quarts of that oil laying around, so I picked up enough to make a full oil change and used them up.

Also bent up the tabs on the radiator cap. New cap, but as was mentioned in another discussion, the flange on these inexpensive aftermarket radiators seem to be thinner than on stock, so the cap doesn't clamp down as tight, and will leak. Seems to have helped.

Bluelight

Still had a persistent coolant leak. Is from the front left side of the engine. Looks like it's coming from where the head and the block meet. The day the head gasket blew, there was steam venting from that corner, so I suspect the head gasket didn't seal the coolant passage in that corner. I don't know if there was a crack in the block or a warp in the deck. No evidence of water entering the cylinder or oil (oil passages are on the opposite side of the engine), just leaking outside. Decided to try some Bar's Leaks head gasket fix. Poured it in when I clocked out of work, topped off the coolant, than drove home. The good news, when I got home, the corner of the engine was dry. The bad, my heater isn't working. I'll have to disconnect and backflush the heater core. The heater core and water pump are the only parts of the cooling system that I didn't replace.

Bluelight

Had about 4 hours of garage time this evening, so I took the old Heep in and did a little work on it. My main goal was to fix the heat, but I also wanted to do some work on winterizing it.

After I pulled it into the garage and was waiting for it to cool down enough to pop the radiator cap, I poked around a bit and discovered a break in the hard vacuum line going to the football. Though it ran well, it did have a bit of a rough idle, and this could explain it. Used a scrap of vacuum hose I had to mend the break. Driving home, it the idle was much smoother.

After it cooled down enough, I took the engine end of the heater core hoses loose. I put a cheap garden hose fitting with a check valve from a Prestone Flush kit and garden hose ball valve, onto the end of the heater-pump hose and back flushed the core. There was a little sputtering, but it didn't take long for the water to run smooth and clear. I moved the hose fitting to the heater-tstat hose and forward flushed it. Than reconnected the hoses. I took the opportunity to put one of those T-fittings from the previously mentioned kit into the heater hose. Figured it would come in handy for flushing and cleaning the system, as well as giving a high vent to help with purging air whenever I have to refill the system. Was going to test the coolant strength before refilling, but I didn't have access to a tester, so I refilled it with 50/50 premix and hoped for the best.

Last project for the night was working on winterizing. It had a battery blanket, but it was in sad shape, so I replaced it. Next I replaced the oil pan heating pad. The cord had been ripped out of the original, so it was no good. I routed it's cord up along the O2 sensor wire, than up to the front of the air box. I was going to put on a pigtail, but the bumper isn't straight, and there isn't a big enough gap for a round cord to fit between the bumper and header panel. Going to try to find a flat cord to use as a pigtail.

Closed it all up and fired it up. Gave it a few minutes to warm up, than checked for leaks. No visible leaks. Even better news, the heater was blowing nice and warm. After a warm drive home, I gave it another good check. No leaks!

Bluelight

Took it for a drive today and it's running good. If the weather cooperates, I'll try to drive it next week to see how well it holds coolant, but I'm feeling good about it.

Probably won't be much happening with it over the winter, being 2wd and not having a garage. I decided to make a list of future projects and things to track down for it.

- Needs a lower shift boot. Last time someone dropped the transmission, it got all torn up. Getting critters in there now
- New starter. Having to randomly bang on it with a hammer to get the thing to start is getting old.
- Needs a new right front turn signal. The lens is missing. Also needs a new right tail light, since it has a large hole in it.
- Still need to find a fan shroud.
- Need to get new rods that run from the lock mechanisms to the lock levers. Someone had put in some sort of aftermarket lock system, and to connect the servos, they cut the rods and put in some connecting blocks. I've removed the servos (2 of them were seized up) but the rods don't work quite right.
- Needs a center console armrest. The old one is broken where it screws down. Whenever I open the console, the armrest flops off onto the back floor. The PO tried to glue it, but it's not holding.
- Need to pull wiring remnants out of it. It had had aftermarket power locks, sound systems and driving or fog lights. All gone except for pieces of wire running around. Also broken off plastic brackets from the lights are still on the front bumper.
- Needs a new multifunction switch.
- Need to find a steering column shroud. Mainly the bottom half. Wouldn't mind a new dash bezel that hasn't been hacked and drilled either.
- May need a new antenna wire. It's reception is really poor, and the autotune can only pick up one or two stations.
- Figure out a good way to install a new stereo, and maybe some rear speakers.
- May pull the headliner and see if I can do anything to straighten out the roof.
- Need to finish removing the window tint film.
- Yank the rusted in up ball mount out of the hitch receiver.
- Could use new shocks. They look to be original.
- Needs suspension work. The steering is kind of sloppy and the PO had mentioned needing tie rod ends. The leafs have gone flat. May consider lifting it Prerunner style. Nothing big though. Probably only an inch like my other one.
- Rear axle needs new bearings and seals. Maybe a good time to track down and put in a lunchbox locker or LSD.
- Tires are fine now, but it's gonna need new ones eventually. The 1" lift will give more options, since the original P215/75R15s are getting hard to find.
- Tube doors.
- May keep an eye open for a stray HP30 and an AX15/NV231 combo with shafts and linkages

Bluelight

One F-350 dually, one 15 foot 3/8" chain, no more ball mount seized in the hitch receiver