As of 4/10/22



Hello, I've been browsing this forum for almost 7 years now without ever making my own thread, and with my "dream" build starting up, I thought now was the time.

This is my second XJ, and unlike my first one, I wanted to build everything how I really wanted from the beginning. I've always been a car guy, but around six or so years ago I stumbled upon this imgur album while browsing the r/cherokeexj subreddit. After reading that through that photo journal countless times, I decided it was time to get my own. I'd previously always worked on older BMW's but, the XJ itch had begun. The market for these Jeep's was much different back in 2015 than it is now, and finding ones with lower mileage in California (that didn't cost an arm and a leg) only took me a couple months.

I found a 1998 Gunmetal Pearl Jeep Cherokee Sport with an AX-15, all original and one-owner with 105,000 miles. I immediately added a 3'' Zone Offroad lift, some 31'' Goodyear Duratracs, wired power door locks, and then only did maintenance for the next 30,000 miles. I drove this Jeep from California to Northern Washington, and from Reno to Southern Colorado. It only left me stranded once with a blown coolant reservoir cap, and with the sluggish 3.07 gearing I averaged 18-19 MPG on highway trips. I loved this Jeep, but I knew if I was going to invest some real money into an XJ, I wanted it to be green.

Here is the Jeep that started it all:



[/im




-------------------------------------------------

Now, onto my current project.

Project Arrowhead.

Why Arrowhead? Arrowhead is my favorite place in the country. About 1.5 hours outside of Montrose, CO in the Southern Rockies, lies a small town of less than 100 people which is over six miles from any paved road. It's a destination for snowmobilers and hunters alike, and my buddy runs a lodge out there. I've been a few times and it's always been a dream of mine to take a built XJ to crawl over those mountains and end up in Ouray. The last submission to this journal will be a picture of my Jeep in Arrowhead.
-------------



-----------------




----------------------


For around 18 months I looked for a specific XJ. Had to be Medium Fern Green and had to be clean. With ideally had a manual transmission, and ideally a 2door.

After checking craigslist ashamedly more than a couple times a day, I found exactly what I wanted, but not in a 2 door. A 2 owner, 105,000 mile, 4 door, manual transmission, 2000 Medium Fern Green XJ. I called the guy within 15 minutes of him posting that ad and told him I'd buy it. I was luckily the first one to call, and this older gentleman said that within 2 hours he had over 10 people giving him offers above his asking price. (I hate California). He honored the initial asking price and in a couple days the jeep was mine.

It was ridiculously clean, had factory fog lights, and the Dark Agate interior. The owner kept it garaged year round, and had a folder full of maintenance records. I was very spoiled. It even had a flat tow setup which he used to tow behind his RV. I decided to drive it around for at least a year, and figure out what exactly I wanted to do with it. The prices of clean stock XJ's on ebay and BAT were very enticing, and had a few people offer me 7 or 8 grand for the thing, but I knew I'd never find one like this again.

-------------------------



-------------------

With the ZJ "sawblade" wheels and all, I really enjoyed this thing. I only made a few modifications when I first got it:
-------------------




-------------------------


Joey's Stock Spec:
1. Lowered the driver's seat bracket so I could be more comfortable (i'm a tall guy and had to do this on my previous XJ). I followed this thread, but only cut the rear part so I wouldn't have to cut the carpet.
2. WJ steering wheel (I always hated the XJ steering wheels and felt uncomfortable with my thumb around the base so low).
3. Put aluminum tape around the fuel injectors to prevent the dreaded heat soak issue I had during the summer. If I'd park the jeep and come back within 10 minutes, it felt like the engine was misfiring.
4. WeatherTech floor liners, which I found are MUCH nicer than the Husky liners I had in my previous Jeep.
-----------



------

Maintenance:
1. 4 Oil Changes so far (Castrol Edge High Mileage Synthetic Blend) 105,000, 108,500, 112,400, 115,200
2. Replaced Thermostat and Water pump (thanks Rock Auto)
3. Replaced tires (I really didn't want to buy stock tires, but the BFG's on it were 14 years old and unsafe to drive). Chose the Goodyear A/T's and have been impressed.
4.. Rear disc brake swap (drums were shot and found it to be around the same price to do the KJ/ZJ brake swap)
5. Replaced the blown shocks at all four corners (a local was selling a box of 4 new ACDELCO OEM spec for $40).
6. Replaced a nasty old air filter:






------------------------------------
Now after around 10,000 miles of driving, I decided to bite the bullet and begin my "dream xj build."


Current Plans / Parts I've gathered off craigslist for the past few months:

Suspension:
- Rock N' Road 3 Link kit. I realize there are a ton of kits, but these guys are semi-local and I like the fact that I've met the actual welder that put this together.
- Fox 2.0 Shocks
- Front Rubicon Express 4.5'' Springs
- Rear 3.5" Rubicon Express Leaf Springs
- 1.5" Rubicon Express Boomerang Shackles

Drivetrain:
- Ford 8.8 with 4.56 gears and ARB locker
- Ford 8.8 to XJ Ruff Stuff specialties swap kit
- Dana 30 with 4.56 gears
- Artec Industries Dana 30 Coil bucket and control arm mounts
- Dual Double Cardan Driveshafts
- NP231 with Advanced Adapters SYE

Wheels/Tires:
- 35x12.5r15 Falken Wildpeak ATW/3(not the most aggressive tire, but I plan on taking this thing around the country, and wanted something quieter)
- 15x8 Pro Comp Steelies
- Rock N Road Lightning Rock Rings

Armor:
- Notch Customs X-Max Flares
- BleepinJeep Tim's, Victory 4x4 front Stubby Bumper with a winch plate welded on.
- JCR Vanguard Rear Bumper with tire carrier.
- undecided on frame stiffener kit
- undecided on rock sliders

This weekend I start tearing apart the Jeep, and will update as I go along.

Here a few shots from what I've done so far:
- Prepped the wheels and started to weld rock rings
- Grinded off leaf-spring under brackets on the Ford 8.8 to get ready for Ruff Stuff Specialties kit next weekend.
- Drove my Jeep 6 hours to the only shop in California that would install Notch Flares. I'm attempting to do everything myself, but the rear part of these flares is a little too out of my comfort zone.












This weekend I plan on removing the rear axle, leaf springs, and transfer case.

Note* Some of my images are appearing way larger than others, my apologies for this and will try to keep everything decently sized...

 

Had a successful weekend. I managed to get everything underneath the jeep out: rear end, front end, and transfer case.

Only issue I had was the control arm mounts and eventually just cut them out. With everything out I'm thinking of coating the underside of the jeep with a bedliner of some sort.

For the transfer case I had to go out and buy stubby wrenches to remove the top bolts. Next step is to measure coil angle and weld new buckets onto new axle.

 

After trying to weld up up the Artec Industries Dana 30 3/16 coil brackets/mounts, I realized I wouldn't be able to use the bar pins in my new shocks. I stopped by a friend's shop to use his Harbor Freight press and popped them out. Bought some overpriced M14 bolts to use in the eyelet.

 

That 3-link kit looks really awesome! I remember watching those Project Green Machine videos where it seems like they were almost R&Ding that kit from the ground up.

Do you know Tim? I really liked Green Machine.

 

I'm super excited to get it on. I don't know him personally, just asked him a few questions on Instagram regarding his build. Funny story though, when he posted a video of him getting a new bumper, I commented on the video asking if I could buy his old one. He said yes, and I drove 3 hours to go buy a piece of bleepinjeep history. Although I don't think he's a part of bleepinjeep anymore, I hope to meet him one day. Maybe wheel a little...

 

Over the past two months, I got a lot done, but had to have a shoulder surgery which will push out the build for awhile. Tried to get it done in six weekends, but just couldn't quite finish.

I first got the 8.8 brackets on, painted and got it under the rear. I'm happy to say my measurements were correct and the leaf springs lined up. For brakelines, I bent some universal ones in pair with the XJ Rubicon Express extended brake line kit.





I then took the front crossmember off, and found out that 2000-2001 XJ's have centered crossmembers, versus offset like the rest. I had to go pick up an "offset" trans mount to fit the 3 Link crossmember.





To remove the transfer case for the SYE, I needed to buy a "stubby wrench" and had to grind off part of it just to fit. This was quite a bear to get out.



I got the wheels mounted, and just rolled them over to get an idea of what my jeep will look like. So excited.

 

Looks great so far!

 

Oh man I have a lot of updates, it's been easier to post on instagram. I'll get this updated. I got the jeep running, but ending up cracking the head only 300 miles. Putting in a new Clearwater head next weekend!

 

Oh, I must have seen your reddit post about the head this morning. I got here searching for the victory bumper - i saw tims on BleepJeep and saw you had it. I went looking for it online and SOL - even tried to buy dimensions from Victory 4x4 and they promptly shut me down. Their loss I guess.
EDIT - NVM someone else is doing the clearwater head on today, my mistake.

 

Ha! I know the post you're talking about, saw that this morning. Yes I saw Tim's video when it first came out and drove a couple hours north to go pick it up. I'm very excited about it. There are some other good stubby options as well. I would've went with the Dirtbound offroad one if not for the memento I found. Stubby's look so wicked with a winch on.

 

I got a message asking about the Artec Dana 30 brackets. They fit well and are a good option if you don't go with a truss. They're much beefier than the stock little brackets, and the coils/links fit just fine once I got the angles set right.

I spent a few hours with an angle finder to make sure I tacked them on correctly.

 

After I got the Jeep running, about 300 miles in it overheated pretty bad on a hot day. I should've replaced the cooling system while doing everything else. I started getting symptoms of a blown head gasket/cracked head. Last weekend it took about five hours to remove the stock head. I took my time and tried to label everything, as it's my first time taking apart an engine. I couldn't find a crack on the head, but either way I'm glad I don't have to worry about this. Interestingly enough, the previous owner had replaced the head gasket and valve cover gasket at one point in time.


Spark plugs looked great.

This stud is the only issue I had during the whole process.


Looks pretty good to me!

 

Well I got the head back in, and finally started to break everything in. Over the weekend I wheeled it for the first time. Very easy fire trails, but opted to cross a pretty deep river. Everything held up.

I'm much more active on my instagram @xj.joey , but always come back to the forum from time to time.

 

You did a great job on the axles! What steering are you running?

 

Thank you! It was a lot more work than I anticipated. As everything was, lol.

I'm running Cavfab one-ton steering. It steers fine, but it's almost impossible to get the steering wheel lined up. I've adjusted it so many times, but you have to take apart so much to adjust the steering rod, that you never know how it'll stand until it is all back together. I've lost my patience and just have a 2'' crooked steering wheel.






I did cross this river. Highlight of the day. 2ft at the deepest!