Hello,
I own a 89 XJ 4.0L 4x4 with 162,000 miles on it. It sat for 2 years but after changing fuel tank, pump and lines, it ran again. It stalled twice the second day i drove it, but its been nearly 2 weeks and it hasn't stalled again. I just wanted opinions if its worth putting money into. I want to do a cheap $50 junk yard lift, A/T tires, engine mods, flowmaster 40, subs, lighting mods, and many other things however i dont want the engine or tranny to die on me for at least 1 year.

There is a strange rattle coming from underneath, is it just the exhaust?

Thank you

 

sounds like you have a decent base for a great rig.the noise from below is probly something loose so jump down there and shake some things arond a bit.something will move and thats probly it.but imo you got yourself a xj with 4.o you cant go TO wrong hope to see a build thread on this guy soon

 

I got my 87 with 260,000 miles on it. I dunp more money into it than anything else, its my daily driver now.

 

Ive been looking at hundreds of XJ pics and see most have over 250,000. This makes me happy and confident. I still owe $600, but after i pay that off, i will start on my build. Thanks guys, i just needed a bit reassuring. searching online its either the exhaust manifold or lifters that are causing the rattle. hmmm

 

Let us see.
It is just example, not about your Jeep.
$1000 truck+$1000 parts +100 hours labor= $1500 value truck ????????????
Is that the case here?

 

lol well thats true, but im aware. i dont mind that the resale value wouldnt be as much, im looking at spending $50-150 for a cheap 2-3.5" lift, $150-300 used but good A/T tires, $40-150 on audio, $10-80 on aesthetics, $80-$150 exhaust, and $20-150 on engine mods. thats $350-980. The point of this thread was of my fear that something would go wrong and i wanted opinions. I dont want to have spent $700 on parts and then the engine explodes.

 

162K is just broken in.
Expect some problems..it's a 23 year old vehicle, lol. Really can't avoid that. But everything is still available, parts are cheap and repairs are generally simple.
There's no reason it can't be as reliable as any new car once you get the age-related kinks worked out.
What's the worst that could happen? Bad engine or trans? Both are cheap and available in scrapyards, craigslist.... you have a wide range of years that will swap in. They're also pretty rugged- if they are running well now, they will likely continue to do so for quite a long time.

 

Exhaust new $65
ebay #160887573523

 

The rattling underneath you XJ can be the ceramics in the cat, so for I have had 3 '89 XJ with the ceramics comming loose. If not fixed it will restrict flow in your exhaust a lot, so just change cat.

 

lol cheap to some but for an 18 year old high school senior making minimum wage at 15 hours a week, owing $590 to my parents. Well i got paid today, so now its $490 ;D

Anyways i have around $30-50 to spend on a upgrade. the exhaust sounds pretty bad at idle, sounds nice when i accelerate, but idle is horrible and quite embarrassing. i will look into that, cats aint cheap

 

should i look into replacing the entire exhaust? should i spend my $30-50 right now on small engine/looks upgrades/mods or save up?

 

I've had my jeep ten years, and when it starts getting rough at the idle, I pull the throttle body and clean out the idle air control valve. It gets gummed up and sticks, messes with the idle air mixture.