the cheapest one with the least amount of rust near you

 

I've always heard that 99s are the best year for axle combos and the lack of the 0331 head. (But I may be biased) lol

 

IMO 99 is the best year. Stay away from 00-01, as mentioned. Bad head, weak axle, funky emissions (3 cats). If you take your time and search, a clean and stock 2 door 5 speed 1999 would be ideal.

 

Honestly I love my 93 because of the simplicity of it. Old fashioned steering wheel, no wires in my doors, no obd, no carburetor ... everything is relatively simple to work with... some of what makes it the best is what you want from it. Side note, 8.25 from the factory, any year may have favorable options.

 

^^^

I guess what I'm saying is, it less of what's the best year and more of which are the bad years.

 

Also, the newer generation XJ's have 29 spline 8.25s where as the older generation has 27 spline. Just another note worth mentioning

 

Funny that came up, this just showed up on the local CL, it's not a 4x4 but that swap is easy. Id gwt rid of the manual though. Imo its sketchy while crawling
http://albuquerque.craigslist.org/cto/4521793721.html

 

Did a little searching today and it there are not many 99s for sale around my area. (Nj)

The ones I saw where either not running or overpriced

Maybe people know they're good and are hanging on to them?

 

I paid less then that for mine with 100k less also but was also a plain jane no power locks or windows but I like my gas saver.
The years I think were good was 95 and 98. I have two 88, 93, 95, 98 and 99 and I picked each one for less then 2500 and as low as 100. The 99 being the nicest but its more problems are parts were are harder to find in the yards. Window regulators/ tracks, head problems, and control panel problems all are easy to fix but cost more. The easiest are the renix ones, parts are easy avaivable plus something breaks can upgrade to something better.
The worse years are prob 96/97 from the whole obd to obdII change, some used 96 parts some used 97 parts and had problems with electrical.

 

Head problems? I don't have thw 0331 head

 

some late 99s supposedly got the 0331 head

 

I prefer the manual tranny when crawling. But I also have a hand throttle like a tractor.

 

Only on the WJ's. The WJ was the first of the Jeep models to get the 0331 head on the 4.0, as it was the first year of the new model Grand Cherokee. The TJ and XJ followed with the 0331 head being used on 00-01's. In mid 2002 the 0331 head began being produced by TUPY (in Brazil) to fix the famous cracking between cylinders 3 & 4 and that change carried through to the end of 4.0 production in 2006.

 

I've seen a couple xj 99 that had the 0331 head. Not common but they are around. But also late 99 are also classified as 2000 so it just depends on the manufacturer date.

 

And that's where people get confused. You're right about a Jeep XJ built in September of 1999 actually being classified as a 2000 model. But Jeep went against the normal year classification with the WJ when it was released to the public in June 1999, as a '99, so there may have been 2 months where the '99 XJ could have gotten the 0331 head. None of the research I've done has ever led me to that, but again, if you can find a true 99 model with the 0331 head from the factory (verified), I'd like to see it.