InfeXJous

Evening everyone. New to posting here but I've been around awhile. I've read the sticky's and now its time for the Introduction. Here's the Jeep, its a 2000 limited, 4x4 A/T, tan leather interior and heated seats, wood grain accents. I've bought this jeep for the second time now. Here's the lowdown...7 years ago I bought it from a used dealer in PA, they were super shady, and were selling it for the owner whom I talked into 5k cash. I drove it around for about a year and a half, bought myself a pickup truck and this just began to sit for future plans. I soon gave it to my brother as an even trade for totaling his ford ranger years prior to wipe the slate clean. He drove it up until about a year and a half ago, the whole time the back brakes were garbage, and it was plagued with overheating issues that soon became too frequent to be reliable. He had planned to fix it, lift it, the norm. Alas never got around to it, so I bought it back from him for a decent price........ I think lol. I truthfully haven't even looked into what numbers are what, the rear, the t-case, trans, and so on. So I'll get around to this. I don't have pictures on my computer so I'll try to come back and edit this through my phone to add them.

The point here, is to fix this up with, and give it to my stepson when he turns 16. Hes almost 12 now, so I've got 4 years to give this thing new life for the world again. This will hopefully be a bonding experience for us, as his real dad could unfortunately care less about anyone but himself. I want to get him out of the house more, open up his interest range, and a bit more away from the video games. Showing him that there are better rewards with hard work and more exciting things than an online victory royale.
The plan I have for this, is to first focus on reliability, as this is most important in my eyes. Afterwards, we can make it more of his own with tasteful mods.
Below are the issues I know that its plagued with, and how I plan to correct them. Each of which, are open for questions, comments, and concerns...

1) I believe the 0331 head is the culprit for my overheating issues. Keeping in mind reliability, option 1- I am thinking of swapping an entire longblock new/reman through Rock Auto, they come with a 3 year/100k mile warranty, and I do like warranties. Has anyone has experience with these, or know if the new/reman motors have a better casting for the head? Option 2-I know i can use an older years head to correct my issue, though I open the can of worms of needing different exhaust and manifold, and to fabricate brackets for the coil pack. Option 3- I've seen guys using heads from Clearwater with good experiences, so I haven't ruled this out either. For the sheer fact of reliability--$1800 for a new longblock with a warranty doesn't seem like a bad deal.

2) The trans and transfer case have always worked great, so hopefully just a simple fluid drain and fill will suffice here. Though the jeep thinks it's in part time 4wd according to the light on the dash, physically its in 2wd. I suspect its just an issue when you go so long without a battery and it needs to be driven to realize all is fine, but I'll cross that bridge when i get to it.

3) The rear brakes as stated, are trash. I firmly believe they don't even work, whether this is a proportioning valve issue or not I'm not sure. But I plan to do a disc brake conversion and replacing the proportioning valve anyway.

4) Coinciding with the motor overheating, I'm going to replace every item possible that deals with coolant. T-stat, Radiator, hoses, heater core, etc. The things that can not be replaced , will be cleaned since i know this jeep is no stranger to bars leak (which is likely also a culprit in overheating issues)

5) The interior is pretty clean. The headliner needs redone so no big deal here. The door panels need a good cleaning, and the front leather seats could use some serious love and likely replaced. The cheaper option is a seat cover, sure, but are there any companies who repair or make replacements for the existing leather i have? The other issue with the drivers seat is the heated seat portion of it, last I looked it was flashing a light code on the heater button itself. Need to look into that.

6) The steering seems a little loose, and there are probably plenty of bushings that need replaced to help with the overall slop I feel when taking turns.

Once I've got this thing at an ideal spot for him, we will then start to talk about how or even if he'd like to do anything to make it his own. Being just outside of Baltimore City, the most off road this thing will see with him is coming up the hill in my driveway. But I'd like to mount a cargo rack on the existing roof rack, to house the spare. Swap out the fenders for something better, a 4.5" lift, and some wheels and tires. Specifics aren't really important since we are talking way down the road at this point.

I'm sure there's some I've forgotten, but you guys get the gist. 4 years for rehabbing the XJ with my boy. I'll drink to that. Looking forward to talking, and learning with and from you guys as he and I start this journey together.

Cheers,

RockinRonnie

Welcome to the Forum InfeXJous !

will be keeping an eye on this to follow good luck with your cool project.