Hey all, recently found inspiration to put some time money and energy into an epic hobby, sport, lifestyle. I'm looking for some input on budget with some do's and don'ts when creating my first machine.

 

Do it once. Do it right. Want long arms? Then wait and save. Wanna regear and lock? Do it once. **** gets crazy expensive if you rush into this.. And theres so much unique personality a jeep can have. What do you want to do with it? Also, welcome to the addition!

 

General offroad adventures, be able to climb hills and Traverse some gnarly terrain, not looking to make a rock crawler but definitely need some clearance. I want to survive off grid for at least a week at a time

 

Cool, an all around capable jeep. Well, getting the chassis off the ground is half the equation. The other half being axle height. Generally you'd want about 3-3.5" of lift and 31-33" tires. Maybe some armor and a locker or two won't hurt. you can get a full lift kit for ~500 bucks, shocks for ~400 (good quality), a track bar for ~180, and longer brake lines for ~50- the fronts you can just relocate. Aside from that, Extended bump stops, might want a rim with more BS 4.00-3.75 is plenty for a 10.50" wide tire. Theres always lockers, too. You can spend ~700 to do both axles, or up to 2000 for both. Also a great time to regear if planning on anything bigger than a 31"

 

Awesome, 33's is what I had in mind but not really sure why. When looking to buy an XJ, should I look for something that's already lifted or start from scratch? Manual Trans are pretty rare where I'm at, autos range from $1500-5k stock and lifted ones range 5k and up but don't trust they've been taken care of

 

Though convenient, if it comes lifted then theres some risk. Is it a good lift, properly installed? Did the PO beat the **** out of it just before sticking a 4 sale sigh on it?

The 00-01's came with a faulty head casting and weak rear axle. The 99 is arguably the best year. 96 is a bastard year, avoid that. Auto or manual won't make a difference for your needs, comes down to preference.

OH! at 3-3.5" you might need a SYE. Hack-n-Tap is a cheap alternative if you end up with an NP242 TC.

 

Thank you for all of your input, I'm going to refine my search to avoid those years. Any advice on engine and drive train upgrades?

 

Engine- The 4.0L is an incredible engine. Not overly powerful, but a strong and reliable platform. Air, fuel and spark are all components that you can work with to produce a very smooth running motor.

Air- DONT get a WAI (Warm Air Intake) or as some call them a CAI... Consider something like this instead.

Fuel- You can swap dodge neon (and other) injectors for better flow rates. Thats about it, but its a great upgrade.

Spark- Champion plugs are popular, NGK/NTK (same thing) are popular as well. Heres a quick copy/paste about wires: The 8.2mm ThunderVolt wires ($38-$44) are 50 ohms per foot (per Summit's site, Taylor's own site claims 40 ohms per foot) just like the MSDs. The 8mm Spiro-Pro wires ($36-$37) are 350 ohms per foot and the 8mm Street Thunder ($25) are 500 ohms per foot. As for the cap and rotor ACCEL is a good one. But really Whatever OEM spec one your hardware store has is probably just fine.

Drivetrain- The transmissions, AX-15 ('88-'99) or AW-4 ('87-'01) are both stout units that require noting. The transfer cases, NP231 and NP242 (both '87-01 IIRC) are also reliable units. The 231 is slightly stronger because of no viscous coupler found in the 242. SYE options are more expansive for the 231, but the 242 has a cheap and easy method call a Hack-n-Tap. The 242 has a "Full Time" 4wd option basically making it an AWD vehicle (viscous couplers job) whereas the 231 only had a "Part Time" 4wd that will bind on pavement. The differentials, F: a Dana 30 High Pinion and R: a Chrysler 8.25. Both differentials are open (no LSD/locker) The Dana 35 has an LSD.

 

I would recommend, depending on which generation of xj you like best, 91-95 or a 97-99. 99 would be my first choice, 95 being my first choice if going for the older body style.

As far as aftermarket, I would suggest 3"-4" lift and 33's for your application. I would also suggest finding some cheap steel bumpers like maybe from Roxolid. It all depends on what you want to spend though.

Here are a few videos I think you'll find interesting. The first on is about all the different xj's and it is by BleepinJeep. I would recommend browsing through some of their videos they have a lot of really good stuff! The next one is the first of a two part series by rough country that follows one of their xj builds. I found it very interesting. There are a lot of guys that don't like rough country but I have never had any problems with them.

 

Oh here's another you might like. This is also by BleepinJeep and it is going over upgrades. Keep in mind this is just an opinion. My personal opinion is a little different than this.

 

Wow. This is way more than I was expecting. Thank you guys for all of your feed back, this is great information. I'll be sure to post my next move once this has digested a little bit

 

HAHA! Welcome to CherokeeForum! ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE

 

Welcome from England.

 

Welcome to the site it's great to have you here

Tony