1997 Jeep XJ Country

[Callelle]

UPS brought me a present today!



This week is going to have a bit of maintenance and upgrades in it. The hood vents, Spicer 760x U Joints (guess I'll finally get to try taking the shafts apart), Oil, and possibly a V8 ZJ Tie Rod swap and Tie Rod flip.

[Spencer]

those louvers look nice. that was a good buy

[Callelle]

Thanks, I really like the look of them. Just need to paint them black, get the hardware to install them, and then of course cut the holes in the hood *cringe*. I'm more excited to take it out on a hot day and see if it really does help with the heat soak issue.

[Callelle]

Vents painted flat black


One side cut


Test fitting




Tomorrow I should have the other side cut and have the clamps all finished to hold them in.

[Callelle]

Finished ma vents!

[s0l0ithz]

Nice, hope it helps dissipate your heat issue

[Callelle]

Good news and bad news. The good news is that my Cherokee is now locked in the back with an Aussie that I'm testing for Bill. The other good news is that I believe I found the ghost that has been robbing me of my gas mileage. The bad news is that I believe the exhaust manifold is cracked.

What do you all think?


If that is what a crack like I think it is, does anyone have recommendations for a replacement? A lot of people on Jeep forum strongly recommend the APN manifold, just didn't know if anyone had any personal experience with replacements. The other thing I was gonna do is replace the motor and transmission mounts while I'm at it since this is also what a lot of people say causes the cracking. With mounts I literally am flying blind on knowing what to do. A lot of people recommend poly mounts, others say get OE rubber ones. So if anyone has suggestions/opinions, they would be greatly appreciated.

Link to APN headers.
http://www.ineedparts.com/auto-parts/exhaust-parts/exhaust-manifolds/jeep-exhaust-manifold.html

[s0l0ithz]

could just weld the crack and call it done.

[Callelle]

could just weld the crack and call it done.

My grandpa happened to stop by tonight and I showed him, and he suggested that too. Would the metal in that area be thick enough to really hold? I'd still end up doing the motor mounts to (hopefully) prevent it from breaking the weld anyway. But the strength and age of the metal would be my only concern, then again, I don't really know much about welding.

[s0l0ithz]

It will be fine

[Wingman]

If it is the same as the TJ manifold, I have one in my garage that was cracked and repaired.

[etk300ex]

I'd weld it.  Worst case is it cracks again.

[Callelle]

Problem is I don't have a welder -_-

Any suggestions on motor/transmission mounts? I was looking at Brown Dog Rubber mounts because, again, that's what a lot of people on Jeep Forum recommend.

http://browndogindustries.com/CU2572-0K2-Jeep-Cherokee-XJ-Motor-Mounts-Rubber.aspx

[Callelle]

So I ended up going with a set of headers rather than welding my old ones. The main reason is that since I don't have a welder, I didn't want to pay someone to do something that runs the risk of not holding. Also I since you have to pull the power steering pump and the intake manifold just to get to it, I didn't really want to risk having to do it more than once. The other reason, though not really that important, was the moderate mid range power bump that a lot of people report. Aside from all that, I didn't really think that $150 was that bad for a set of headers. For the motor/transmission mounts, I ended up just getting factory rubber ones from car quest due to budget reasons. Some day down the road I may upgrade to the Brown Dog ones, but for now, these should do fine. Hopefully I'll be getting to this all next week with some help from a friend and his dad. I'll also probobly finally be doing my V8 ZJ tie rod swap/flip then as well.

[Callelle]

Started taking things apart tonight, gives me a chance to clean the throttle body too. So far the only snag I've run into is trying to get the fuel line off of the fuel rail. Is there a trick to getting it off?

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