Adventures of Snoball, the V8 ZJ

Got everything reinstalled tonight except the bumper cover, which I'll have to trim. Tomorrow night I'll fill the coolant, put the new muffler on, and hit the switch

BTW, the simplified photo upload is really going to make the build threads easier. And they'll have bigger pics!

I love that steering wheel cover!  Can you post a link? How long did it take you to install it? Any tricks or tips?

Aully Steering wheel cover on Amazon  They come in multiple sizes and colors.

Pay attention to the size chart in the images section. My steering wheel measured at the top of the M range. The leather is thick and really nice. It took a little stretching to work it over the wheel, and a good bit of tension on the laces to pull the edges together but that's probably what you want. It feels factory.

It took me 2 one-hour sessions working slowly and carefully.  Study the instructions, take your time, and keep tension on the stitch thread the whole time. Tension is the most important part - and why I broke it up over 2 days. My hands and forearms were cramping!  Around the spokes I used dummy stitches as per the instructions, so the cover is a little loose behind them but not enough to bother me. On the dummy stitches you have to do them all across the spoke and then go back and work the tension through, starting at the incoming side and pulling tension into each stitch moving forward until you get to the stitch after where it picks up the rear of the cover. Not a hard process exactly, but sort of tedious.

If this one wears well I may very well put one on the Mustang.

ultraclyde said:

Aully Steering wheel cover on Amazon  They come in multiple sizes and colors.

Pay attention to the size chart in the images section. My steering wheel measured at the top of the M range. The leather is thick and really nice. It took a little stretching to work it over the wheel, and a good bit of tension on the laces to pull the edges together but that's probably what you want. It feels factory.

It took me 2 one-hour sessions working slowly and carefully.  Study the instructions, take your time, and keep tension on the stitch thread the whole time. Tension is the most important part - and why I broke it up over 2 days. My hands and forearms were cramping!  Around the spokes I used dummy stitches as per the instructions, so the cover is a little loose behind them but not enough to bother me. On the dummy stitches you have to do them all across the spoke and then go back and work the tension through, starting at the incoming side and pulling tension into each stitch moving forward until you get to the stitch after where it picks up the rear of the cover. Not a hard process exactly, but sort of tedious.

If this one wears well I may very well put one on the Mustang.

Thanks for the info. That seems like a great piece of kit for $11!

Got the muffler on and started filling the cooling system tonight. It started leaking around the metal tube that runs too the heater hose. The tube presses in with an oring. The end of the tube was a little rough so I emory clothed it, put the oring on, and coated it with a little rtv before installing. 

I think I need a new, non pitted tube. But they don't make them for the jeep....    there's one for a RAM with the same motor that has the right end on it but will require some creative hose work on the other end. So I guess I'll be trying that one

On the YAY side, I cut down the bumper cover and remounted it. It looks AWESOME. much better than stock too me.

Interesting work with the bumper cut. I'd never thought of it on one of these, although maybe it's common and i just don't pay attention to grand cherokee forums. Looks meaner. The whole truck is looking great! And, you've discovered the joy of the thermostat. Aside from having to take the whole intake off to replace a silly gasket you would never know existed, the thermostat is pretty much the most aggravating part installed on the old magnum v8. I'm taking the engine out of an '11 Silverado  with <100k miles, and the owner also has an '11 Acadia with a rod knock, and i was standing there talking to my dad about his 360 Ram and how it sure is nice to not have a hint of engine trouble out of any magnum v6/v8 we've owned between us (im DD'ing a 3.9 Van now). These engines were way more reliable than the other domestic v8s you could get in the late 90s. 

Thanks. Trimming the bumper is pretty common, but usually in more aggressive ways. This cut which just takes the bottom off is a little less common but looks more factory to me. Hell,  most of the people running these things are happy to leave the cover off, sawzall the fenders and rattlecan it flat black. I'm trying to be a little more pretentious lol.

I finally found a valid Mopar part number for the tube.  The local dealer wants $75 for it, and I might get it tomorrow if the computer is right and te Atlanta warehouse has 1 in stock....or it might be 5 days if the computer's wrong and it will have to come from the west coast. But I can't find out till I pay, and I have to pre-pay because it's special order. 

OEM parts. Gotta love it

I like the subtle changes that you are doing.  Looking good.  Sometimes OEM parts are the only way, and they have you by the short hairs.

Thanks! 

Ain't that the truth. One of my contacts with Dodge Technical tells me the part has officially been discontinued, and the accepted work around is to use the Ram part and extend the hose like I was planning on doing. You can get the Dorman part at any parts store for $12.

So...I think I'll probably order the OEM and just go the Ram way if it doesn't come in tomorrow. Then when it comes in I'll have a back up if it becomes a problem. Plus, if it's discontinued I might be better off to get one while I can.

Got the heater tube in today and got it installed. Letting the rtv cure till tomorrow.

The accessory mount brackets are made of aluminum with all the strength of creamy peanut butter. I stripped the hole for one mount bolt on the ac compressor and startred to strip one on the ps pump. They're still pretty solid though so I'm going to run it for now and helicoil them later.

And she's out of the shop and driving! No leaks, runs between 195 and 200 when moving. Perfect. Unfortunately it's developed a reandom misfire at idle and just off idle. It's fine at cruise or at least you can't tell. Since I replaced plugs, wires, cap and rotor already I'll just have to do some testing. But it's not bad enough to keep in the shop!

Ran across town and picked up 275sq ft of Pergo this morning to replace the carpet in the master that the plumbing flood wiped out at Christmas.

In reply to ultraclyde :

Looks good.  Nice work!

Looking good.  Seems like your dog has given it the final inspection.  Keep up the good work.

I was going to do a little quick check of the spark plugs and wires today to start fixing the idle miss, and then take a nice nap. I pulled the plugs and checked that they looked normal, which they did, and rearranged some plug wires to put a little more distance between them. Then since the plugs had gone well I decided to stick in the new pcv valve I had laying around.

Can you see where this is going?

Yes, the ancient pcv valve snapped off. Yes, the rock hard tube split. Yes, the old grommet was slightly harder than the steel valve cover. Yes,  half the old pcv valve fell into the valve train.

Of. berkeleying. Course. It did.

Pulled the valve cover. Pain in the ass but it needed a new gasket anyway and I had it on hand. Chiseled out the old grommet and ran to the parts store to get a new grommet.

They don't have one. Can't get one. No one can. Rock Auto doesn't even list it. Everyone has the grommet for the breather on the other valve cover in stock for $4. But the PCV grommet is NLA.

What the hell? How is a pcv grommet for a 318 NLA? That's just...ridiculous. 

Sigh. I bought the breather grommet and a rubber body plug that fit the too-large hole. I drilled a slightly undersized hole in the plug and jammed the pcv in it. Then I coated the plug in ultra black rtv and jammed that in the breather grommet. It's like a pcv turducken, but it works so far.

Did a test drive and it still misses at idle. Sometimes. 

Not sure what to test next. I'm thinking maybe i should replace the cam pickup in the distributor next?

In reply to ultraclyde :

Double check that the new cap doesn’t have a crack in it? I know Rovers are super particular about the type of rotor used...may check into that. 

Hmm, good point. After researching it my symptoms don't sound much like cam sensor anyway. I bought a better quality set of cap and rotor from Rockauto but I forget what brand it was. Need to see if the Jeep guys have a preference.

Hey mods, can we change the thread name to "Snoball the V8 ZJ" please? It seems the Jeep has found its name.

I don't know if you mentioned this or not. What brand plugs did you out in it?  

Jeeps ONLY like Champion plugs. I can't tell you hiw many times we had a Jeep brought in to the dealer with a bad idle or other drivability issues only to find the customer put some nice, expensive plugs in it. We'd spin in a set of Champions and it would fix it. 

Many, many times.  

DrBoost said:

I don't know if you mentioned this or not. What brand plugs did you out in it?  

Jeeps ONLY like Champion plugs. I can't tell you hiw many times we had a Jeep brought in to the dealer with a bad idle or other drivability issues only to find the customer put some nice, expensive plugs in it. We'd spin in a set of Champions and it would fix it. 

Many, many times.  

Champion Copper Plus

In reply to ultraclyde :

Done 

Since this is back near the top...let me introduce guys ou to the new MVP of auto repair in my shop:

Seriously, if the battery on this thing is dead I'm putting it on the charger and going back in the house. Makes life so much easier.

ultraclyde said:

DrBoost said:

I don't know if you mentioned this or not. What brand plugs did you out in it?  

Jeeps ONLY like Champion plugs. I can't tell you hiw many times we had a Jeep brought in to the dealer with a bad idle or other drivability issues only to find the customer put some nice, expensive plugs in it. We'd spin in a set of Champions and it would fix it. 

Many, many times.  

Champion Copper Plus

I can't remember the part number, but I'd call the dealer and find out what the OEM plug was. They are cheap, but they are the only ones that seem to work well. 

Ugh. Today I'd like to push that Jeep off a cliff. The miss is getting worse, the catalytic converter is rattling like crazy, it's just not running very well, and I now have coolant spray all over the airbox and driver's side inner fender. And it still needs control arm bushings, and at least the parking brake system rebuilt before I can take the boat anywhere.  Also today I had an incident where the trans freewheeled instead of shifting into OD under duress, snapping rpms up to redline before I got my foot off the gas.. 

dammit, come on man!  

I'm fairly certain I have put more time and work into this truck to bring it up to par than anything else I've ever bought. If I just wanted a trail crawler or a project vehicle that would be fine, but I need to depend on this thing to safely take my family 4 hours to the coast towing a boat. I'm really starting to question if I made a mistake buying this thing. 

What a pain in the ass.

/end rant.

Check your pcv set up.  May have something to do with the way it is running.  Coolant could be a hose, or clamp.  Recheck all taken apart.  Transmission, not sure.  Speed sensor ?