Dirty's Heeps

[zj95maxx]

dont i know it!


Mine will be sitting for a couple weeks. I wonder how much shit I will be chopping off to fit my new tires. hahaha

[sah81]

What kind of nav unit did you get? My friend has been looking for one that will fit in his 98 but the fold out screens hit the overhang on the dash.

[dirty]

What kind of nav unit did you get? My friend has been looking for one that will fit in his 98 but the fold out screens hit the overhang on the dash.

You are going to laugh, I was in Wal-Mart, bored, and my old Pioneer was dying after years of selfless service. I was thinking about getting a GPS, but I didn't want any more gizmos mounted in the DD Heep. I already have XM, occasionally a radar, a DC/AC inverter for my laptop...so the last thing I wanted was another damn gadget.

Anyways, I ran across the VR3 (formerly Roadmaster, lol) vrvd640g. Trust me, I am leary of buying things from a "stellar" brand like Roadmaster, but so far (5 months) it's been performing great. It has am/fm, mp3, wma, dvd, usb, a/v input, sdflash, gps, a calender, a calculator, and a small toaster. The DVD works great, used the car speakers as a 4.1 surround and the little 4" screen is pretty visable. It's also touch sceen. My favorite feature is the SD card reader...I load one of those up with mp3s and go for days without searching for CDs.

It does have it's downfalls. The GPS does work well, but it not as clever (read user freindly) as a Garmin...but you can enter L/L degrees as a destination...somthing alot of Garmins won't do. The sound if you plan on running the speakers off the headunit's mosfet isn't that great...I have a 5 channel amp so this didn't concern me (using RCA outs). The am/fm tuner isn't as sensitive as I would like, but I'm always on XM so I didn't care. It has a few software quirks (it's basically a reprogramed palm pilot jambed in your dash), like when in navigation mode you can only mute radio volume...not adjust it, you have to switch back to radio to adjust...not a huge deal it only takes a second.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the product. I got it on sale for like $325 bucks...given that I needed a new headunit ~$200 and I wanted a GPS ~$250, I got both and a DVD player for less. I can live with the "personality."


Pardon the fuzzy pics...camera doesn't like getting too close...

[CurtP]

I put GPS in my ZJ too, but I went with the RB1. That doesn't look bad at all. If you pop off that trim piece that you have your antenna stuck to, you can tuck it underneath it in one of the blank spots and you should still pick up signals very well and not have to see the antenna. That's where I put the antenna for my RB1 and it works very well. You may even be able to put your XM antenna under there and have decent results. I went with the integrated Sirius setup in mine, so I had to drill a hole in the roof and mount the satellite antenna up there. Why don't they integrate the GPS receiver into those things? The GPS/Sirius setup in my WK is set up the same way with the GPS antenna in the dash by the windshield

[dirty]

Good thinking...I was all worried about it picking up satellites when I installed it there, but it has a very good signal. I might have to do that. My XM reciever is a big POS, but I got a mobile one...that way I can move it in between both of my Heeps and I have the home kit for my in house radio too.

If this unit (the GPS) makes it a year in my DD I might pick up another for my weekend Heep. I can see the latitiude/longitude GPS coming in handy on some adventures. Right now the GPS is a life saver as I travel a lot for work (and I watch movies in traffic jams.)

[sah81]

I don't really have room to laugh at Roadmaster because I have a Lanzar. It's a model SDBT78 single din with a 7 inch fold out touch screen. I picked it up with the GPS reciever a while back for less than $450. It has worked ok for me but it wouldn't fit in my friends '98 because the dash hangs over probably 1.5" farther. When my sceen is open it just barely kisses the top of the dash when the screen is vertcal. Mine actually kinda looks like a swap meet radio when it's closed, which hopefully keeps it from getting stolen. The GPS works good, but unfortunately you can't listen to the radio when in GPS mode. The sound quality is decent, but not great. The picture is nice when playing movies. I also needed a new head unit because the display quit on my factory Infinity unit. That VR3 looks pretty nice. I like the look of the map software.

[dirty]

Like I said, I'm more than happy with it. And just for the record, you can continue listening to the radio, cd, flash, or whatever while in GPS mode. Hell, you can even take a peak at the GPS while continuing DVD playback...obviously sans picture.

[CurtP]

Good thinking...I was all worried about it picking up satellites when I installed it there, but it has a very good signal. I might have to do that. My XM reciever is a big POS, but I got a mobile one...that way I can move it in between both of my Heeps and I have the home kit for my in house radio too.

If this unit (the GPS) makes it a year in my DD I might pick up another for my weekend Heep. I can see the latitiude/longitude GPS coming in handy on some adventures. Right now the GPS is a life saver as I travel a lot for work (and I watch movies in traffic jams.)

Some Garmin units do XM/XM Traffic. I have a zūmo 550 and the XM hockey puck. It has an SD slot for MP3s too. Waterproof, ruggedized and fuel resistant - it's my favorite GPS solution right now. I had it mounted on a PtFPtM (pound to fit, paint to match) bracket in the ZJ, but for some reason I got a hair in my ass to go to an integrated solution - probably because my WK has the factory nav.

[dirty]

Busted out the Mallcrawlin' tool kit...well, I suppose add a hammer and lose the masking tape might be more accurate, but you get my point.



...hour and two beers later...






...add a little vatozone door edge guard until/if I dream up a flare solution....(nice shot of new stance after I picked up wheels with less backspacing...I'm a poser 1 ton, lol, wheel bearings be damned)



...finished bedlining Heep, reapainted my "flopshelf"...



..other than that, finally got off my ass and swapped in rebuilt u joint axle shafts, did new wheel bearings, calipers, rotors...still stops like a pig. I'll keep after it. Cleaned up a multitude of little things, dumped some broken lights. Basically a weekend of tinkering in preparation for the new motor and Kevin's pre-runner bumpers, I order the new stroker tommorow hopefully, I'll try to detail that for everyone's benefit.

[dirty]

Oh yea...my steering is shit, so I'm not sure what the hell happened, but one of my brake caliper attachment points is stripped out on the knuckle side. Actually had no bolt on there when I took off the old one.

Anyway's just wanted to grab a few opinions on steering upgrades that involve new knuckles as I have to replace one anyways, why not redo it all. Other than being factory crappola on a tall lift, my TRE smacks into my TB/SD mount on right turns...very annoying. For what it's worth, I have Kevin's TB conversion and 15" wheels that sit out pretty wide.

[dirty]

Time to get to work on the stroker...

Travel to my buddies' garage....damn thing barely fit on the trailer as wide as it is. Had to lose the rack..was too tall for normal garage, lol.



Now time to remove the hood, belts, wires, intake, battery, and every single thing you can remove as it relates to the core and support...at least on top. I'm pissed about the AC...no disconnects...was everything I could do not to cut that bastard out, but AC is nice, so I worked around it by flopping it off to the side and laying down the condenser as much as possible.



Another view...and some Miller.



Disconnecting the tranny was by far the worst part, duh. FYI, top two tranny bolts require some sort of odd star socket...like a gay reverse torqs. Pissed me off. The rest really wasn't that bad. Remove front DS, exhaust (spay bolts liberally with penetrant the night before), remove tranny dipstick (at least with AW4). I curse, I bleed, I sweat, Shane hits things with a hammer. I curse some more. (Don't forget the torque converter bolts, lol, long story...don't ask.)



Wires, wires, and more wires...and damn flywheel shield...and ton's of stupid little brakets that appeared majically after we shifted motor forward.



Now we are getting somewhere...



...and we are out!



After ~250k, and a wicked power steering incident this is one greasy pig...



...and a nasty valve cover leak...thence covered in around 1/4 inch of dirt...wow.



WTF! Wow, haven't opened the top for ages...I can't believe it even ran...



#1 reason mudding is gay...this is after an oil change mind you.



Nekked 4.0...




Now I get to start cleaning, valve cover, pan, timing cover, intake, brackets...etc....yea. New motor should arrive on Thursday or Friday, new injectors on Thursday. I have to hustle to get all the parts cleaned up. Shooting to get new motor ready to stab in next weekend...time permitting will get it in, but probably another weekend after that before all is well.

Only real casualty today was the oil pressure sender...add that to my list of motor mounts, h2o pump, themostat, rotor, cap, plugs, wires, tranny front seal (why not if you are right there), a cooling fan upgrade, TB, intake (maybe later), and new battery terminals...thats the list, for now.

[Goosed76]

sweet man, looking good...love the water in the rocker arms....

[Brad S]

Looks like some work. Good luck, hope it all goes smooth

[dirty]

Looks like some work. Good luck, hope it all goes smooth

Looks good my butt, lol. But yeah, I'm pretty happy to have that old motor out...hopefully after the new one is assembled we can stab it back in about the same amount of time.

Good news is my new injectors showed up today!

[Rangerwj]

r u doing a seperate engine swap thread as well as this one? great looking ride

[dirty]

r u doing a seperate engine swap thread as well as this one? great looking ride

Yea, once the Titan stroker long block get's delivered I will update this thread as well...

http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16564

...with build pics, opinions, and any other relevant information (nobody knows much about Titan). I just didn't think that this (tear down) process needed to be in that more technical thread.

Once I saw the inside of this 250k pig I just had to post it somewhere though, lol.

[dirty]

The cleanup/rebuild begins...

Injectors!



Little Heep's hatch full of greasy, ugly shit. Before....



...And after!



And a little piece of art I call manifold with new stroker injectors...roughly translated for you'all V8 fellas, "lipstick on a pig."



This was a long process believe it or not. New motor mounts are gonna set me back around $100. That, in addition to the other stuff, and the oil pressure sensor I broke is starting to cut into my budget...so I had to hand clean all this shit in my driveway. Then prep it with a drill, a wire brush, and a host of various paint removing disks and solvents.

Anyways...few cans of high heat "Hemi Orange" Krylon (first primed, then clear coated so I get a shine and some durability...you know who you are ) and here we go!

[jeepdude25]

man I love the orange paint cant wait to see it all done!

[Goosed76]

is painting the aluminum manifold a good thing? shouldn't it dissipate heat better left bare?

[dirty]

is painting the aluminum manifold a good thing? shouldn't it dissipate heat better left bare?

Yes...it would dissipate heat better if left bare for the record...but to what extent is unknown by me. I thought about this when painting...my reasoning went like this...

The intake manifold sucks in cold air...but sits on top of a ~1200 degree header, so in this case I probably should have wrapped it in insulation. As to the vale cover...well, I just wanted to paint it damnit...also, it was severely tarnished and would become that way again. I'm painting the engine relatively bright colors (orange & gray) so I can spot leaks in the future. Normally I don't let my machines get to that level of filth...my '97 is flawless, but I neglect the Big Heep.

While I was putting some thought into this...it occured to me that perhaps they made a small engineering goof...or compromise of sorts...when mounting the intake manifold directly above the exhaust without any sort of heat shield. I find this very odd, sort of kills the idea of a cold air intake on the I6 at least...by the time air gets through that manifold it will be well heated. Every other motor I have seen like this had a heat shield of sorts (think about the one above your cat to keep your carpet from cathing fire). When I reassemble the engine I'm thinking about fabbing up a heatshield out of some aluminum and wedging it in between the intake and exhaust. I'm thinking about wrapping the header too, this can cause them to rust a bit faster...but I'll do anything to get the underhood temps down. Vents are on the way too.

[Brad S]

Sweet, can't wait to see this thing all put together! Nice work

[lifted5.9]

what kind of clear coat paint did you use?? and where did you get it?

[CurtP]

Check out the thread about using the newer, large plenum intake (2001+, IIRC). It didn't do shit for me, but with the additional displacement, it might be a worthwhile mod for you.

[dirty]

what kind of clear coat paint did you use?? and where did you get it?

I buy almost 90% of my stuff from Advanced. They treat me well and are usually very competitive price wise. I buy so much from them, they usually give me a discount too, and the employees at the one near my house are very helpful and quite intelligent. They will cross reference parts for me all day long. Your experiences may vary...I think the competence level of any given auto parts store is more a reflection of its actual manager and employees rather than of the entire chain's reputation. I have been to great O'Rielly's and really shitty ones...same with Advanced. Point is, my local Advanced Auto is hands down the best parts people where I live...so I shop there.


The paint is simply Krylon or whatever they stock at Advanced. It is the High Heat variety, they make a High Heat Primer, Color, and Clear Coat. I used all three. I wanted to go Cat Yellow, but no one had it...so I settled on Hemi Orange. I figured if I'm going to all this work...might as well make it pretty.

[dirty]

Check out the thread about using the newer, large plenum intake (2001+, IIRC). It didn't do shit for me, but with the additional displacement, it might be a worthwhile mod for you.

I want to...but all the parts for the build are coming together so fast I don't have time to scrounge one up. I think it probably would make a bit of a difference with the greater displacement my motor is going to have. Nice thing is, that is something I can do further down the road when I have more time...it requires the manifold and all most all of the power steering parts to complete. I can't afford to buy that stuff new and I haven't had time to even start searching junk yards for them yet.

I think I'm going to look into throttle body swaps first. I looked at the taper in the stock TB and thought about boring it out...but honestly...I think that might be polishing a turd...it's really not that big of a difference. I'm internet investigating how to use a TB from a V8...and then boring out the manifold to match. I think that will proide a better bang for my buck. After all, I will have 4.7 liters...same as some new V8s. We shall see, to be honest, I just want to get the damn thing running right now...even without proper airflow Chuck (Titan Sales) tells me my ass dyno will be very pleased, lol.