Project Hippo

[CRJEeP_wj]

I really like the HK front bumpers, IMO they are the best ones in production right now. What quarter panel armor are you looking at on EBay? All I could find were the DBM ones, if those are the ones your looking at they are good quality from what I’ve read they get positive feedback.

[Tuzmaster]

I really like the HK front bumpers, IMO they are the best ones in production right now. What quarter panel armor are you looking at on EBay? All I could find were the DBM ones, if those are the ones your looking at they are good quality from what I’ve read they get positive feedback.

It is by dbm. Think I'll order those then. And I got some teaser pics from the guy. He is still making progress. I'm hoping the bumper will be here by end of the month. Pics coming then

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[Tuzmaster]

Hey guys, need help. After recent oil change I noticed that I only got 2.5 quarts of oil out. Looks like the oil is leaking right where the oil filter is screwed in. I can put the liquid gasket on the filter when installed cause it will be impossible to get the filter out. Any suggestions? I use FRAM oil filter and I heard they are kind of the bottom of the barrel. Is that right? what are other options that can be done to fix this issue?

[Yjsaabman717]

If you're changing your oil every 3-4k miles and only got about 2.5 qts out, you would be seeing puddles where you park it if it was leaking that bad. If it's down that far it's probably consuming it. It could also be why you're hearing noise from the engine. I'd start with looking into the PCV system. When things go wrong there, engines can suck a lot of oil in.

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[Tuzmaster]

Thought I would do an update. nothing major done. Got the rear quaterpanel here by dbm. Will body match the paint. Dealer no longer carries the champaine color for hippo, but i got the paint code. Its PTH. Just gonna have to have a shop make some. Here is how the panels arrived:[IMG][/IMG]

They definitely look beefy. Took hippo on a China Wall run. He did fantastic. It was like a cadilac off road. Here are some poser pics lol
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Found the magic psi number for me at least. Its 12 psi.

Next on my agenda is to wait for the bumper (dam this is taking forever, but he keeps sending updates. so hopefully by november itll be here). If i had to redo the bumper over, I think i would have gone with the hidden winch mount only and get a rock hard bumper. Would have been cheaper and faster. but doesn't look at cool. Also want to do a shelf for the trunk. Gonna make it quick disconnect somehow. The height will go up to the edge of the rear seat and the tire will go on top of that. I want to keep the old spare tire storage accessible. Eventually the rear bumper will be made and the tire will go on it. Let also not forget to find a place for the 60" HiLift jack. That will go onto the roof rails. Due to school and work its hard to work on hippo but anything happens and ill be posting it here.

Another question. have you guys tried to tow one of your ZJ's or WJ's with an ecoDiesel Jeep wk? I got one as a DD and wonder if its possible and if advised at all. Given that the GVWR is 7200 and between jeep, trailer and all other stuff its almost that, it does not seem like a good idea

[Ken L]

NAPA will mix you up rattle cans to match the paint code. Just FYI.

[Tuzmaster]

Hey all, thought I'd put an update. haven't been doing much. Latest thing I did on Hippo was have predator rebuild the rear end. It was making noise and vibrating a lot. So thats done now. Next I started building a shelf for the trunk. The tire rests under the shelf and there is room on top for other stuff. Unfortunately, I still use the cuby which had stock spare tire, which means to get to it, you gotta get the tire out, which is a little heavy. Not bad though. Here are some pics
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It does have the shelf that slides out, but the rails arent that great. should have gotten different onces, but these were free so oh well. I am still waiting on the bumper from HK. He says that itll be shipped on thursday next week, which I'm excited about. Then I can hit chinamans gulch.

As for upgrades, here is my plan in the near future:
1)replace the brake booster first since this one is from 99 and probably going bad.
2)put a big brake kit on front brakes. looking currently at RT31046. They are RAM 1500 brakes so should increase stopping power
3) longer brake lines. Current ones are slightly too short at full droop
4)Steering gearbox. Do you guys know of a bolt on upgrade for WJs? mine is worn out with a lot of play. I'm tempted to buy hydro assist and tap the new one, but seems overkill for 35's
5) more trimming of sheetmetal and repairing skirts where rust is
6) install the rear quaterpanel armor protection. Think Ill paint it black instead of body match

Lastly, I am going to mention this. Soon I will replace the tranny and engine. Looked online and the best bet for the engine is actually a crate motor. The 4.7 is hard to come by with low miles or rebuilt one properly. Plus dealer has 3 yr 100k mile warranty. Wont do that till current one breaks though. That said the transmission I'll just pull from the junkyard or find used one. Havent heard horror stories on it and that way it saves money.

A lot is planned, not sure when Ill get to it as the master's project is picking up. I will be posting updates if there are any

[Tuzmaster]

Hey guys, so I want to upgrade the brake/fix them. I was planing on replacing the brake booster since its old and getting a Ram 1500 bigger brake kit (RT31046). Come to find out, the brakes on the front axle and stock JK single piston ones. Do you all know if there exists an upgrade brake booster/master cylinder combo thats bolt in to a WJ and works better or should I just swap for new stock WJ ones and call it? More weight is coming to that jeep and want to make sure I can stop in time.

[Tuzmaster]

guess what guys.... GUESS WHAT!??!?!?!? ITS HERE?!?!?!? well part of it anyway. Install pics coming soon
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[egg]

That's a very nice clean looking bumper

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[Tuzmaster]

The gatekeeper is finally here and thus my bumper pieces are here. Now to find the time and good weather to install it. Its been freezing past week and garage is not big enough despite being a 2 car lol.
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[Tuzmaster]

BTW is anyone running ram assist set up? Is there a steering gearbox upgrade thats bolt on? Any info on this would be helpful

So far I have the following list of parts I plan to get and hope they work together:
Gearbox: red head steering gears SKU2553.It has oversized ball bearrings in the worm gear
Below is what PSC suggested
PK1200 ($415) would be your best bet for a pump kit from us. You will have to reuse your exiting pulley
SC2222K ($225) would be a 1.75 x 6.75 assist cylinder. It may be worth measuring exactly how much steering travel you have to make sure the ram matches. We can always adjust.
http://www.pscmotorsports.com/pdf/te...easurement.pdf
HK2015 ($130) hose and fitting kit to connect the cylinder
CK100-6 ($55) single pass heat sink cooler

[Mtn WJ]

Nice build so far, I like the shelf system in the back. Nice bumper as well.

You might look into a company called Timbukthree as they just relocated to someplace south of Colorado Springs, they built my custom 4.0 and transmission build for me last year. I understand they rebuild 4.7s as well.

I am doing a brake booster and master cylinder swap soon. I plan to remove the ABS system from the middle as I have pulled the fuses for it over 10 years ago when I did my rear axle swap. I plan for now is to use a XJ booster and a wilwood Master with built in proportioning valve and I am already running akebono calipers. A friend of mine did this for another WJ owner with moderate success. My issues is a squishy pedal feel and believe it is because the ABS system is non active.

If you have part numbers on the RAM brakes let me know as I may look into that concept as well.

[Tuzmaster]

The part number for the brakes is RT31046. My friend from the club did it on his ultimate d44 on a jk and since my front axle is basically better version (I think) of jk44, it should work. And its $400 ish which is better than predator's bigger brake kit. Thank you for the compliments haha

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[Tuzmaster]

Just thought of something. As you guys saw in the previous post, my rear passenger side wheel well has a giant rust hole in it. I found the sheetmetal parts online and paint (amazon had the paint surprisingly). Now all I have to do is to find the foam stuff that is between the inside sheetmetal and outside one that acts as insulation. Do you guys know what that is?

Also, what would cause the heater to take forever to get warm. The engine is at full operating temp and fan isnt making any noise and blowing like crazy. Heater core is brand new as dad replaced it not too long ago (2 years or so) and it hasnt been that bad of weather for it to clog up. May be something got messed up during reassembly? Could it be the motor that moves the flap from cold to hot?

[Yjsaabman717]

That foam stuff is there for noise, but it really does a good job of trapping moisture and causing rust. I would probably just leave it out.

As for the heat, yes, it could be the blend door not moving the whole way. Does it ever get hot like it should? Or does it only get warm? Have you checked the heater hoses to make sure both are warm? Are you sure the system is full with no air pockets?

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[Tuzmaster]

So what do you recommend for the noise/heat insulation for that corner? just the tape stuff that you can get?

As for the heater, it gets hot eventually I think, but I never thought about that. Not sure on the air pockets, but the coolant does go somewhere. I know it leaks and engine is burning oil, but not enough to see smoke. I am not sure where the coolant leaks out of. That would cause air pockets in the system.

While on the subject of the flap, where is that motor located? Is it easy to get to?

In the meantime, Ill check the hoses to the heater core and see about may be trying to bleed the system. Pretty easy in WJ with that screw thing near upper radiator hose.

[Yjsaabman717]

I don't touch those bleeder screws anymore, I've had too many strip out the aluminum on the way out. If you've had it open recently and had no issues then go ahead and use it again. That whole bad idea of the dissimilar metals and galvanic corrosion.

I honestly don't recall where the motor is for the temp door. I haven't worked on a WJ in a while, we don't really see them at my work anymore.

If it's too noisy and bothers you, then try some adhesive panel type insulation. I'd do the repair, make sure you seam seal everything well, then see how it is. NVH aren't usually top concerns when talking about a lifted Jeep. (Well, unless you're Kraqa. Lol!)

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[Tuzmaster]

Alright, day one of install. The instructions are okay and seem to be out of date. I got an email with a pdf and a youtube video. A pdf is is for installing winch mount and video is for overland bumper. So in reality there are no Krawler specific installation instructions, but the guy is a quick text away, give him that. The first part is to take the plastic headlight housing apart. Those instructions are very helpful and point out all the bolts and the how to cut the center section and where to grind. Now after removing the plastic, here is what he looked like
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Now its the point of no return. start off with cutting the front part of cross-member. Important thing is to take your time as the radiator and stuff are right behind that member
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Then cut off the rest of it. For the crawler, you also have to cut the sheetmetal on the sides. 4" up and 8" horizontally. Here is the pic of the final parts cut out. I was going to cut as much of corners off, but decided not to. The easiest way to see where to cut on the sides I noticed this little hole that is "built into" the unibody
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Now to mock up the bumper. HK suggests 2 people for the job, but I found 3 is a lot easier. 2 to lift the bumper while you go under to check on everything. Here is the sneak peek
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Now of course is the issue. The way the bumper sits on the jeep right now is the right way and with the fenders, but the holes on the bottom of the bumper are too far back. If I align the holes at the bottom of the bumper with the frame rails, then the bumper sticks out a little. Its tolerable on the driver side but bad on passenger side. After talking with HK, he said to install front 2 bolts first, then back ones, then middle ones. I do not know how well this will work out but nothing seems to be out of alignment and he built the bumper on the WJ. so why it doesn't fully align is a a mystery to me.

[Tuzmaster]

Onto day 2 of the bumper install. After talking with the guy at HK he suggested to install all of the bolts at the bottom of the bumper. I did and that definitely tightened it up. It still isnt perfectly flush but I am going to blame that on different jeeps and possible bending of mine in spots. Driver's side looks better than passenger, but oh well. I can fanagle the fender if need be later. Here are some pictures of alighnment on the sides. Passenger side
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Driver side

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After that, the holes for the side bolts were drilled in. Then I had to figure out where to put the winch box. The original plan was to mount it on the hood latch supports provided, but it is so tight behind it and the box itself fits, but the wires get in the way and may damage AC unit. So I am going to mount it to the left of the winch. There is some braketry that comes with the winch that when modified can be used.
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The last piece of the puzzle is the gatekeeper. Its held together by 6 bolts. 2 on the front mounted to 2 winch holes and 4 on the sides that need drilling. That will take awhile. Initial mock up is here:
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Next time I do work, I'll fully mount the gatekeeper, mount the winchbox and horns, and put headlights on. After that I need to figure out how to flush mount some ridgid industries lights.

Then I will have to focus on school more, but in the meantime I want to do the following:
1) finish the rear shelf
2) front big brake kit
3) brake booster repair
4) upgraded steering gearbox (no ramassist yet)
5) install rear quaterpanel armor with a twist possibly

Do you guys know what it the thread size on the redtop optima battery screw in terminals? I want to attach the winch wires there

[Tuzmaster]

Final day of the bumper install. First off installed the gatekeeper. It mounts to the bumper with 6 bolts. 2 are the ones that mount the winch and 4 on the sides, which means I had to drill 4 holes in the brand new bumper. Drilled out to 3/8". Still need to get front bolts that are longer. Then mounted the relay box. Original thought was to mount it on the hood latch support, but 2 issues.
1) with how thick the wires are coming out of the box, it would not fit between the front plastic and the condenser
2) I would not have access to the remote plug and did not want to cut the plastic
So I mounted it to the bumper with provided winch brakets. They are made for 90 degrees, but its easy to bend them out to about 135
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Next I mounted the horns back up. This being a high clearance bumper, you gotta modify the bracket too. Just bend one that is closer to passenger side upwards and rotate the horn itself a little bit
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The remaining little bit was just putting headlights back up and connective the winch up. connected it to the side battery posts (since they are available) to not clutter up the main harness. Now hippo has a mean stance hehe
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Passenger side is still not aligning as well as I want it too, but if it bothers me too much, I'll bend it out. Next steps would be to wind up the winch with rope and come up with a bracket for fog lights. I want to reuse the wiring harnes for the stock lights and tap into that wiring. Will see how that goes. This way itll clear out any more switches on the dash.

Final verdict: Is the bumper worth the time waited? No. 10 months is way too long. Is it worth the money? Given the styling and hippo looks now, as well as quality of the product, yes. Only time will tell how well its protected on the rocks, but looking and feeling it, it will do great.

One major downside is that there isnt a good instruction manual for this bumper. You just have to piece together the puzzle yourself between the instruction pdf for winch mount install, youtube video and just figuring out on your own. But thats whats building a jeep is all about.

[Ken L]

Looks great! Nice work on piecing the puzzle together, and your instructions should make it easier for the next person!

[Yjsaabman717]

It does look killer in the end. The Gatekeeper adds so much to this. But, 10 months is an absurd wait time.

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[Tuzmaster]

10 months is sorta understandable. Given that his web site says 5 to 6 months. And even then that's a long wait. Doesnt help that shit happened in that time. Doesnt justify it though as a business however. But its definitely quality material from looks of it. That bumper makes rest of the jeep look lile crap XD haha. More visual stuff coming though.

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[Tuzmaster]

Btw, as for the heater, the pipes are very hot going to the core. So sounds like it's the flap that's having problems.



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