Discussion
Jeep went for an MoT on Fri and went straight thru, which was nice considering the week prior someone had driven in to it.
Anyhow, been doing a few mods and upgrades since buying it and nearly there with now on how I want it.
This is how it started off last Nov when I bought it as a winter 4x4:
Which suddenly was very useful in last winters snow just before Christmas:
Once spring arrived me and my brother decided to enter it into a Gymkhana, which is a bit like a mini rally on private ground for road legal cars. We were the only 4x4 entered and didn't do too badly, clocking times in the middle of the field. Even beat an MX-5 or two!
As the weather warmed I did some performance testing and clocked a fairly respectable 8.52 sec 0-60mph and a 1/4 mile of just over 16 sec. Figures some warm hatches would be proud of. It did require quite a brutal launching method, but it certainly seemed affective.
Next up game the first mod. I had some bits lying about the place, so I yanked out the stock airbox and panel filter and fabbed up a straight thru cone setup (the breather is all fabbed in now using silicon hoses too).
This certainly liberated a more vocal noise from the engine and has made feel a tad more free revving.
Then came a bit of a polish up and a tidy up of the rims:
After this and my first venture off roading properly with it. Where it failed spectacularly!!!
Had to be pulled out by my Mum's Freelander 3 times. It was really the results of tiny stock tyres (only 225/70R15's) and not a lot of ground clearance. Meant it kept grounding out and sitting on it's belly with not enough grip from it's road biased Dunolop AT2's to make any difference at all.
Once home it was also evident that the silencer was pretty shot, rusted and falling apart.
So next mod game in the form of a home fabbed sports exhaust
(Take a look at the vids at the end of the OP if you want to here it).
After the exhaust came the lift. A lucky eBay find made be the proud owner of a brand new Fat Bob's 2" Budget Boost lift for a lot less money than retail.
Essentially it's just from extended spring shackles and some 2" spacers for the front.
The rear shackles went on easy enough. Although while fitting the fronts resulted in two broken anti roll bar links. Another eBay search found some brand new links for £30 all in. A few days later all fitted and the end result was a truck sitting at a more sensible height for a 4x4:
Next up was a visit to my Uncles to see if I could pilfer some tyres for a bit. As luck would have it, he had a set of Armstrong Mud Terrain remoulds in 31.10.50R15's that he didn't want. So a visit to a tyre shop to get them swapped onto the Jeep rims and hey presto!
Something looking far more Jeep like
More recently and for a bit of fun, I had a "Knight Rider" light lying about that I bought about 5 or 6 years ago on a whim
Long story short, it's on the Jeep now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMSi5jphi14
Have also been and tested if off road again. Much much better than before, rather than failing on the first hump, it triumphed on all of the same terrain with relative ease. Although it did highlight how easily such a vehicle can still get cross axled and how much use some diff lockers would be. But it easily matched any stock'ish Land Rover I've driven off road.
Couple of vids, which also show off the exhaust a bit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRsZX2VQGf0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVtFZYJiGzg
And finally some pics of it off road:
Anyhow, been doing a few mods and upgrades since buying it and nearly there with now on how I want it.
This is how it started off last Nov when I bought it as a winter 4x4:
Which suddenly was very useful in last winters snow just before Christmas:
Once spring arrived me and my brother decided to enter it into a Gymkhana, which is a bit like a mini rally on private ground for road legal cars. We were the only 4x4 entered and didn't do too badly, clocking times in the middle of the field. Even beat an MX-5 or two!
As the weather warmed I did some performance testing and clocked a fairly respectable 8.52 sec 0-60mph and a 1/4 mile of just over 16 sec. Figures some warm hatches would be proud of. It did require quite a brutal launching method, but it certainly seemed affective.
Next up game the first mod. I had some bits lying about the place, so I yanked out the stock airbox and panel filter and fabbed up a straight thru cone setup (the breather is all fabbed in now using silicon hoses too).
This certainly liberated a more vocal noise from the engine and has made feel a tad more free revving.
Then came a bit of a polish up and a tidy up of the rims:
After this and my first venture off roading properly with it. Where it failed spectacularly!!!
Had to be pulled out by my Mum's Freelander 3 times. It was really the results of tiny stock tyres (only 225/70R15's) and not a lot of ground clearance. Meant it kept grounding out and sitting on it's belly with not enough grip from it's road biased Dunolop AT2's to make any difference at all.Once home it was also evident that the silencer was pretty shot, rusted and falling apart.
So next mod game in the form of a home fabbed sports exhaust
(Take a look at the vids at the end of the OP if you want to here it).After the exhaust came the lift. A lucky eBay find made be the proud owner of a brand new Fat Bob's 2" Budget Boost lift for a lot less money than retail.
Essentially it's just from extended spring shackles and some 2" spacers for the front.
The rear shackles went on easy enough. Although while fitting the fronts resulted in two broken anti roll bar links. Another eBay search found some brand new links for £30 all in. A few days later all fitted and the end result was a truck sitting at a more sensible height for a 4x4:
Next up was a visit to my Uncles to see if I could pilfer some tyres for a bit. As luck would have it, he had a set of Armstrong Mud Terrain remoulds in 31.10.50R15's that he didn't want. So a visit to a tyre shop to get them swapped onto the Jeep rims and hey presto!
Something looking far more Jeep like
More recently and for a bit of fun, I had a "Knight Rider" light lying about that I bought about 5 or 6 years ago on a whim
Long story short, it's on the Jeep now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMSi5jphi14
Have also been and tested if off road again. Much much better than before, rather than failing on the first hump, it triumphed on all of the same terrain with relative ease. Although it did highlight how easily such a vehicle can still get cross axled and how much use some diff lockers would be. But it easily matched any stock'ish Land Rover I've driven off road.
Couple of vids, which also show off the exhaust a bit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRsZX2VQGf0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVtFZYJiGzg
And finally some pics of it off road:
Not that you were asking me, but my '97 4.0l does about 24mpg on a run, and about 18ish around town. Which is a bit better than my old BMW. After careful consideration I decided not to get one with an LPG conversion - I want to have decent boot space and rag it off-road, neither of which are suitable for an LPG conversion.
downthepub said:
Flex on the back looks pretty good: the Zappe book recommends removing the rear anti-roll bar for more flex, did you do that? I've got a full 3" IRO lift that I'll be fitting to my XJ in the next couple of weeks, hence the question 
Yes I think it is popular to remove the rear anti roll bar and fit disconnects to the front one.I haven't as I won't be doing anything too hard core off road in it, and having now driven it off road it seems capable enough for what I want it for.
That said, I can certainly see the benefit of removing the rear ARB.
_Batty_ said:
Whats your mpg fella?
im managing about 14 with lpg and short town runs, in my ZJ Grand.
Honestly not too sure, I've only worked it out once and that was on fast'ish A roads and dual carriage way cruising at about 65mph, but not paying any attention to economical driving. It was returning 23mpg.im managing about 14 with lpg and short town runs, in my ZJ Grand.
Suspect you could get it up to 25mpg if you drove careful.
However I use it mostly for short journeys and do like to make use of the loud pedal, so I say more like 14mpg mostly.
Not sure how the 31.10.50's will affect it though.
I have the same year, 4ltr High output, limited version as yourself with AT2 Grabbers on it and I love it. I use it as my daily driver rather than the Jaggggg. Really funny when you put the foot down at the lights. If I can stop it spinning the wheels when in 2 wheel.
Exciting on wet roads as it slides all over the place with almost sideways action on roundabouts without trying.
I've a sticky front caliper at the moment which I need to fix and have replaced the back box. Done all the oils including diffs and a wee service. Cost me £600 when I got it and looks great. Smoked its MOT and looking forward to the snow for more fun. It has 127,000 on the clock and doesn't use a drop of oil or water. These are outstanding motors for the money.........Did I mention I love it
Will post pics later
Exciting on wet roads as it slides all over the place with almost sideways action on roundabouts without trying.
I've a sticky front caliper at the moment which I need to fix and have replaced the back box. Done all the oils including diffs and a wee service. Cost me £600 when I got it and looks great. Smoked its MOT and looking forward to the snow for more fun. It has 127,000 on the clock and doesn't use a drop of oil or water. These are outstanding motors for the money.........Did I mention I love it
Will post pics later
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