Canadian Survivor 2006 Sport

MaritimeTJ

Member
Joined
May 21, 2019
Messages
33
Location
Charlottetown, PE, Canada
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Hello from Prince Edward Island, Canada. I figured I would start a thread on the Wrangler forum to keep track of the progress on my TJ over the years, and to dump photos of its recent facelift. :D

I bought this 2006 TJ sport in July of 2016 from a local Kia dealer. The Jeep had 93,000kms on it (57,000miles) and had never been driven off road. Its PSB silver, with dual tops, Dana 44 rear axle w/ 3.73 gearing. NSG 370 6 speed and, at the time it had the option 30" tire package.

If any of you are familiar with the kind of weather we have here in Atlantic Canada in the winter, most vehicles are pretty well rust buckets after 10 years unless they have been undercoated heavily and or well looked after. Fortunately this TJ was not rotten, the frame was rust check undercoated since 2008 yearly and other then a rotten windshield frame giving it a rejected sticker, it was basically mint. All the plastic moldings and such were faded and the Jeep was coated in undercoating from top to bottom. Some cleaning, plastic paint, etc and I had it looking much better after a few days of ownership.

Originally this Jeep was bought with the intent of being a winter daily driver and that is what I did with it for the first 2 years. Threw on 31x10.5 Duratrac's and some Pro comp polished alloys and drove it about 35,000kms over the couple years. Below is how it looked when I took it home from the dealer, and then once it was cleaned up for the next couple years.

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Fast forward to this past fall 2018 and I decided to retire the TJ from daily use and just make it a fun summer cruiser. With this, came a pretty significant face lift. Starting with a full respray in September. This respray happened due to multiple touch ups ending in bad color matches, bubbling front fenders, etc. I stripped it down and had a local friend respray it. It turned out great. Any rust was blasted, new front fenders were installed.

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At this point winter was upon us and it went into my friends shop for me to spend the winter giving it the second half of its facelift. The jeep was placed on jack stands and I gutted the entire suspension system and all of the axles from it, as well as the front clip. The frame was pressure washed and scrubbed to remove the years of Canadian salt, road grime, and undercoating. Interestingly enough once I started cleaning off the undercoating I found the brake lines, fuel lines, fittings etc to be all like new condition. I painted the frame from front to back with POR15 following all the proper steps, then top coated it with VHT semi gloss chassis paint.

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Next part of the process was the SYE and lift. Everything is Rough Country (I know). I started with a 3.25" kit, but should have just bought a 4" X series kit. I ended up with some 1.25" spacers to make it a 3.75" suspension lift, front and rear adjustable track bars, all eight adjustable control arms, SYE kit and rear CV shaft.

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Also did the rear main seal, a new oil pan and gasket, Flowmaster super 44 rear muffler, and some other small mods during this process. Axles were all refreshed and painted as well as new 33x12.5 BFG KM3's.

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At this point it was off to the alignment shop and ready for the road!

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Headlights are just stock 2014 JK, fogs are KC HiLites. Very sorry for the mass amount of photos, thank you for viewing. :cool:
 
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Sweet ride man! I wish I had the money and time to throw into my TJ. Gonna deal with the rusty bits one day. I know how Canadian winters treat our Jeeps.
 
Wow. It turned out great.

You had me a bit worried when you kept saying face lift. I was glad to find at the end it didn't get angrier.
 
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Very nice. I'm just across the straight from ya, I know quite well what salt can do :) so you lucked out finding a good one.
 
I have put about 5000kms on the Jeep since the facelift this past winter. It has been working absolutely awesome living its life as a pavement queen :LOL: Here are few more photos from over the summer.

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I also picked up a clean 120,000km GM 5.3L Vortec LM7 engine. Now, I am unsure of what direction this will go in. It may end up in the Jeep, it may not. Time will tell. The 4.0L is super healthy and a fun motor, I would just like some more up hill power on the highways. I know I could re-gear further, but 190hp seems to only push so much at highway speed into the wind.

If the swap was to be done it will be done using mostly Novak conversion parts and I will be keeping the NSG 6 speed. Swap will be as oem as can be.

5.3 will be dressed up with fresh paint, LS1 intake manifold, and a hybrid of vortec/LS accessories. Mild tuning for now.
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That's going to be one find TJ when you're done with it.

I always felt the 5.3 was a good swap for the TJ. When I was planning to do a V8 swap to mine, the 5.3 was my choice as well.
 
After some thinking I have decided to sell the 5.3 and just keep the 4.0. I don't have the heart to tear into this Jeep and custom swap it that much. The low mileage I6 will be sufficient for this one. Maybe a Banks header and some other goodies will be installed on it this winter. I really do like the sound and feel of the old 4.0

Scored a new in box OEM Mopar window kit locally that an older dude had stashed away. My original sun-rider style soft top is still in really good shape so these were a nice touch.

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Also had it into the local dealership for a clutch interlock switch recall that was never actually done. First time this Jeep has been in a dealer bay in probably 10 years. :LOL:

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Probably not such a bad idea keeping the 4.0. You literally must have the cleanest TJ in all of Canada!

Unless you're doing long highway trips through big mountain passes, the 4.0 will be fine.

Put some long tube ARH headers on it (not the garbage Banks ones) with a tune and you'll pickup a good 30 rwhp, possibly more.
 
My thoughts are the same, for the amount of highway it sees the 4.0l is fine. It's only on 33s as well, weighed in the other day at around 3600lbs. Not much to it haha.

Just looked up those long tube headers. I have really only seen the style that bolts onto the factory downpipe. These are a game changer.
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My thoughts are the same, for the amount of highway it sees the 4.0l is fine. It's only on 33s as well, weighed in the other day at around 3600lbs. Not much to it haha.

Just looked up those long tube headers. I have really only seen the style that bolts onto the factory downpipe. These are a game changer.
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Yep, those are them. Made in the U.S. by American Racing Headers. They build phenomenal exhausts (had them on past muscle cars I've owned) and they ONLY use 100% made in the U.S.A. steel (304 stainless steel).

Those headers are a game changer not he 4.0 indeed. One guy on the forum installed them and said that it totally transformed his TJ in terms of power. If you do some reading on the 4.0 you'll come to find that the bottleneck is the cylinder head / exhaust manifold. If you can open up the cylinder head (porting), add a mild cam, put on a set of long tube headers like that, and give it a tune (via HPTuners), you can probably unlock an additional 50-70hp at the wheels, no kidding,

Those headers aren't cheap, but I can guarantee you they will give you a huge increase in wheel horsepower due to the very, very restrictive nature of the stock exhaust manifold on the 4.0.

This is a conversation I've had with many 4.0 engine tuners including Golen and Charles at Magnum Powers. Both of them have drilled it into my head that in order to let the 4.0 breathe, you need a set of long tube headers. To my knowledge, ARH and aFe are the only two who make true long tube headers for the 4.0. The ARH ones are far superior due to the rotational firing sequence and the collector pipes.
 
Time for a coil spring debate.

Thinking for next season I'm going to upgrade the springs and shocks from the RC stuff, just to increase the ride quality. Keep in mind this already has adjustable track bars, all adjustable control arms, SYE, etc.

Comparing Currie 4" dual rate springs, and Rock Krawler 3.5" springs. Either springs will probably be paired with Bilstein 5100 shocks. Looking for recommendations / people with experience on these spring options.

Also, this Jeep only weighs in around 3600lbs as it has stock bumpers, no winch, no spare, etc. What should I expect for real world ride height? It has 2.5" RC springs with 1.25" spacers under it now.

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Time for a coil spring debate.

Thinking for next season I'm going to upgrade the springs and shocks from the RC stuff, just to increase the ride quality. Keep in mind this already has adjustable track bars, all adjustable control arms, SYE, etc.

Comparing Currie 4" dual rate springs, and Rock Krawler 3.5" springs. Either springs will probably be paired with Bilstein 5100 shocks. Looking for recommendations / people with experience on these spring options.

Also, this Jeep only weighs in around 3600lbs as it has stock bumpers, no winch, no spare, etc. What should I expect for real world ride height? It has 2.5" RC springs with 1.25" spacers under it now.

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Calling @jjvw he has the skills to narrow this down for you.
I would suggest Ranchos, their RS5000X’s are great for our Jeep TJ’s. Once you get the springs and measure your bumps you can get the right Ranchos.