My New 2005 LJ Rubicon

C

Captain Phoenix

TJ Enthusiast
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2020
Messages
363
Location
Wilmington, NC
I acquired this bad boy on March 5th:

IMG_20200315_182157.jpg


It already has 33x11 inch KO2s on stock suspension and I plan on going to 35" Milestar Patagonia when they wear out. It also needs a new catalytic converter before next march (my choice is at the bottom).

Here's my intended build list relatively in the order I plan on doing it (I'm open to suggestions if anyone thinks I'm in error anywhere):

1.25" Savvy body lift
1" brown dog motor mount lift (rubber)
5.38 differential gearing
Onboard air (ARB dual compressor)
https://www.extremeterrain.com/rockslide-engineering-rear-dana-44-differential-guard-skid-plate-8718-yj-tj.html
Transmission temperature gauge:
https://www.autometer.com/2-1-16-transmission-temperature-like-2552.html
Savvy belly armor
LCA (lower control arm) skids
Savvy 3/4 link mid arm suspension kit
Poison Spyder 0" (or negative) flares and eventually armor all the way around.
Rock hard 4x4 front and rear bumpers
Rusty's off-road tire carrier
Currie steering
Rubicrawler
Hydraulic steering assist

Either a Windstar cowl intake, a stroker, or a Banks Turbo (I heard Banks discontinued them which makes me hesitant to install one but that was my preferred option)

Exhaust: (which header would be best?)

https://www.quadratec.com/products/17601_152X_PG.htm

https://www.quadratec.com/p/hooker-...eart-shorty-header-00-06-jeep-wrangler-tj-40l

https://www.quadratec.com/products/17605_0007_07.htm

https://www.quadratec.com/products/17601_600X_07_PG.htm
 
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Other than buying a sun shade bikini top I haven't done much with it since I bought it. I have a Savvy body lift and new body mount pucks waiting to be installed but I'm probably going to remove the Poison Spyder rocker guard before installing them and my 7yo uses that as a step to climb into the Jeep so I was waiting on doing that.
 
Saturday I (finally) installed a Pacesetter catalytic converter and 4 new O2 sensors along with a Speedohealer, which was much easier to install with the skid plate dropped. After allowing the engine to breathe better I reset the PCM to clear the adaptive driving memory as well as the CEL.

Also, I received a Crown OPDA yesterday I'm planning to install soon unless it looks like it's already a Crown part.
 
Captain Phoenix said:
The previous owner told me he had had "the CEL come on for the cats but it goes away".

Uh huh...
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and that's why I have adopted the standard operating procedure of assuming everything a seller tells me is a straight up lie to my face until I can prove them right.

I've been shopping for a snow blower and can't count the times I've had people tell me bullshit like "it came with the house I bought 2 years ago, I've never tried to start it" which means "it doesn't start and I can't figure it out" or "I know what's wrong and it's not worth fixing". Or "it runs good, just needs the carburetor cleaned" which means pretty much the same thing.
 
freedom_in_4low said:
and that's why I have adopted the standard operating procedure of assuming everything a seller tells me is a straight up lie to my face until I can prove them right.
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He admitted that the heater core was bad and the rear main seal had a slow leak and in fact they are both fine, though it looks like the valve cover has a slow leak which is then dripping from the rear main seal. I think in the grand scheme of things I came out in the positive.
 
Captain Phoenix said:
He admitted that the heater core was bad and the rear main seal had a slow leak and in fact they are both fine, though it looks like the valve cover has a slow leak which is then dripping from the rear main seal. I think in the grand scheme of things I came out in the positive.
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yeah, I think you did overall. Chances are he only hollowed them out because they were bad anyway, so you'd be replacing them either way.

I'm just pissy because my most recent vehicle purchase turned out to be riddled with points of outright and purposeful dishonesty that I'm still discovering a year later.
 
Captain Phoenix said:
Now that they're so much more expensive I'm probably going to go with BFG KM3s like I had been previously planning before I ever heard of the Patagonias.
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That's a a much better choice. The Patagonias are absolutely terrible tires if you're planning on seriously wheeling it. That's the general consensus at least. @jjvw doesn't often get too flustered, but he seems to really, really hate those tires, so I would trust his opinion on them since he wheels it pretty hard.
 
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Chris said:
That's a a much better choice. The Patagonias are absolutely terrible tires if you're planning on seriously wheeling it. That's the general consensus at least. @jjvw doesn't often get too flustered, but he seems to really, really hate those tires, so I would trust his opinion on them since he wheels it pretty hard.
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Buy two and throw them into the nearest dumpster.
 
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Wish I had known other Jeep fans when I was in ILM. Also good to see I’m not the only one with a page of plans and one row progress!
 
sourbluff said:
Also good to see I’m not the only one with a page of plans and one row progress!
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Yeah, I bought the Jeep for immediate beach driving and upgrades in a year or two. At this point, everything else has to wait until I regear because the results of that can seriously effect future plans. I think I'll be regearing in December or January when I get home from sea next.
 
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