What did you do to your TJ today?

Took me a few days working in the desert heat, but I finally did the semi-custom Banks intercooler experiment.

I removed my radiator/fan/shroud to convert the Setrab transmission cooler to be my heat exchanger for the Banks intercooler. The experiment hinged on this working out because I don’t have room for the larger Banks heat exchanger in my grill with the PSC cooler.

I flushed the transmission oil out of the Setrab unit with a gallon of purple HD simple green and water 1:3 and 1:5 using a lawn sprayer pump. It was a silly chore but it needed to be done.

Changing the cooler fittings proved to be problematic bc there is little room between the cooler port on the driver side and the headlight when converting to -12AN with 3/4” barb fittings. After thinking things through (contemplating) quite a bit, I got around the issue by creating a loop, and thankfully this worked. The passenger side was much easier to dial in.

Loop

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The intercooler was covered in high-tack fiber wrap that took a while to remove. The adhesive was pretty evil. I painted over the powder coat to clean things up.

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The Derale transmission cooler was pretty easy to install. I used my ties and a 180* -6AN to barb fitting instead of using the stuff in the kit.

The best part is that the intercooler works far better than expected so far. Previously, my intake temps were around 168* in idle and 190* to 240* under boost. Tonight the outside temp was 95* and my intake temps were 116* in idle and never got above 135* when under boost.

Sadly, the AEM water/meth injection nozzle won’t fit into the port bc the plumbing is too close to the fire-wall. I’ll probably purchase some nozzles from snow performance since they work with Bank’s nozzle-holder.

Known Issues: I have a noise that’s repeatable at slightly higher RPMs. I hope it’s just a pulley bearing. The Derale fan stopped working, so I’ll look into that stuff tomorrow.

Photos from when things were mostly buttoned up.

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This empty space is where my tj usually sits but this morning I dropped it off at Billy Johnson Differentials for a set of Revolution 5.13's. Another round of gear break in.

But there’s no oil stains. I’m not convinced there was ever a Jeep there lol
 
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First thing I did when I bought my tj was seal up all leaks. One drip and it gets cleaned up. It helps having sealer on the concrete.

My current list of leaks are this:

1. Valve cover gasket
2. Rear main seal
3. Transmission fluid pan

I plan on doing 3 this weekend. I could do 1 in the next few weeks. I have no idea when I'll get around to the RMS.
 
Just had a couple hours yesterday to get it pulled outside for the first time in months. Washed the grinding/welding dust off and installed the gas tank and rear bumper. After work today I hope to get the new windshield glass installed and start putting the interior back together

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Got the torque wrench out and the ball joint between the pitman and the drag link wasn't correct, so I got that up to 60 ft/lbs and no death wobble on my way to work. Dropped it off at the alignment shop around the corner that does a lot of 4x's and modded vehicles anyway just to have peace of mind for a road trip this weekend.
 
My current list of leaks are this:

1. Valve cover gasket
2. Rear main seal
3. Transmission fluid pan

I plan on doing 3 this weekend. I could do 1 in the next few weeks. I have no idea when I'll get around to the RMS.

RMS took me a day including cleaning the sludge from the pan.
 
RMS took me a day including cleaning the sludge from the pan.

I bought this TJ as a project. I never really worked on cars before much. I wanted to learn. So far, the major things I've done is replace the water pump, replace the radiator, and replace the radio. I am working my way up. It feels that the RMS is a bit more difficult so I'll get to it eventually after I've increased my skills/confidence from working on other stuff.
 
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I bought this TJ as a project. I never really worked on cars before much. I wanted to learn. So far, the major things I've done is replace the water pump, replace the radiator, and replace the radio. I am working my way up. It feels that the RMS is a bit more difficult so I'll get to it eventually after I've increased my skills/confidence from working on other stuff.

Google and YouTube are your best friend… I bought my first car in 1979, a 1969 Chevelle SS, I learned to wrench on that car, back then all we had to learn from was another person and Chilton..