What did you do to your TJ today?

Someone did something today in the Phoenix area.
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Found my exhaust manifold is leaking due to a broken stud on the back of the motor. Turns out there is a service bulletin for this being a pretty common issue. Found a hell of a deal for a new cast manifold for $40 online so hopefully it will be what I’m looking for but I’m still not looking forward to getting the old one off especially knowing there’s a broken bolt from the start lol
 
Replaced the dreaded oil pump drive assembly (OPDA) on my ‘06 TJ. It finally started making that awful noise so I knew it was time.
I also changed the serpentine belt. ‘Not quite 40,000 miles, but the Jeep is 16 years old &, for all I know, it could be the original belt.
 

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Sure is dirty..... um ..... uh..... I mean purty!!!!!! :ROFLMAO:
Went straight into the garage after a wheeling trip. I had lost a control arm bolt. Thought it was a good time to do some maintenance. Well, and to spend big, big bucks on tyres. Been in there a couple weeks. I would go broke if I was a mechanic.
 
Also tested my oil pressure fixes...fail... probably worse...drove about 5 miles to warm up the engine (yesterday I did rear main, oil pump, pickup and pan seal) and as soon as I went to idle it dropped to zero and check gauges chimed. Then it wouldn't pick back up to 40...hard bumps and whipping the Jeep left around hairpin turns would get it back. Pulled the sensor...oil inside the new wire plug...ordered a dial gauge and one recommended on Amazon from previous posts. No lifter noise. Engine is healthy-ish. If the dial gauge shows zero I'm dropping the pan and replacing the crank bearings.

-Mac
Like you, it seems, my ‘97 150K 4.0 motor ran and sounded fine, but I had the hot idle low oil pressure issue. 2 new oil pressure sensors didn’t fix it. 20W50 oil helped but not totally. Because thicker oil helped and after some reading and talking to experienced mechanics, I came to believe it was most likely crank or cam bearings. I considered trying a new oil pump and crank bearings but ended up swapping in a new stroker. With the same sensor and gauge, the new motor shows near 60 psi when driving and 40 psi at hot idle (the original was 30-40 and 0-15 respectively). Not the most cost effective solution, and it may have been that the old motor would’ve done well for a long while, but I wanted to do a motor swap and a little more power is nice. Still, I‘m interested to see if new crank bearings does it for you. Good luck!