Wildman's TJ is getting a face lift

I'm going to be smart and wait. That way I can get everything wrapped for the heat. And it'll give me time to make sure everything is "right"... OK as close to being ready as I can.
Don't want to cause issues now that I'd have to fix.

Probably the right choice really. Just not the fun one
 
No it's not but as you said probably the smarter choice.

The reality is that your mill is not toooooo far from stock, so a stock tune would not hurt it. The Eagle heads flow a bit more, and the cam as well, but it likely would not be enough to lean out it far enough to hurt the engine. And if it does lean it out too far, your AFR gauge will tell you right away. Don't run it if you are much more than 14.7:1.

I'd test drive it.
 
The reality is that your mill is not toooooo far from stock, so a stock tune would not hurt it. The Eagle heads flow a bit more, and the cam as well, but it likely would not be enough to lean out it far enough to hurt the engine. And if it does lean it out too far, your AFR gauge will tell you right away. Don't run it if you are much more than 14.7:1.

I'd test drive it.

I've got Ryan's base tune on there now for whatever it is. I'm not so much worried about damaging the engine as I am doing something like Hugh just said. I don't have any heat wrap on anything that might be affected by the heat. So as much as I WANT to take it for that first test drive I'm going to error on the side of caution ⚠️ and wait.

I'm jumping on the wait until later wagon. It would suck if something got melted because you didn't have all the heat protection in place.

I'm in agreement with you this time. As much as it'd be great to see what this thing can do I'm waiting.
 
Sorry, can't hear your logic or reasoning over the sound of vroom vroom

Let me translate....

Driving it now
Big Money GIF by Grant Cardone


Driving it after the ceramic coating and all the heat protection is in place,
Money Buy GIF by Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia
 
I got the remote reservoir bracket replaced. While I had it apart I made some custom bends to the bracket that mounts to the master brake cylinder. I'd found out the other day that I couldn't check the brake fluid level due to the covers clamp wires (can't remember the correct name) hitting the bracket.

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So I made it work for my setup.

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Just a bend here and there.

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Now I can release the wire clamp and get the master cylinder cover off.

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Made sure not to overtighten the screws for the reservoir bracket this time
 
I've got Ryan's base tune on there now for whatever it is. I'm not so much worried about damaging the engine as I am doing something like Hugh just said. I don't have any heat wrap on anything that might be affected by the heat. So as much as I WANT to take it for that first test drive I'm going to error on the side of caution ⚠️ and wait.



I'm in agreement with you this time. As much as it'd be great to see what this thing can do I'm waiting.

Sissy.

Edit: Wait, did I think that or type it…🙂

😉

My input was strictly about the tune. Definitely get the other stuff in line first.
 
Sissy.

Edit: Wait, did I think that or type it…🙂

😉

OK I'll take it... I'm a sissy.

My input was strictly about the tune. Definitely get the other stuff in line first.

With my track record of shit going wrong I just see something melting or burning up if I don't get things wrapped first. I've got a laundry list of things I need to do while I'm waiting on the exhaust. Don't need to add to it.
 
So I have to ask the dumb question, are you doing this as opposed to sending the ECM off to someone like Chris at Hotwire? Or is this so you can make changes on the way the engine runs.?? I'm total old school and no nothing about the computer controlled modern systems.
All I did on mine was to send the truck ECM and my Jeep VIN to Chris, then just plugged it in and drive it. Is there more that I should do, am I missing out on something?

Daubie another route to take is to pick up a used unmarried Diablo tuner. Holley owns them now I think. It will have canned tunes in it among other things. Sometime you can find them for as little as $100. Do a little research to find out more. If you want to go further you can get an email tune. Prices vary but you're in the $500 ballpark for a used tuner and email tune. I did it on my Charger and am very pleased and will probably do it to the TJ when the Hemi swap is done. HP tuners seems to be the thing most of the serious performance folks use.
 
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Daubie another route to take is to pick up a used unmarried Diablo tuner. Holley owns them now I think. It will have canned tunes in it among other things. Sometime you can find them for as little as $100. Do a little research to find out more. If you want to go further you can get an email tune. Prices vary but you're in the $500 ballpark for a used tuner and email tune. I did it on my Charger and am very pleased and will probably do it to the TJ when the Hemi swap is done. HP tuners seems to be the thing most of the serious performance folks use.

I'm only familiar with HPT & SCT tuners when it comes to Dodge/Ram/Jeep. I've used other tuners on my diesel trucks but that is a whole other bag of worms.

I don't know much about the Diablo tuner other than what I've read online. I didn't realize that they came with canned tunes already installed in them.

The easiest way to understand tuners & tuning itself is to think about jetting your carburetor. You'd make some changes and then go drive it for a few WOT passes and then varied throttle around town type stuff. Then come back and pull your plugs and read them. Then based on how they looked you'd either richen or lean it out by changing the jets. Now I know there is really more to this than just that but my point is that now to do this you either use a software program and do it yourself or pay someone who understands it more than you to write a tune for your vehicle.
Or you can buy some tuners that have canned tunes already installed on them for your vehicle.

Back in the early days of computers in cars you used to have to take your PCM apart and change out the PROM chip. You would either program a new PROM chip or pay someone to do it. Then take your PCM apart and unsolder the chip and install the new chip and solder it back in. It's amazing how far we've come in such a short time.
 
One of the neat things you can do is set the accelerator pedal sensitivity. They can also do some code reading. I am 67 and this is all new to me but once you dive in and start reading it really is not bad. I am about a year in to this tuning stuff and love it.
 
One of the neat things you can do is set the accelerator pedal sensitivity. They can also do some code reading. I am 67 and this is all new to me but once you dive in and start reading it really is not bad. I am about a year in to this tuning stuff and love it.

The whole accelerator sensitivity thing is new to me. My TJ will only be the second vehicle I've owned that had a DBW. My last two Harleys were DBW but that's a whole other animal.

I've tried to read some and learn but I'm too scared of ruining my engine to want to try doing any tuning on my own.
 
If you look back in Jeff's (@NashvilleTJ ) build thread over on JeepForum he was having drivability issues and couldn't use his hand throttle for his welder before Ryan tuned his PCM for him. So given the "RIGHT" person tuning your engine you can cure a lot of issues plus improve it's performance. But like they say, Time is Money so unless you know which fields to make changes in you've got to pay someone who does to tune your engine.
Ryan has been doing MoPar vehicles now for 15 years or so. Back when they'd finally unlocked the JTEC PCM in our Jeeps he was one of the first people I know of who offered tuning for them.
That is one of the KEY factors when looking at who you want to employ to write you a tune. GM ECM's were easy to crack and there are a lot of good people who know them. But in the MoPar world it took a long time before they were able to crack our PCM's & they aren't as simple as GM. So getting someone who specializes in MoPar only IMO is key. And this is why you'll here Ryan @ FRP's name mentioned a lot.
 
I too a break yesterday and just chilled. Well not really chilled since it was close to 100* here and for once humid.

Todays main goal was to get the exhaust removed and ready to take over to get ceramic coated tomorrow. I've also got to drop off that socket I was testing for the UofWA since I broke it AGAIN... Lucky for me the student from the lag said that from their diagnostic tests they could do remotely showed that the ONE sensor they hadn't replaced after the socket had broken the last time is now not responding. So I'm meeting them as I'm heading to drop off the headers & exhaust.

And I dodged the bullet on this one... I'd stuck the O2 sensors into the exhaust without putting any Antisieze on them. Well this one downstream hung up on me as I was trying to remove them.

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This tap & die set has more than paid for itself since I started this project and it saved the day again today. I was able to chase the threads on that O2 bung and save it.

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I too a break yesterday and just chilled. Well not really chilled since it was close to 100* here and for once humid.

Todays main goal was to get the exhaust removed and ready to take over to get ceramic coated tomorrow. I've also got to drop off that socket I was testing for the UofWA since I broke it AGAIN... Lucky for me the student from the lag said that from their diagnostic tests they could do remotely showed that the ONE sensor they hadn't replaced after the socket had broken the last time is now not responding. So I'm meeting them as I'm heading to drop off the headers & exhaust.

And I dodged the bullet on this one... I'd stuck the O2 sensors into the exhaust without putting any Antisieze on them. Well this one downstream hung up on me as I was trying to remove them.

View attachment 556719

View attachment 556720

This tap & die set has more than paid for itself since I started this project and it saved the day again today. I was able to chase the threads on that O2 bung and save it.

View attachment 556721

I have such a hodge-podge of half-together sets of tap & dies. They get me through more often than not but that set you have has me thinking to re-look getting a single set (I've looked in the past and talked myself out of a purchase).

I do make use of my re-thread kit all the time. It's great because it is less aggressive chasing dirty or slightly rusty threads vs a tap or die. I got the Craftsman kit for essentially free using Sears 'bucks' back when Sears existed and had a rewards program.
 
I didn't make it over to drop off my parts today. Every now and then I have one those nights where my back acts up and I can't sleep due to the pain and last night was one of those nights where I didn't sleep. So I made the choice not to risk trying to drive when I was exhausted. So I'll take them over tomorrow.