Jeeps and Diapers: July 2012

Courtney and I spent the weekend at my parent's lake house on Lake Keowee, in the golden corner of South Carolina. It was a great time with family and friends, lots of sun, skiing, beer (for me), and boating! We didn't take any pictures, but my dad and our friends did, so once we get copies, we'll put them up.

I also got a little work done on the Jeep with the time off I have had recently. First up was a project I have been wanting to do for a few years. It is a cold air intake for the 4.0L. For those unfamiliar, the colder and denser the air you can get into the engine, the more theoretical power it will make. It will also run cooler (theoretically). In the Cherokee's already cramped engine bay, cooling is at a premium, so every little bit helps. In the stock setup, the airbox draws air in right behind the driver headlight, which is also the same side as the intake and exhaust (more heat!).

Here is the stock airbox removed. Large and bulky.

I got the idea for a cold air intake online. I bought an Airaid conical air filter, a 24" section of 3" diameter exhaust tubing, a Spectre flex tube, and misc hose clamps. All total I spent less than $75. To buy one of the manufactured cold air intakes for a Cherokee, you are looking at spending $150 from Spectre, or $185 from THOR.

Here it is all assembled. From the throttle body there is the stock intake elbow, the 3" exhaust tube, the flex tube entering the cowl, and inside the cowl is the air filter. On the bottom right of the photo you can see the void left by the removal of the stock airbox. This is an excellent space for a second battery or air compressor. The other thing this picture demonstrates is how much higher the cowl intake is compared to stock. It has been raised by over a foot, which means a deeper river before you suck water into the engine.

here is a closeup of the filter inside the cowl. The holes were drilled with a 3 1/4" hole saw that I used for the lights in the rear bumper. There are two holes because I originally had it in the rightward hole, but the windshield wiper arms were hitting the filter, so I moved it over. This hole will eventually be plugged.

Now I have cold air intake, moved the intake point higher for deeper water fording, and have more room in the engine bay. Like a boss.

For Father's day, Court had bought me something I had been wanting for the jeep for a while. I was the bumper grill hoop kit from DPG Offroad. I wanted a little more protection for the radiator, headlights, header panel, and winch, as well as to add more options for light mounts. Also it looks mean.

It took a while to get the kit shipped, so in the mean time, I fixed a leaking seal on the transfer case while waiting for it. I had originally put a slip yoke eliminator (SYE) on my transfer case back in college, and it has leaked ever since for the past 6 years. The point of the SYE is to eliminate the slip yoke DUH! A slip yoke allows the drive shaft to slide back and forth on the output shaft from the Transfer case (the part that gives you 4x4). You can see the output shaft on the right side of the picture with the splines.

When you add a lift, and you flex out, you can actually pull the driveshaft off the output shaft. By removing this slip yoke, and adding a traditional driveshaft with a slip joint in it, you don't have to worry about this anymore. It also allows you to put in a longer driveshaft, which decreases the angles and helps to cure vibration in the rear driveline. Here is the SYE with new shaft. You also get to add a double cardan joint which helps with the vibes as well, seen bolted to the new shiny yoke on the right side.

Well this silly thing was leaking, so I had to take the driveshaft off, drain it, pull the rear tailhousing, and take the case apart and put new RTV on both surfaces and refill. Leak fixed. Here is the inside of the transfer case.

A couple days after finishing all that, the hoop kit finally arrived. I took it to my buddy Joe Meadors house here in Anderson to weld it on. I met Joe when we were both in school at Clemson, and lucky for me (since I can't weld) he was still in the area when we moved here after med school. We used a tubing angle finder to cut and notch the correct angles in the tubes, and then Joe burned them in for me. The end result looks great, and I think it looks sinister! Here it is all freshly painted.