Project Nurple

Wow, got bumped down to page two! Guess I'm slacking. Not a whole lot has been accomplished since the last post. I did have an oil pan skid plate sent to me by Taboo Customs to try out on the ZJ. I had to remove the exhaust head pipes and starter to install it.

It fit great, until it didn't :rolleyes:
Starter made contact so I had to take it back off. Otherwise, it fit great!

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In the company's defense, it's simply listed as fitting "Dodge 5.2 Magnum" but isn't listed under the ZJ parts list. Oh well, he's working on a revision so maybe we'll get to try another one out later on. He's also working on a transmission pan skid to fit the 46RH. I don't foresee any issues with fitment there since nothing is too awfully close to it.

While I had it this far apart, I decided to go ahead and fix two of the many oil leaks this thing has. Oil pan gasket and rear main seal. Good times!! What made it especially great was I didn't pressure wash it to clean off the gunk and grime before starting. Nope, I just dove right in and immediately regretted it.

The video of that job will be out Friday evening. The first 2 minutes of it will be me losing my cool. Repeatedly. Drama is supposed to sell, so I put it in there for everyone else's entertainment.

When that job was done, the old ZJ thanked me by breaking the door latch on the driver's side door.

Oh boy.....
 
Georgia Mike said:
The video of that job will be out Friday evening. The first 2 minutes of it will be me losing my cool. Repeatedly. Drama is supposed to sell, so I put it in there for everyone else's entertainment.

When that job was done, the old ZJ thanked me by breaking the door latch on the driver's side door.

Oh boy.....
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This gave me a chuckle.
 
Not to add to your fun but you may consider doing the intake plenum gasket as well. Not a “hard” job but you have to move a bunch of stuff out the way to pull the intake. Those 5.2 are known for it to be an issue and can cause a lot of issues with running cause it’s basically sucking the oil gasses from the lifter valley up into the intake and burning em. Poor throttle response, fouled plugs/ O2 sensors, XYZ are some of the issues when it goes bad.

 
skyhighZJ said:
Not to add to your fun but you may consider doing the intake plenum gasket as well. Not a “hard” job but you have to move a bunch of stuff out the way to pull the intake. Those 5.2 are known for it to be an issue and can cause a lot of issues with running cause it’s basically sucking the oil gasses from the lifter valley up into the intake and burning em. Poor throttle response, fouled plugs/ O2 sensors, XYZ are some of the issues when it goes bad.

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Oh yeah.....the old plenum gasket problem. I'm starting to remember why I sold the last one we had LOL
 
Started on the transfer case build yesterday. Will swap in the ZJ input, a 6 pinion planetary, wide chain and SYE. Still waiting on the SYE but I got the case torn down and ready for a good scrubbing in the parts washer
 

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Bought these H2 wheels from Glenn (Ghost) a while back. Holes had been drilled in them for internal beadlocks. Tapped the holes and jammed a pipe plug in there. Still leaks a little, but my real problem is the tires won't seat on the beads.

We initially were using the duct tape trick, but I thought it was making it too difficult to seat. It was just tearing the tape trying to seat, but even with no tape at all they just won't seat. Went up to 65 PSI and it still won't "pop" and seat. Left the shop defeated, then came back today to see both beads slipped off the wheel because the pipe plug leaks, but that shouldn't have happened if the beads had seated so I'm at a loss.

Edit: I'm way more inclined to think it's a tire issue than the wheel. Maybe a mismatch trying to use a comp tire with a DOT wheel?
 

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have you measured the thickness of the bead on the tire vs the width of the bead seat on the wheel?

I have had to put 80+ psi in a tire to get it to seat on a taped bead. It is scary for sure.

edit: are those the stickies from the BLEM list? If so, the bead might be out of spec. I had a set of 30" SX2s from the BLEM list once, and the bead was too large to stay seated on the wheel.
 
I was going to get that hole welded up. Do you think you can get it ti seal that way?
 
Georgia Mike said:
The bead of the tire is definitely wider than the safety bead on the wheel
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Im not sure youre going to get it to seat then. Id say Inner airlocks or new wheels are in your future.
 
It may not be but it looks dry in the pic I've used wheel bearing grease with a brush those super swampers have a really tuff bead to seat.
 
baggednissan said:
It may not be but it looks dry in the pic I've used wheel bearing grease with a brush those super swampers have a really tuff bead to seat.
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We used plenty of tire lube, but we're gonna try again tomorrow and I'll be sure to luber em up again before trying!
 
As for the holes drilled in the rims I'd go by a tire shop and buy some short big truck bolt in valve stems and bolt them in backwards.
 
Problem solved. Tire popped onto the bead of a new steel wheel just fine @ 75 PSI. I tried the aluminum wheel one more time and tapped out @ 90 PSI without it seating. Spent the rest of the night trying to take the tire off that wheel and had almost no luck. Got the front bead off, but couldn't get the back one off for hell. Get that......doesn't want to fit on the wheel, doesn't want to come off :rolleyes::dumbass:

I'll take it to a tire shop and let them deal with it lol
 

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