Muffin - 1997 Jeep Wrangler(TJ)

Any updates on muffin?

In reply to Mad_Ratel:

I've bought some stuff, I drive it on the weekends some, took it to Home Depot yesterday morning. Other things have taken priority. I have a pair of BTF stanchions, to add a "real" roll cage to the front driver section. It's made the ~30 mile trip to the farm, and SWMBO's folks a few times since the last update.

Muffin's hood makes an okay shooting bench.

"Who, that little guy? I wouldn't worry about that little guy."

I'm a little late to this party but this is a great thread. I have an '04 LJ and a '97 SE. The LJ is my Daily Driver/Weekend Warrior. I am building the SE up to be my dedicated Trail Rig complete with a 7" wheelbase stretch. I agree about the novelty of building the 2.5L engine. Off road, it has never let me down. The mountain highways of Tennessee & West Virginia are another story.

I'm glad folks are still enjoying the thread. I've not done much of anything to Muffin since replacing the intake/exhaust manifold gasket. It still get's driven occasionally, we took the top off a couple weeks ago and made the rounds to the in-laws and my folk's place, about 65 miles round trip, was still a little cool, but it put a smile on my face pretty much the entire trip.

Had a CEL for the IAC come on, don't know if it's 4.0l throttle body related or not, but Muffin has had an intermittent high idle for a few months. It developed the issue several weeks after the throttle body swap, so I'm not so sure that it wasn't just a coincidence. I've had a new IAC valve sitting on our kitchen counter for almost 2 weeks now, I just haven't swapped it out yet.

Muffin is famous, made it on TV this week, there was a "shootout" in our 'hood this week. You can see her in the background, "down range," at 1:12 in the video. No bullet holes that I could find.
http://www.thv11.com/story/news/local/conway/2015/04/14/conway-robber-shootout/25802561/?fb_ref=Default

My over Winter plans for Muffin didn't pan out. The "other" XJ that belongs to SWMBO's brother took WAY too much time, after it was gone SWMBO's own XJ (Moby) became a huge time drain. So, wrenching time over the Winter wasn't focused on Muffin like I had hoped. Moby still isn't "road worthy" quite yet, I'll be putting a new transfer case in it this weekend if all the stars align. That'll get the XJ out of the way for a bit, but I've got to pull it's dash and R&R the A/C evaporator before it gets too hot.

On top of all that, we'll be moving this Summer. A lot of positives about the place we'll be moving too, assuming everything works out, but one giant negative... zero garage/shop space, not even a car port. There's about 5 acres though, and part of deal with SWMBO if we get this place is, I get to build a shop/garage or both.

Long and short of it, Muffin's not going anywhere, but other priorities have slowed progress, and any future short term modifications are on hold for the time being.

JEEP GROSH BUILD...

GO.

Mad is right, if you build it, you must write about it.

Oh hell yes, with your eye for detail and general writing skill a garage build would be a real treat.

Never seen this thread before although I've been following Moby. Love reading your stuff. I have learned something though. Apparently down south you call Mud wasps 'Dirt Dobbers' New one to me. At first I thought it was something I'd just missed being an import myself. But I’ve asked my wife and several other people and not one of them has ever heard the term dirt dobber before, so It appears to je a regional / Southern thing. It makes me giggle every time I say it so I’ve been walking around muttering ‘dirt dobbers’ over and over to myself with a childish grin on my face.

P.S. I don't hate on torx heads, I have no issue with them, much less likely to strip out the heads in my experience.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

I got a good chuckle imagining you, and your accent, "muttering dirt dobbers," thanks!

I've heard a few folks call them "mud dobbers" (daubers). Dauber might be the correct spelling, I've been spelling it phonetically.

I've heard my grandma call wasps, "waspers" several times, that one didn't catch on with me, but I still manage to sneak an R into Washington, and washing machine every now and then.

I guess I should have done something about those sticky brakes I mentioned last Fall. Front right locked up on me on the way home from running some errands this afternoon. Not fun, made traffic slightly scary.

Just to show how gutless the 2.5l is with the front right caliper locked up, 40 MPH is top speed, and it took a long time to get there. There's no "powering though it." That was determined before I realized what was going on.

So I guess I'm going to spend some money on an axle I have plans on ditching.

Minor update, I've done some other things as well, but Muffin hasn't been a priority. Actually discussed pulling insurance and parking again, really isn't safe to be on the road with the tires that are on it. Hasn't driven more than the driveway shuffle since mid Summer.

I still have delusions of fitting 35-37 inch tires, though I'm not in a position to make that a reality at the moment, and even "little" tires are expensive! I really didn't want to drop a ton of money on tires twice.

Fate intervened yesterday. Random dude on FB Jeep group posted that he had 4 barely used and 1 brand new 32x11.50 R15 Kumho Road Venture ATs for less than 1/2 price of 5 new ones. The barley used tires are claimed to have less than 3K miles on them, still have the blue on the RWL, and some rubber tits are still visible.

While eating breakfast I responded to the sellers post, and I had a reply by the time I got to work. Somehow I was actually first to offer to buy them, that never happens. Seller actually lives close-ish to my work, after explaining that I was in our Sportwagen, and could probably fit 4 in the hatch, but 5 probably wouldn't be doable, my timid request that he deliver them to me at work was accepted as well.

Who doesn't keep a set of tires in their water quality lab? Pretend you don't see those batteries, those aren't supposed to be there.

I managed to fit 4 in the Sportwagen.

From the story, I gathered it was kind of a, you-know-what, "measuring contest" between the seller and his friend. The seller got these tires, then his friend got even bigger tires, so the seller had to get bigger tires too. Thanks to egos, peer pressure, disposable income, and maybe poor decisions, Muffin's getting new-ish shoes!

The last few weeks I've finally started working on some stalled projects again. I really hadn't done much of anything since August of last year, when I got bit by a tick, and contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I've had hundreds of tick bites over the years, and never really had much more than an itchy bump as a result. It seems my luck ran out. Even when I started feeling better, just the simplest stuff would zap my energy, so I've not been too productive. I have managed to do a little bit more here lately though, and have even done some work on Muffin.

I use a lot more bug repellent now too. Give me all the DEET!

I did manage to get those slightly used tires mounted back in January though, big thanks to my dad for letting me borrow his truck.

There's more Muffin and dirt dauber action coming soon.

Tick infections are no joke, glad you are starting to feel better.

ssswitch wrote: Tick infections are no joke, glad you are starting to feel better.

Thanks! It sure wasn't fun.

I can joke about it a bit now. I kept the tick, habit I developed working for the NPS, and jokingly said I was going to frame it. Then one day I found a little 3x3" picture frame during one of SWMBO's Hobby Lobby excursions, and now there's a framed tick on our entertainment center.

So July-ish of last summer, I was driving Muffin and I noticed a slight burning smell a few times, but there wasn't any smoke or flames to be seen, so it wasn't anything to get too worked up about. Only other clue was the AC wasn't all that cool. Then a little bit later, while stopped at a light, she began to over heat. I was close to home, so I just turned the heat on full blast and limped on home.

You're probably already speculating, and have it figured out, but I'll provide a little additional background just the same.

Many moons ago, I replaced the mechanical fan with a generic 16" fan from one of the parts stores. I got the idea in my head that I'd gain some horse power if I ditched the mechanical fan, and that anemic 2.5l needs all the help it can get. So, that electric fan probably got me closer to 70 HP at the wheels, up from 68 or so.

Now this electric fan had served me well, and had undergone a few different iterations of mounting, and wiring/control strategies, i.e. on a switch, always on with a key, a couple different thermostat switches, etc. it even outlived one radiator. Though, in all fairness, its through the radiator, zip-tie-like mounting thingies were the reason the previous radiator sprang a leak.

So I get home, the coolant is audibly boiling, the fan isn't blowing, and while inspecting the wiring I find the adjustable electric thermostat has let all of its smoke out. I guess that's what I was smelling?

So, the melted wire you see below is attached to an adjustable thermostat, the style with the probe that you wedge into the radiator fins. Keen observers will notice the crude fan shroud made of roof flashing, and yes that is indeed, garage door mounting hardware (perforated angle iron) used to attach the fan to the radiator. Who doesn't shop for automotive parts at Home Depot?

So the electric fan quit, no wonder the AC was lack luster, and it began to over heat when I quit moving. But why did the electric fan quit?

I warned you there'd be more dirt dauber action.

Best as I could tell, the little bastards built a nest on the radiator, between the fan and radiator. The nest eventually became dislodged from the radiator, and got caught in the fan, wedging it to a stop, and killing the fan.

I removed the fan, but it was DOA, hooking it direct to 12V did nothing. Muffin needed a new fan.

May your dobbers be never dirty again!

Still love this car and it's lessons in Southern dialect

Adrian_Thompson wrote: May your dobbers be never dirty again! Still love this car and it's lessons in Southern dialect

That should be on a bumper sticker or something.

Muffin needed a fan, so I bought a fan. I recall there being some research into blade type, size, and CFM choices, but that was almost a year ago, and a lot has happened since then. I can't tell you so much in detail as to why, though price played a large part, but I wound up purchasing a Spal 16" Curved Blade Performance Fan (30102049).

I had a fan, great, now I needed to come up with a way to mount it. My previous solution while functional left a lot to be desired. I considered purchasing a shroud, Jeeps are blessed with an enormous aftermarket, and ready made electric fan shrouds exist, but as is often the case, budgetary constrains made them less appealing. I considered going the sheet metal route, probably would have been the wisest choice, but I'd have had to buy the metal. Instead I rummaged around the garage, to see what I already had on hand that was electric fan shroud material worthy. Well, I had quite a bit of that red felt fabric I made the speaker pods out of left, plenty of resin, a few sheets of chopped mat fiberglass, and even had some scrap MDF laying around I could make a buck out of. That pretty much settled it, I was going to be making a fiberglass fan shroud.

First I cut some 3/4" MDF to the size of the radiator core.

Then I cut a circle out of the middle big enough for the fan to mount to. The little plunge router attachment for the Dremel is about worthless as a router in my experience, but it sure is handy for cutting big circles in things.

Then I cut some legs to space the circle off of the rectangle a bit. I think I made the legs 1-1/4" so that with the width of the 3/4" MDF the buck was 2" tall. That's a reasonable enough guesstimation.

I then covered the parts that would come in contact with the resin with foil and or painters tape.

Looked like I could be on to something. Or maybe just on something.

I still had some lectin mold release left over from the bed liner application. All the foil and taped surfaces got liberal amounts of mold release sprayed on them.

I stretched the fabric over the MDF buck, plenty of staples from the trusty old Stanley staple gun held the fabric in place.

Then I began apply resin. I didn't put any resin in the middle since that was going to be cut out anyway.

At least at that point I had some hard, red, shroud shaped fabric.

When all you have is a hammer...

I'm curious where this is going.

Next I took my hard, red, shroud shaped fabric, and added some stringy, messy, itchy chopped strand mat to it. I've been trying to recall, I did at least 2 layers of fiberglass, maybe 3. That whole, I did this long ago, and didn't write any of it down, thing, is creeping up again. I left the center void of resin again, since it was going to be removed anyway. I really wished I had, had some woven mesh, that's much easier to work with in my experience, but when I rummaged around in the garage, I didn't find mesh, I found chopped strand, so chopped strand is what I used.

I cut the center of the now fiberglass covered, hard, red, shroud shaped, fabric. I made the circle the same as the ID of the fan. The Dremel with the router attachment did its thing here too.

Center removed, the fiberglass covered, hard, red, shroud shaped fabric now had a large hole in the middle of it.

Then I flipped the whole mess over, pulled the staples, and then cut and sanded the overlapping edge of the new shroud flush with the MDF buck it was on.

Moment of truth, the mold release worked great, the fiberglass covered, hard, red, shroud shaped fabric, with a big hole in it, separated from the MDF buck nicely.

I needed to mount the fan to the shroud, so I placed the fan where I wanted it, as centered as I could get it with my eyeballs and a tape measure, and drilled some holes.

Tractor Supply sells nuts and bolts by the pound, so I usually buy 5-10X what I really need when I'm there. This has lead to me having a little stock pile of fasteners, which isn't a bad thing, especially when you're in the middle of a "rummage through the garage, and see what you've got" project. 1/4-20 bolts fit just about perfect in the fan's mounting holes, with just a little wiggle room, the holes are probably metric, 8mm, but the 0.25" bolts I had were good enough. I decided to add some captured nuts to the fiberglass covered, hard, red shroud shaped fabric. I did this by soaking some 1/4-20 bolts down with the lectin mold release, sticking them through the holes I drilled in the shroud, threading some nuts onto them, positioning a little patch of fiberglass on/around them, and then coating them in resin.

Turns out, that actually worked. When the resin had hardened, the bolts backed out with ease. Voilà, captured nuts!

I had a little of the chopped strand mat left, so I decided to add a bit more reinforcement to the fiberglass covered, hard, red, shroud shaped fabric, with a big hole and captured nuts in it. Those little patches with the slits over the nuts, are exactly what I did when I made the captured nuts initially.

The back side was "reinforced" and resined up at this point.

Even with all the reinforcing, and washers, I felt that the holes and captured nuts were just a little too close to the edge for my comfort. To remedy this, I cut some strips of the red fabric, soaked them in resin, and then put them along the edge of the captured nuts, to add a little more "meat" in those areas.

After some trimming, sanding, and another coat of resin, this fiberglass covered, hard red, shroud shaped fabric, with a big hole and captured nuts in it, was finally starting to look like it could be something.

Now that I had a shroud, I needed a way to attach it to the radiator. As ingenious as perforated garage door angle iron was as a mounting structure, I decided to go a different route. Muffin's radiator has a pretty generous flange on either side of it, with a few captured nuts in each side, probably what the OE shroud attaches too, but I removed the OE shroud so long ago I don't really remember. I decided to make use of those captured nuts in the radiator, and build a frame for the new shroud that attaches to them. I made a frame of 1x1x1/8" angle iron that fit the core of the radiator, with 4 mounting tabs to take advantage of those captured nuts. Apparently I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures, because I only have one "in process" picture. I've got one of the HF X2 clone mini mills with some minor modifications, I like to find uses for. I decided to give myself a little wiggle room, I'd make the mounting holes in the frame slotted.

I actually bought an aftermarket coolant overflow reservoir fully expecting to replace the OE reservoir. I even measured to see how much room I had, and bought the largest one I thought would fit. I bought one of eBay's finest stainless 3" diameter, 16" long reservoirs. Then when it came time to install, I discovered a fatal flaw with my plan, both the vent and fill nipples were on the bottom of the new reservoir, and there was this little thing called a steering box in the way. I still had the original reservoir, so I decided to punt and just reuse it. The OE reservoir mounts with 2 tabs that slide into slots, and a little bump between the tabs goes into a hole to keep the tabs in the slots.

So I made a crude reproduction of the OE coolant reservoir mount out of some flat bar.

After a little cutting, welding, and fiddling, I wound up with a frame to mount the shroud to the radiator with.

I gave the fiberglass covered, hard red, shroud shaped fabric, with a big hole and captured nuts in it a coat of paint. I put a few coats of rubberized undercoating on it to help hide some of the imperfections.

I painted the frame and mounted the shroud to it with some stainless self tappers, and mounted the fan to the shroud with some 1/4-20 bolts.

I put some rubber gasket tape on the frame, where it will come into contact with the radiator core.

Then I mounted the whole mess to the radiator. Looks like there's room for a couple more cylinders between the fan and front of the engine.

The whole mess mounted to the radiator with the OE coolant reservoir back in roughly the original location.

I was reasonably satisfied with the end product. Now all I had to do was come up with a means of controlling the thing.

Awesome write up on the Muffin fan. Now I want to buy a 2.5L Jeep sans fan so I can build one of these

That is a very helpful fiberglass tutorial. Thank you for putting the effort in it.

Still thinking of drivetrain swaps? Why not just a 4.0 drivetrain...super plentiful and cheap.

Or, at the very least, a manual trans would really let the 4 cylinder shine. That could be done in a few weekends.

And man, was that initial start up vid was hard to listen to. The oil (if there was any) didn't have a chance to get to all the rotating bits before you floored it.

Doc Brown wrote: Awesome write up on the Muffin fan. Now I want to buy a 2.5L Jeep sans fan so I can build one of these

Thanks! I can't say I'd recommend that.

Dusterbd13 wrote: That is a very helpful fiberglass tutorial. Thank you for putting the effort in it.

Thanks, glad it's helpful. I'm not a pro by any stretch, obviously, I've done a little fiberglass, built a canoe, and messed with car audio stuff, had a little guidance here-and-there, but have mostly learned by doing. I'm not saying the way I did it is the correct, or best way, but that's what has worked for me.

onemanarmy wrote: Still thinking of drivetrain swaps? Why not just a 4.0 drivetrain...super plentiful and cheap. Or, at the very least, a manual trans would really let the 4 cylinder shine. That could be done in a few weekends. And man, was that initial start up vid was hard to listen to. The oil (if there was any) didn't have a chance to get to all the rotating bits before you floored it.

Easily my most frequent day dream, bench racing build, I've had in my head for the past ~3 years is Muffin's drivetrain possibilities, so yes.

The thing with the 4.0l is that it's just almost as much work as anything else, swap wise. Nothing from the 2.5l harness, ECM, transmission, engine mounts, etc. work with the 4.0l. Most folks say if you want a 4.0l Jeep, you're better off buying 4.0l Jeep. Plus GM and Mopar V8 swaps are so common, well documented, and aftermarket supported, it's hard to justify 4.0l swap.

Yes, a manual would help, but I have no interest in rowing my own in Muffin (blasphemy I know). Gearing would help a lot, 4.56 is what I've about settled on.

As for the start up video, I had been whirling the engine over for about a minute with the spark plugs out, and fuel pump relay pulled before I started it. It didn't take that long to put the plugs and relay back in, everything was sufficiently lubed before I went to "mashing" the throttle, though I don't think I took it past 4K, sounded louder with the exhaust leak and no air filter.