AKghandi

This is the car I'll be building. She is pretty rusty but only on the outer sheet metal, all the structural points are still good. its been sitting since 07 and it fired right up and drove onto the trailer.

double post

So hopefully today I will be picking up the other car. The wife has given the ok for all the shenanigans I have planned for it, so things should start moving here soon

Bet you thought this was a dead post huh? Wrongo bongo its just getting started.

This will be the build log for my new XT6 I just bought 2 XT6s one is parts and one will be a builder. The parts car is an 87 and the driver is a 1991 parts car is stick and the driver is auto. The plan so far is to first fix and clean the driver. The rear window is broken so that's the first step. And since the window has been broken for almost a decade the interior is shot. The parts car interior is actually pretty nice so I'll be swapping that. Long term will include the standard offroad goodies. lift, tires, lights, winch, snorkle. Not sure how I will be lifting it yet, and not sure which trans I will be going with. Lift; either outback struts front and accord/4runner in the rear with crossmember drop, not sure if the camber/castor will work. or standard ea82 2" lift. Trans; dual range swap, I have all the parts. or outback 4.44 4eat swap. From reading it wouldn't be that hard to switch bell housings and wire it. I will also have a 5 lug swap for sale soon. to help fund this escapade No pics right now it was dark when I brought the first one home. I still need to get the other one. which will be in a week or so.

So I am finally getting a hold of an XT6 and I will be lifting it. because I can. and because its a turd that wont easily polish. I am curious about the front suspension, what struts do people use to replace the air suspension? legacy? and if so could outback struts be used to lift it? not too worried about the rear I have a plan but I've only lifted 4 lug subies so the front is what I'm concerned about

Yeah I decided that subarus are awesome but not really good for the wheeling we have here. when funds allow I'll pick up a subie to DD Really I was tired of being the guy holding up the trail only ever got stuck a few times and only broke once, but when you wheel with rigs like this or this! or, a little more famous, this; I could keep going but those are just three of the rigs i've wheeled with. (that would be Jasons rover, I know him and have wheeled with him a few times.) You tend to get left behind alot. the subie held its own for a while but I just needed something more capable and with more aftermarket. So far I'm extremely happy.. and i haven't even gotten to wheel it yet.

So after a few years of wheeling a couple different lifted wagons I came to the conclusion that with the amount of money and work it would take to make it reliable enough for the alaskan terrain, I could just build something else. So thats what I did. It's still a work in progress and probably will always be one. 1990 jeep cherokee limited. 4.0 automatic with 242 t case. which means I get AWD 2wd 4wd and 4low This is what it looked like when i bought it about a month ago mmmmm power leather Then i set about making it a beast. ordered this! rough country 4.5" lift and then i ordered these 33x12.50r15 goodyear MT/R with kevlar (they are almost as big as a 35) Got the lift installed, alot more work than a subie lift lol look!!! i got flex!! Got an alignment and the tires mounted on a set of 15x8 ultra wheels Then i had to do some trimming, so i could steer lol ghetto flares. hah! bushwacker wanting $400 for flares.. 24"x36" mudflap from Oreillys, $14.99 box of self tapping screws, $4.89 sawz-all blade. $4.99 step one, cut the mud flap into 4 equal 6" strips. pic of 4 strips didnt save step two, cut notches into fender where flare will mount, then bend them out. fold/ trim remaining area for clearance. then just lay the flares on and screw them to the folded out tabs. trim off screws that protrude. I plan on buying a mess of small washer to put under the screws as they will go through the rubber if tightened too much. I will say they are strong and durable, you can shake the whole truck if you grab one. Next thing i did was clean up those rims, the pictures dont show it real well but they were oxidized and covered in sap. after a few hours with a small wire brush and some sap remover. they looked like this then a few more hours with a mothers power cone and some aluminum polish resulted in this. they aren't perfect but they look alot better. Wasn't going for show quality anyways.. still feel like a poser even having shiny rims.

Sounds like the ignition timing is advanced.

An intercooler would help. And always run NGK v powers

An intercooler would help. And always run NGK v powers

I have replace just about every gasket on my motor aside from the rear main. it is still leaking. the rear main is leaking and i will be fixing that soon with a new clutch. the oil pump is leaking and the pan is leaking.. It is leaking alot. around a qt a week. so I want to know what tricks there are to fix this, I plan on pulling my engine for the third time to reseal. again... I know I did all previous repairs correctly but ill be damned if the oil pump wont stop leaking. I have resealed it 3 times. once with the new micky and o ring, again with a new micky o ring and shaft seal and once with new micky oring and anaerobic sealer. still freakin leakin. oil pan i did once with just rtv, and then again with the cork gasket and rtv. I did not over tighten and i used lock tight on all bolts. the cam seals and valve covers seem to be holding up.

yeah, hopefully you can find one... i just looked a bit and nada

Fixed. Water pump was a reman with the stamped steel impeller. Replaced it with an import direct new unit with the cast impeller. Also did thermostat and rad cap Temp never goes above the 1/3 mark

i was thinking i would do the thermostat also... its only a few more dollars.

thats kinda what I was thinking, but i dont know how the rad could have clogged, the cooling system has been cleaned and filled with fresh coolant. with my other wag, half the rad was clogged and it would run down the highway just fine. i will be replacing the water pump tomorrow hopefully that cures it

my 89 spfi wagon has started gettin hot while driving, when I slow down it cools down, never over heats but it gets up there. I suspect if I ran the highway and didnt run the heater it would over heat. I know my water pump is failing, it leaks occasionally from the weep hole. but it should still be circulating coolant coolant is full. no mixing of coolant and oil no bubbles in rad while idling. no steam from exhaust could it just be the water pump failing i doubt the rad clogged but i think i have a spare i can put in. when i swapped the motor i flushed the whole system and it was all flowing freely. this was about 3mo ago any ideas?

right? thats one of the reasons I posted this, I'd like to see someone with more resources than me give it a shot

I really want to, but its cold and next summer i have 2 engine swaps on my plate, but summer after that i probably will. it would be the best adventure type vehicle i could imagine

thats actually a really good idea.. a fuel tank switching valve from an old ford or chevy would be easy to come by

merry christmas to you too!

So I was just thinking, anyone ever done a 6x6 wagon? My thought was take a wagon, cut it off right after the rear diff, take another wagon cut it right before the rear subframe. then weld the rear section onto the other wagon. might have to put a few peices of sheet metal to smooth it out and make rear side windows out of diamond plate unless you wanted to have custom rear side windows made. as for the 6x6 part, take the middle rear diff and another spare diff and mill the gear casing off to where it was just a pinion and case and then mill the cover on the other diff and weld the ouput pinion to the cover to make a diff with a pass through and then the rear most diff flipped upside down to spin it the right way.. fuel system would be easy, just slightly longer fuel hoses from the rear section brakes wouldn't be an issue, the rear most wheel don't really need brakes, but a couple simple adjustable proportioning valves would let you make some lines to the rear most wheels. only thing I think that might be an issue would be binding between the two rear diffs in sharp turns. just rambling basically but some time in the future when I have a good welder I'll get a couple cheap wagons and give it a shot. just a rough, VERY ROUGH idea. stole the pic from suberdave lol just imagine it lifted 4" or so Just thought I'd put the idea in someones head and see where it goes.

i destroyed the rear section of the driveshaft... but i was driving a little harder than i should have.

too me it sounds like thin oil.. i never run anything less than 10-30. the owners manual says 5w-30 no recomended for sustained high speed driving. i also never run synthetic. i usuall run a 10-40 diesel oil.. and i live in alaska, never had any problems with it even at -20

all of the tools and various spare parts floating around in the back... my cars a mess.. but i always make it home