How to: Rebuild of a flipped 98 sport

[Justin_]

@Justin_ I realize I'm a month late to the game, but this project is beautiful! Not often do we see a hardcore actually finish a huge project like this without somehow having it consumed by other things. Slow and steady always seems to win the race!

Hmm, I wonder if somebody might be interested in the cutoff body for a soft-top project. You might be able to pick up a couple bucks from that.

Thanks man! I'll be honest, at one point when the inside was gutted and the whole front end was torn apart I was kinda just thinking to myself 'why the fucj am I doing this?' and kinda felt like giving up. I kept slowly working on it and in the end it turned out great!

Its actually become my daily driver again as the steering and suspension feels so great. Not to mention I love the 4.10 gears its just a TON better than my other 98 with messes up steering and 3.73 gears.

In the end I just couldn't keep the other cars around and they went to the scrap yard. I did keep a lot of parts including CV axles and the 4.10 gears off the 2000. If I keep my other 98 around I might swap its 3.73 for the 4.10 set.

 

[Justin_]

@Justin_ Nice Mower, i have the same one lol

Its the second one we have had and it lasted a lot longer than our last one. Lol.

 

[MakinJeepsWeep!]

Awesome! Mine has been a champ, I mow 8 yards a week in the growing season and it has kept on going!

 

[amachinistizme]

So what may be the final update here.

I got the LED lights in, the exhaust complete, and the ABS module swapped.

The speedo is working great now as is cruise control.

I haven't actually had any issues with the sunroof. On the first snow there was some water hanging around on the inside on the glass itself, but since then I haven't noticed anything being wet. I even went in a car wash and didn't have any issues with it and both drains worked fine. Still want to swap the headliners and get rid of that mold at some point though.

Just before the mountains got all snowed out I managed to go to a car wash and get everything all clean, then run through the local mountains and get dirty.
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I've actually been driving it around as my main car because with all the new parts it feels great where my other car is loose as frig. I may need to swap the better sound system back into this one.

I finished pulling parts out of my spare parts cars and need to get them out unfortunately, but I think everything is working now so no huge loss there. They paid for themselves for sure.
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I kept the 4.10 diffs from the 2 door and will either sell them or put them in the 4 door im keeping. It all depends on what I end up doing with the 4 door now that the 2 door is so great. Turns out the 2 door that I bought as the parts car was really well taken care of (before the druggie tore apart the inside). It had new front bearings, new CVs, new shocks, and a few other newer parts.

What type and Brand of shocks did you choose? I have a '99 Sport (Stock) and need to do a mild "Build" My stock shocks are completely drained of fluid. I'd appreciate your opinion, since you did such a great job. Esp. the DMC front bumper!

 

[Justin_]

What type and Brand of shocks did you choose? I have a '99 Sport (Stock) and need to do a mild "Build" My stock shocks are completely drained of fluid. I'd appreciate your opinion, since you did such a great job. Esp. the DMC front bumper!

I used Bilstein 4600 shocks. 24-021333 in the front and 24-021340 in the back. I got a set of all 4 for $334 shipped in September 2020. I have no suspension lift on my truck.

I like them so far. On road and off they work great. I have a bit of body roll on the highway, but that is almost 100% because of the mono-leaf springs. For that reason I am looking at doing coilovers in the back. Replacing the mono-leaf spring would be a more direct path, but I like it to be loose when off road. Im hoping I can swap in coilovers for highway use, then swap back to Bilsteins when i'm planning to go off road.

I ordered Monroe 58617 coilovers off amazon open box for $70. Ill see how those go soon.

The DMC logo actually came from work. I made up the bumper there, and we are working on a time machine there. We had just got a 4*8 CNC plasma cutter at the time and had a few cut out. It needed /something/ in the middle and it fit perfectly.

Video here: New video by Justin 3

 

[amachinistizme]

I used Bilstein 4600 shocks. 24-021333 in the front and 24-021340 in the back. I got a set of all 4 for $334 shipped in September 2020. I have no suspension lift on my truck.

I like them so far. On road and off they work great. I have a bit of body roll on the highway, but that is almost 100% because of the mono-leaf springs. For that reason I am looking at doing coilovers in the back. Replacing the mono-leaf spring would be a more direct path, but I like it to be loose when off road. Im hoping I can swap in coilovers for highway use, then swap back to Bilsteins when i'm planning to go off road.

I ordered Monroe 58617 coilovers off amazon open box for $70. Ill see how those go soon.

The DMC logo actually came from work. I made up the bumper there, and we are working on a time machine there. We had just got a 4*8 CNC plasma cutter at the time and had a few cut out. It needed /something/ in the middle and it fit perfectly.

View attachment 423980

Video here: New video by Justin 3

Thank you.
But, now I have ANOTHER problem...{surprised?}
I just got back from the shop that does my mechanical work. And I was supposed to have my PCV system fixed...
And THIS is what we found..
Where is the outflow from the SOHC engine? My TRUCK had its engine swapped, somewhere along the line.
Photo shows the plenum removed.
WHAT engine DO I have in my truck?
Any ideas?

 

[donalds]

WHAT engine DO I have in my truck?
Any ideas?

4.0 sohc

 

[Justin_]

Thank you.
But, now I have ANOTHER problem...{surprised?}
I just got back from the shop that does my mechanical work. And I was supposed to have my PCV system fixed...
And THIS is what we found..
Where is the outflow from the SOHC engine? My TRUCK had its engine swapped, somewhere along the line.
Photo shows the plenum removed.
WHAT engine DO I have in my truck?
Any ideas?
View attachment 424173

Definitely a 4.0 SOHC. Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but I am fairly sure that is one without a fuel return system (EG 99-01)

On 98 SOHCs there is a small air tank (possibly an oil separator) that sits between the ports you see there, below the wiring harness. From there it goes to the PCV valve and then splits to 2 vacuum lines that go into the upper intake on the rear, pointing forward. Don't know if that is diffrent on the 99-01 engines.

The actual valve itself is a cylinder about 3/4" across and 2" long.

Your photo shows none of the PCV system. It is all out of frame. The oil seperator is likely in frame, but is buried so it's hard to say whether it is there or not..

 

[donalds]

Oil separator

 

[amachinistizme]

View attachment 424174Oil separator

Thank you for the photo. Did you notice the piece of foam material in the engine "valley"? Does the Oil sump placed under that? The harness above it seems to prevent its placement.
Any help with this situation would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again.

 

[Justin_]

Thank you for the photo. Did you notice the piece of foam material in the engine "valley"? Does the Oil sump placed under that? The harness above it seems to prevent its placement.
Any help with this situation would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again.

The oil pump and oil sump are on the bottom of the engine well below that.

I'm not sure about any foam. When I first pulled my intakes off there was a bit of a rat's nest in there, quite possibly literally. I just took and vacuumed out everything before working on it.

To get the harness out of the way you basically just start pulling connectors until it's loose enough to come free. In reality though you shouldn't need to take it off to see if it's there or not. Just poked around a bit and see if you feel it. It's pretty sizable it's not easy to miss.

You might want to just start your own new thread instead of continuing to sit on the bottom of this one. You'll actually get more people that can help you out that way.

 

[donalds]

Foam??

Mine had no foam
Just unplug everything and delete the foam

 

[amachinistizme]

Foam??

Mine had no foam
Just unplug everything and delete the foam

Any idea WHY the foam is there in the 1st place? I believe I have a replacement engine in my truck.

 

[donalds]

The foam is to control engine sound / noise

 

[EB4X]

The DMC logo actually came from work. I made up the bumper there, and we are working on a time machine there. We had just got a 4*8 CNC plasma cutter at the time and had a few cut out. It needed /something/ in the middle and it fit perfectly.

View attachment 423980

Video here: New video by Justin 3

Checked out the video....that THINGS SWEET! ... We need to hook our second gens to it....go back to production date and then bring back to 2021 in mint condition! .... my paint's feeling the pain of 26 years!

 

[amachinistizme]

View attachment 424174Oil separator

You don't happen to have a photo of the opening to the Oil sump?

 

[donalds]

You don't happen to have a photo of the opening to the Oil sump?

No sorry

 

[amachinistizme]

The oil pump and oil sump are on the bottom of the engine well below that.

I'm not sure about any foam. When I first pulled my intakes off there was a bit of a rat's nest in there, quite possibly literally. I just took and vacuumed out everything before working on it.

To get the harness out of the way you basically just start pulling connectors until it's loose enough to come free. In reality though you shouldn't need to take it off to see if it's there or not. Just poked around a bit and see if you feel it. It's pretty sizable it's not easy to miss.

You might want to just start your own new thread instead of continuing to sit on the bottom of this one. You'll actually get more people that can help you out that way.

Thank you for your advice. I'm really busy with a new employer. So, I haven't had the time to look into this like I should. I have an emissions test coming up soon. It, {somehow} passed the last time.
My "mechanic" couldn't find the place that the PVC system should go. As a result, I'm going to have to show him a "presentation" {with photos, graphs, circles, lines and arrows} on EXACTLY HOW to do this job. Thank you again for your information.