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KGB 89 YJ Storyline Build Thread

64K views 490 replies 37 participants last post by  old88YJ 
#1 ·
Hello folks, my name is Adil and I've been a member here for a little over a year. I catch myself browsing the forum on daily basis and having looked through some amazing build threads inspired me to make a small build thread of my own.

I'm 29 years old, originally from Moscow Russia. Spend most of my day as an RF technician for a defense contractor in San Diego, CA. On my spare time I enjoy working on the Jeep, taking spirited drives and autocross in my other toy, 97 bmw m3. We go shooting, offroading and camping with my friends and gf.

Summer 2011, I was taken on a 16 hour off-road trip to Corral Canyon, CA in my buddy's heavily modified 1988 Suzuki Samurai. I was hooked, loved every second of it, found my new passion for rock crawling.

where it all started, Brandon's Sammi:



Thanksgiving day 2011, we were browsing CL and found this 1989 Canadian built YJ for $3900. 4.2l auto with 150k miles. We went on a 3 hour drive to pick up a mechanically mistreated mess in a clean straight body, completely stock, wearing dry rotted 31" tires 1989 YJ!

First look when we got there:


Test drive:


Looking over the problems and talking the seller down some. Jeep had a nasty radiator leak, oil, gas and power steering leaked as well, 4wd wouldn't engage, died out when braking and had all sorts of carburetor problems. Everything else checked out ok:


We talked the guy down to 3k and hit the road in hopes of making back in time for the Thanksgiving dinner.

Repairs began on the drive home, stopping at Kragen several times, replacing various hoses, spark plugs, and such:




5 miles or so left to the house, Jeep lost oil pressure. Luckily it was only a faulty sender unit. We made it back right before dark and on time for dinner!

I snapped some pics and let Jeep be at its new home:



Day after my buddy came over to figure out what all needs to be done before we test the new rig out on a near by trail:


Two main issues were the cooling system and the crappy carter carb:


Took the radiator out and got it gut open, cleaned, rodded, leak fixed and sealed back together for $60, not bad:



Went through and replaced all coolant, fuel, transmission fuid, vacuum lines and hoses, got the new oil sending unit, fuel pump and a few other small things replaced:


My buddy and I were dying to test the rig out. We drove to a near by trail and quickly found out Jeep was not ready and needed some things repaired/replaced right away. 4wd was engaging on and off and didn't work half of the time, brakes sucked badly, carter kept stalling the jeep out and the transfer case chain was slipping in 4Lo:



We didn't get a chance to replace or repair any of the problems before the next shooting/off-road trip to Corral Canyon:







Jeep barely made it home after the trip. I knew we had little to no time to address the issues mentioned above to continue having fun. We tuned the carb a bit more, replaced a few small things and went out on a date with my GF:


This pretty much concludes 2011.

2012 was a big year for the Jeep, lots of new changes, upgrades, mods, etc...

(I'll be updating the thread with 2012 and 2013 timeline in the next few days to catch the build up to date)
 
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#318 ·
He is Alive !!!!

Looking good Bro :2thumbsup: Keep up the good work
:rofl: thank you sir!!

With that oil pump, depending on the oil pan you may need a 4.0 pick up tube, because my 90 came with a 4.0 oil pan, just a thought.

Because I Saved 15% On My Car Insurance
Interesting, thanks for the heads up :)
 
#320 ·
update: 12-16-13
Some more engine porn:







soaking the lifters for a good measure:




lifters dropped into place:


torque sequence along with proper numbers, bolt 11 thread-locked, etc, etc:


pushrods:


rocker arms and bridge:


head on:




Meanwhile I decided to put the hard top and Bestop sliders up for sale. Now that I have the XJ, no sense of having the roof for the YJ.

It was very nice out mid December, drove the YJ over to my buddy's house:




Haven't driven the YJ in a couple of weeks so it was a complete blast to drive around!! XJ is so refined, quiet and warm compared to the raw YJ...
 
#321 ·
update: 12-16-13
Haven't driven the YJ in a couple of weeks so it was a complete blast to drive around!! XJ is so refined, quiet and warm compared to the raw YJ...
You have other cars that are refined, quiet and warm.

Put the 4.0 in the YJ ASAP!!!! Didn't you pay $600 for that Cherokee? That's a good price for a motor and tranny! Part out the rest of the xj on the forums and you're setting pretty.
 
#323 ·
Is it just me or is your right front tire a lot wider than your left front? I can't tell if it just the angle of the way the picture was taken or if im going crazy, or both? :laugh:
 
#324 ·
It's the angle lol

Update 01.01.14!

4.2 build completed, running great!

My messy garage shop:


Pulling the old motor out of the CJ:


Rebuilt one going in:












All done:


Sounds incredible with the mild cam and those headers :2thumbsup:
 
#326 ·
They sure do :D I'll be getting a comp cam along with the 4.0 head and headers when time comes to rebuild. Hoping sometime soon :rofl:

Update 1.11.14:

Hard top and fiberglass upper door sliders sold! No point in having it sit around. We have the XJ for those couple days of the year when it tries to rain here..

Had to clean her up today, will be getting her ready for a wheeling trip in a couple of weeks:


I'm also looking to get rid of my tcase drop kit as soon as possible. Not sure when I'll have time to install the 8.8 and the d35 still hanging in there. Could I just extend the stock driveshaft to hold me over for now and get rid of tcase drop? I know if I order the CV style with SYE the pinion would need to be pointed up so I better wait till 8.8 goes in.
 
#328 ·
I'm just going to leave things be till the 8.8 goes in. I just need to stop procrastinating and get that 8.8 in there!!

Meanwhile we went shooting and had a little fun breaking new to my friend 1983 CJ7:


























He's hooked, we need to get a little more room under there for those 35s and go hit some real trails :D
 
#329 ·
I love the look of the cj low on those grabbers
 
#331 ·
It's my buddy Josh, he bought it that way. Dude owned the jeep before him made those. They're very strong and don't look half as bad in person. I dig his whole unruly look!

Update 1.29.14:

Ordered 1" Daystar body lift!!! I don't know why but I'm really excited to install it. We just installed the same exact kit on a customer's 1994 YJ. After the install I had to order me one.

 
#333 ·
Thank you for the support :)

Update 02/10/14

Let the fabrication begin!






Got a great deal from Medford tools, JD2 model 32 bender with Notchmaster notcher and 180° 1 1/2" 4.5CLR die kit.

Immediate plans are to make tube bumpers for my XJ and our customer with a ZJ that was the reason for this big purchase.

Very excited to start making stuff for my friends and my own jeeps :D
 
#335 ·
^^ The equipment showed up and it's freaking nice! Lots of stuff to setup and we still have to weld up the pedestal stand. Recently we had a job to install a family style cage on a customer's YJ. Our welder tech brought over his 125 gas bottle and hooked it up to my Hobard 140. Needless to say I was instantly hooked. Such a nice clean weld using gas over flux core.

Next day we had to get a bottle ourselves:


I found a very solid metal table at the swap meet and decided to use as a welding/fab table. Got the gas setup and played around with it for a few mins welding crossbars to the welder cart:


and a random pic from this morning with our street completely empty and starting from the left 91 YJ Sahara, 89 YJ, 91 YJ, 96 XJ, 82 CJ7, and 83 CJ7!
 
#337 ·
Still doing it out of the house bud, neighbors are cool with it and we usually get done before they come home from work. We're definitely Going to open the shop this year, running out of space and family gets in the way of business if you know what I mean.

I got laid off last year working for defense industry as an RF engineering tech in a lab. Been working on cars my whole life and its been a dream to one day open a shop. Here's my chance and we're doing everything to make it happen. The right way too, no cutting corners.
 
#339 ·
My business partner and I took a day off and went on a much needed wheeling trip. It was his first time out really offroading with a new to him CJ. We had a great time, couldn't ask for more. Beautiful socal skies, rocks, dirt and the jeeps!















 
#340 ·
We finally got a chance to install the 1" Daystar leveling kit. Very straight forward install, all the bolts broke lose using simple hand tools and new ones went in no problem:









Finished product:


I'm digging the new look, no more rub!
 
#346 ·
To be honest I never heard of brown dog till you mentioned it and figured can't go wrong with Daystar. I hope lol.

Just checked out their site, look good!

Are you auto or standard? I read some of the other kits aren't auto compatible but there's nothing mentioned on this kit. I am Auto btw.

*edit. I see you were auto. Hope you still are.
Hmm maybe because of the linkage. I hope it won't be an issue as I'm raising the driveline an inch as well. I won't know till i drive though. The fan shroud still needs to be installed after the motor mounts.. Btw I am still auto.

Couple of pics of the new stance during the day:


 
#350 ·
Haha, you're not hijacking by any means. We got the equipment to do it with now, gotta finish a few jobs and then I can make you a set :)

What?! I thought everyone has heard of them. Well if day star doesn't work, brown dog will. Haha
Lol, now you got me worried a bit. Are we talking motor vibration being the only factor or are there other benefits with brown dog? They look damn near identical so makes me think only difference is whatever material used for bushings.

Just pointing out its a bl and not a leveling kit, looks good by the way!! And ftw I run and swear by brown dog!

Sent from my iPad using JeepForum
That's right bl not leveling kit and thank you!!

BTW I'm still trying to make my way through your build thread, very impressive my man!
 
#349 ·
kgb_m3 said:
Just pointing out its a bl and not a leveling kit, looks good by the way!! And ftw I run and swear by brown dog!

Sent from my iPad using JeepForum
 
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