New member in PNW - 1985 J20 survivor

[twisted frame]

I'll throw out some guesses:

1. StewartWarner
2. Sun
3. Autogage

[DarkMonohue]

Well, since nobody recognizes the tach, I'll spill the beans in another thread. Should be a fun writeup for you guys who like things looking...well, I don't want to use the word "prissy"...but as close to stock as possible, at least for a part held on with a hose clamp.

I picked up some goodies last weekend - an Edelbrock Performer intake manifold and a pair of Edelbrock aluminum valve covers. They're a little grubby, but will clean up just fine.

Also grabbed a set of brake rotors to replace the wavy ones in the truck new, and some fuel lines and filters. There's one on the engine and two under the bed where my aux. tanks and main tank feeds come together.

[DarkMonohue]

So...that Performer manifold isn't going to do much good without a carburetor. Good timing, apparently, since there suddenly seems to be some dirt in the existing carb's idle circuit. It's acting just like it has a vacuum leak, but I can't find one anywhere.

Anyway, here are a couple of semi-local candidates:

[removed dead links]

I am just getting started researching these things. Really, I was hoping to go directly to MegaSquirt (I've had it on another car I own for years) but may get cheap and stay carbureted. The Holley 4010 (or Autolite 4100) looks to have a small but loyal following, but the Holley 4180 may be more adjustable and tuneable. That's fine with me. Complication for its own sake is no advantage, but being able to really tweak the fuel curve and dial everything in just right is appealing.

I should probably clean that Performer up and sell/trade it for an EGR version so I can keep that system functional.

[Ristow]

the 4010 was short lived. a love hate carb,dependant on if yours worked or not. you will have a hard time geting it to seal at the base,holley has the vacuum runners very close to the edge on the bottom of the mount flange. that carb was many great ideas that didn't work out once packaged. pass on it.


skip the plain 4160.


buy that 4180. send it to me with a kit. i'll return it better than ever and fully adjustable. note the annular boosters.


i wouldn't bother with egr. keep what you have.

[DarkMonohue]

that (4010) carb was many great ideas that didn't work out once packaged. pass on it.

Noted. I'm not opposed to a bit of setup and correction, taking out the mistakes and generally making a good idea work in practice, if there's anything about the 4010 that really warrants it. If not, 4180 it is, though it's probably worth checking local wrecking yards to see if I can find a good one that doesn't involve a two-hour drive. The posting above has been deleted.

skip the plain 4160. buy that 4180. send it to me with a kit. i'll return it better than ever and fully adjustable. note the annular boosters.

Obviously we can assume the throttle shafts will need rebushed and the carb will have to be thoroughly disassembled and cleaned to be worth messing with. Beyond that, if it's not complicating the thread or repeating something you've already posted, what are the must-have mods on a 4180?

If I have to stay carbureted, I absolutely want annular boosters, at least on the primaries. That's one of the reasons I was considering the 4100/4010.

I can borrow the wideband oxygen sensor system from my car to help with jetting and calibration and am generally not opposed to doing most work myself.

i wouldn't bother with egr. keep what you have.

Really? It'd sure be nice to reduce pumping losses and improve mileage a bit.

[Ristow]

i don't buy the pumping loss thing on egr. i don't think it a detectable remedy. it also slows combustion time,which is bad. i don't think it increases economy either. not in my experience.

the 4180 needs to be recalibrated,as it is an oem epa era carb,and the calibration varies according to engine application. from the 302 to the 460.

i bush the shafts with brass or bronze. i remove the air bleeds,idle jets,and drill out the pvrc's,and replace all with screw in jets. i drill the needed dowel hole on the secondary side so another 4180 metering block can be used on the rear,making it a 4150 style.

[DarkMonohue]

That list sounds like pretty much all the tricks you've discovered (or uncovered) in the threads I've been reading. What would you need to charge to do that?

[Ristow]

just send it minus the choke cap.

[DarkMonohue]

I feel like an ungrateful cad saying this, but I am definitely leaning toward MegaSquirt and TBI. Carbs are sounding less and less attractive. I know they can be very good if set up right, but it just makes sense to use EFI if it's feasible.

Anyway, speaking of fuel, I replaced the underhood fuel filter (along with some fuel hose and a few other things) a week or so back, and got under the truck after work today and replaced more fuel hose and another inline filter right off the gas tank. I'm guessing this filter was installed when the auxiliary tanks were put in. The filter was so clogged I couldn't blow through it. The new filter seems to have cured the fuel starvation. I gave it a WOT test on a freeway on-ramp with an uphill grade, and the truck pulled all the way up to and through the speed limit with no indication of trouble. I'm not saying it's fast, but at least it doesn't lay down and die after a few seconds of open throttle.

[DarkMonohue]

Not a lot to report lately. The old beast has been slogging back and forth to work, knocking down almost 11 miles per gallon and pushing a lot of oil out through the rear main seal. So it's parked for a bit while I negotiate the next round of repairs.

I was supposed to have a new Warn hub inbound from down in Coos Bay, but the seller just cashed the check and then stopped answering his phone. Cops say it's a civil matter if I want to open a case for the grand sum of $37. Maybe his grandma took ill, maybe he got laid up in the hospital, but a little communication would be nice. Just irritating as all hell...

Anyway, a buddy of mine finally collected the springs I bought from pcoplin last summer (thanks Paul!) and should be bringing them to me next weekend. So in lieu of actually accomplishing anything, I roughed out a very (!) crude pic of before and after the install. Marvel at my astounding Photoshop skills!

Stock sits like so:




The new springs should put it right about here:




So...there we are. Now to figure out what shocks I want and all that mess.

[mnewxcv]

I really like the GW grill on the j truck. I want one now...

[DarkMonohue]

Ha, thanks. I actually would prefer a muscle grill, but this was the only thing I could find at the time.

[DarkMonohue]

It's been a while since my last update. Not much has changed other than a prodigious oil leak, apparently out of the rear main seal, and a few little details. The truck is still running strong and asking little.

Heat and defrost have never been great. I tried a new thermostat, a 195*F Stant Superstat, thinking that my existing piece might be a 180* unit. It was actually the original Robertshaw 195* thermostat complete with AMC part number. It actually worked a lot better than the Stant junk, so it will go back in after I find time to do a chemical flush of the cooling system. In the process, I cracked the t-stat housing, but had an extra cast iron part sitting around. Got lucky there.

Last weekend I visited one of the local pick-and-pull wrecking yards and found a total of one FSJ, a lonely and picked-over '83 Wagoneer. It gave me a few goodies: two door speaker grilles and one door speaker bracket, a digital clock, and factory intermittent wiper switch and module. I took them to work today (all my tools are there) and verified that the clock works. I didn't have time to wire that in, but I did get the wiper switch and module installed after work. It works as it should, so I can get rid of the very tacky aftermarket intermittent wiper controller that was hanging out of the ashtray hole. As a bonus, the windshield washers work now as well. Score!

Oh, and the driver's side windshield wiper has always chattered badly on the upstroke, so I twisted the wiper arm with two Crescent wrenches so that the wiper rubber is dragged along the glass rather than pushed across it. Now the wipers work smoothly in both directions. Of course, as soon as I fixed it, it stopped raining...

[DarkMonohue]

Time for a little update. Nothing exciting. Truck started running fluffy on tip-in last week. It idled fine, but as soon as the throttle was opened a little, it fell down. Ran great if I gave it a boot full of dinosaurs or backed out completely.

OK, so that's an easy one to diagnose. Debris in one of the idle circuits playing hell with transition. Again. Sure enough, here's what the float bowl looked like:




With that much aquarium gravel I almost expected to find a family of sea monkeys swimming around. Luckily we have a vacuum-style brake bleeder at work, which worked well to slurp all that crap out of the float bowl. Several alternating shots of elbow grease, carb cleaner, and compressed air got it to looking suchaways:




And now it runs like it did before. Again.

Also, now wearing an argent muscle grille from HOOT. Much better. No pics of that yet.

[DarkMonohue]

Well.

On account of a hell of a lot of fog and a bit of bad luck, I now have one slightly abbreviated Grand Cherokee. Pre-squish, it was a very clean example w/ 147K miles. One family since new, always adult owned, never thrashed. Has 31s, a Rubicon Express 3.5" lift, brand new Bilsteins, IRO front track bar, Addco rear sway bar, and was halfway through a comprehensive maintenance exercise. And then, the fog, the luck, the surreal early-morning phone calls, the wife going to the chiropractor every so often, and the sad, muddy, earthy, Jeeply remains dumped unceremoniously behind my place of employment, a constant reminder than I am now married to 4500 pounds of not quite a car.

Getting the ZJ back on the road would require, at a minimum, a new front axle housing, hood, LF fender, front lights, radiator, A/C condenser, upper radius rod, etc., and probably a lot of nickel and dime crap along the way.

Under the influence of fog of the mental variety, I'm contemplating pulling the Magnum 5.2/46RH combo out of the ZJ and stabbing it into the J20. Which would naturally involve wiring, plumbing, mounts, and replacing the NV249 with something more suitable.

Feel free to leave comments and suggestions here while I go tank up on absinthe and let the visions fly me around for a while.