They are EXPENSIVE. Read more

Oh, there’s obviously nothing inclusive about political chants at a racing event. (And to be transparent: I myself no major beef with Joe).

My only use of the term “inclusive” in my story referred to why I’m not interested in expensive race vehicles, and why I instead ditched the race to drive a vehicle that more… Read more

Burned. Read more

I only mentioned it because it was an overwhelming theme, and to ignore it would be to ignore a key vibe of this event.

You should absolutely get into off-roading. KOH is just a snippet. Read more

You make a lot of great points, and certainly many mistakes in the area of serviceability are the faults of pressures from purchasing/higher management. But engineers absolutely make errors in this area, and I stand firmly by my assertion that the vast majority of engineers do not wrench (or if they do, it’s rare and… Read more

Right! Read more

Same. Read more

You know what, after thinking about it a little more, actually often times it IS the engineers’ fault. Read more

I feel that! At Chrysler, the fact that the “Powertrain Team” was a separate entity from the “Vehicle Team” is literal insanity, and caused soooo many problems.
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Yes, absolutely. I sort of alluded to this when I mentioned the Versa’s engine going into other vehicles that might not have room in front for a manifold.

Developing cars is so incredibly complex, with pressures from purchasing and higher management.

Often times, if engineers had their way, a car would be better.… Read more

Holy crap! Read more

I’d have just spray painted it black so it looks like a base model without fogs. Read more

You poor, poor bastard. Read more

I think you just have to see the access that I have to high-quality, but dirt cheap parts. The junkyards here are full of excellence and Jeeps are cheap to begin with.

That clutch kit that so many are saying is cheap was a LUK kit — as good as they come, and only $123.

It’s not hard to build something robust for little… Read more

*10 years Read more

I just want to mention that Jake is the man who taught me how to wrench over 20 years ago. He was the president of JMU’s car club, I was founder of UVA’s.

We became friends; now we’re both involved in automotive media. Small world.

The dude is awesome. Read more

I’ve thought about going 8.8, but I want to keep this a 100% Jeep build (sans things like control arms and lift springs).

The Dana 44A that I pulled from a 5.9 is gonna need a truss to keep the center housing from flexing, wiping out the bearings. Hopefully it’ll hold up otherwise. I’m going to have to test it… Read more

The beauty of the junkyard is that sometimes cheap shit IS strong shit.

I’ve got some high-quality Rubicon Express springs going up front. Gonna throw the fronts in the rear (a common mod for a rear lift).  Read more

In central/South America, ZJ parts should be plentiful, given that Jeep built ZJs in Argentina and Venezuela. When I head to Africa, yes, things could get tricky.

As for Jeeps being poorly engineered — I think that’s true in many cases. It’s certainly not the case with the 4.0-liter straight six/AX-15 five-speed… Read more

I’ll probably die young as a result. So YOU’RE WELCOME. Read more