Grand Cherokee modifications.

[JakeC]

I'm not sure where to start a build thread, so I figured this may be the place. Have been reading over some of the threads on the site, and have had my eye on making a grill block, and a belly pan. I love my Jeep and can't seem to get rid of it, so i figured what the heck, may as well try and make it more economical to drive. I currently drive clear across the state of Indiana for school every week, so usually i drive anywhere from 350 to 700 miles a week. Last week alone i drove around 700.

Here's the Jeep:





192,XXX miles and counting and it drives better than any car I've ever owned. and at the age of 21, I've owned 6.

Here's the grill block, made out of some thick plastic material that is used to secure doors to the pallets that they come in on, at The Home Depot where I work.






Here's the beginning of the belly pan, made from the same material.









Also, here's the transfer case swap that I am currently in the middle of. My Jeep is the limited version and came with the np249 quadra-trac transfer case, meaning that it has all-wheel drive. I would rather have the option of two wheel drive, so I bought this np242 transfer case with selec-trac from a wrecked 1999 Jeep Cherokee. I'm in the process of getting the drive shaft shortened a little bit, so that it will fit like it should. Hopefully all goes well, and I can start driving it by Friday.

[JakeC]

I haven't found been able to come up with a permanent solution to attach the belly pan, I can easily attach the front of it with some screws, by screwing it into the plastic lip on the bottom of the grill, but I was toying with the idea of using some sort of rope or zip ties and attaching it to the frame or front axle. I don't have a welder, so that isn't an option for me. Any ideas?

And actually, this thread probably needs to be moved to Aerodynamics.

[mcrews]

zip ties work great!!!

[arcosine]

You'll need some air flow through the engine or it will overheat, especially in slow traffic.

[JakeC]

The grill block at the moment, isn't permanent and most likely will not be. Grand Cherokees run at a pretty high temperature, so I definitely do not want it to overheat considering i'll be driving a long distance. After I get the Jeep running again, i'll do some testing to test which configuration works the best. Overheating probably will not occur in the very cold weather that the winter will bring, and in that case I'll try all grill blocks in to see if it alters my mpg. Most likely the center one will not be in while driving to add some airflow to the engine. Also, everything will be painted black to be less conspicuous.

I picked up some screws today that were left over at work, so I'll begin screwing the front of the belly pan on. It'd be great if i could find enough materials to make this 100% recycled.

[JakeC]

After a heck of a lot of work, and so many things going wrong, It liiiiiiiiiiiiives again. Had to get the rear drive shaft shortened to fit with the new transfer case, so instead of having all wheel drive, I've got 2wd, 4part-time, all wheel drive, n, and 4lo. Also had to buy a new battery due to a crack in the top of the battery. When it goes bad, it always seems to get worse.

When i first read about the project that has been done by many other jeepers, I was severely intimidated by it. But after buying a few wrong transfer cases, banged up knuckles, and loads of grease, I've completed a project that I feel was worth the learning experience.

It should be interesting to see if I can get better mpg with the 2wd instead of the Awd. Sometime this week, I'm going to buy a couple cans of .97 spray paint and paint the grill blocks and the belly pan (not really sure if that's what it should be called) and figure out a way to get it attached.

Next project, will be adding a warm air intake. It's starting to get cooler, and I feel a warm air intake is pretty easily achievable.