The Mudhole's Product Review Page

 

Hey there, thanks for stopping in. Here you will find opinion's on products used by myself and some of my friends.No biased magazine reviews, just good ole knowledge from having installed something and seeing how it worked or didn't work!

YJ 3-1/2" Superlift Suspension Kit...

Let me start off by saying that this was a pretty complete kit. The only additional things I needed to order were a drop pitman arm and extended brake lines. The kit came with brake line relocation brackets which worked, but I preferred to use extended lines instead of relocating their mounting points. The instructions I found were pretty complete, though very vague in many areas. Sometimes you need more than just a "remove bolt a". It also missed a couple of steps when it came to relocation of the front track bar (which I just removed anyhow). Granted a CJ/YJ spring change is not the most complicated of tasks. (thankfully!). I would highly recommend hitting all of the bolts (spring hangers, spring shackles/transfer case) with some heavy duty break-free every other day for about a week before starting this. Those bolts can be on pretty hard and some are sure knuckle busters! You will need a pitman arm puller if you are installing a drop pitman arm. You can install this lift without a drop arm, but be ready for a TON of bump steer. (I drove it around the block without the new arm just to see what it would be like!). The rear springs come with shims already installed that rotated the rear axle up towards the transfer case and with the included tranny case drop brackets, effectively eliminated 99% of vibration. There is still some, but with 33 inch mud tires, some is to be expected on all but the smoothest of roads. Installation took about 6 hours with two people working with hand tools, a 3 ton jack and 4 jack stands. One note, in the rear, you will have to walk the rear shackles a lil to clear the gas tank if you dont want to drop the tank for additional clearance.

My thoughts now that I have had the lift installed for about 2 years. The ride is about what I expected, though not as supple as alot of people would lead you to believe when you read write-ups in some popular mags. Some of which I "assume" is from my using the stock shackles which do limit some of the spring movement. It does flex relatively well and the ride though stiff is not unbearably so. I do not have the front or rear track bars installed and I also removed the anti-sway bar. The only time you notice that missing is if you attempt to sports car handle on an on/off ramp, then there is some noticeable body lean, but nothing that cannot be compensated for by picking the foot up off the gas! The driver side has started to sag a little compared to the right in the past two years, but is not overly noticeable. I would recommend this lift to anyone who was looking for 3-4 inches of lift and did not want to do an SOA conversion.

Weber 32/36 Carb...

After getting tired of constantly dealing with clogged idle tubes and other problems, I broke down and bought a Weber. A swap I should have done long ago!! Guess you know where this is going :) The first thing I did was put the stock computer to sleep using the Nutter "upgrade". Removing the old Weber/Carter (yep..weber had a hand in the stock carb too) was pretty straight forward. Unplug the computer control module in the back, remove the linkages, vacuum hoses (be sure to mark them so you know where to hook them back up!) and remove the four bolts holding it to the manifold. Installation of the Weber is a bit more complicated. You have to install a new mounting pad and then the carb on top of that. The included instructions were exceptional. They didnt miss a beat, even though the instructions covered several different models. Setup of the carb once installed was a breeze. It ran right from the box and only took about 20 minutes of tweaking to get it set just right. Again the included instructions were very detailed and made it an easy tweak. I haven't seen any increase in fuel mileage, however driveability is much improved!. The seat of the pants is there whenever you step on the gas, be it from idle or on the hwy when you are already running 65 and want to pass that semi. Off camber it hasn't stuttered once. I highly recommend this mod to anyone looking for something better than the stock carb and who is like me, a lil too poor to get the Mopar MPI kit (but that is coming next spring!).

Borla Exhaust Manifold (ie..Header)...

There are alot of different exhaust manifolds that you could bolt onto your 4.2 (or 4.0). I originally had replaced the factor cast iron manifold with a Pacesetter exhaust manifold (see next review). There is a world of difference in the two! When you go to remove your factory manifold, be ready to fabricate a new EGR line. I salvaged the fittings from the factory line and tweaked some aluminum tubing I was able to get my hands on. The factory exhaust and intake have to come off as a unit (they are attached though the egr tubing) and can be quite a handful when you first pull it loose. Ease of installation was easier than expected considering the siamesed nature of the 4.2 intake/exhaust ports (especially compared to bolting the Pacesetter on). And the included hook-ups ran right to the front of the catalytic converter allowing for a true bolt-in upgrade. The header is designed to run down the side of the engine and the downpipe actually goes behind the oil pan for some additional clearance. The main place I have seen any improvement from the Borla is on top end and highway cruising. It hasn't hurt the bottom end, but it hasn't increased it either. Mainly due to the large primary tubes I would garner to guess. A smaller tube size would help the bottom end, but would dampen the breathing as the revs wind up some. Overall, its definitely a ton better than the factory exhaust manifold. A little less bottom end grunt than the Pacesetter gave, but a better overall performer all the way through the powerband. Highly recommended, other than the price, which is a bit up there. Hard to comment on the change in sound, when I installed the Borla I also put on a new cat and TFX catback system.

Pacesetter Exhaust Manifold (ie..Header)...

As i started the previous review, there are a ton of different exhaust headers out there. The first one I used was the Pacesetter. It's a decent header, a smaller primary tube design than the Borla. I won't go into the details of removing the stock exhaust since I just did that. Installing the Pacesetter is a b*tch! It is a two piece design using a 3 into 1 style with those two collectors dumping into a single collector right in front of the catalytic converter. The final collector is a separate piece which you can't bolt on until you have the manifold in place on the engine, which leaves very little room for knuckles, much less a wrench to get in and tighten the bolts down which will be right against the front of the oil pan.Getting the manifold to seal took some doing, the included gasket was basically worthless (just my opinion since I had already bought a fel-pro gasket to use anyhow). I had several problems with the #3 cylinder bolt wanting to back out. Also the primary tubes do not give much clearance around the motor mount. It never rubbed through, but I was always worried about it. And my final b*tch about the header was something I already noted. The way the design is with the connector for the collector being under the oil pan made it very hard to get to and properly adjust the bolts to get the right amount of tension all the way around to get a proper seal. Installing this header took me the better part of a day getting it all sealed up and hooked up to the exhaust system. Giving credit where credit is due. This thing was a BEAR on the bottom end. It felt like the old YJ had a new engine in it and could pull a house down. Up around 3,000-3,500 rpm you could feel it bog a bit, but it had a ton of grunt right off idle. And the price was definitely right, it is about $200 LESS than the Borla. It had a nice solid sound, a tad bit rappy through the stock exhaust instead of a rumble, but definitely not sounding like a honda!

Rancho RS-5000 Steering Stabilizer...

Pretty straight forward on this one. Easy installation, definitely was needed. With the 33's, the stock stabilizer was worn out about 2 years ago! <g>.. The included instructions left out the fact that you needed a puller to get the old stabilizer off! But then again so did Haynes and Chilton's! Got to love that "remove old stabilizer" as an instruction! Once i figured that out, this took all of 20 minutes. It cut way down on front end wander, shimmy on washboard/grooved roads, so all I can say is I recommend it.