Pimpin my whip

  I had a blast these past couple of weeks working on my 2000 Jeep Wrangler TJ. I ran into many problems throughout the project and overcame some. Having parts fail on the building stage just gives you more ideas on how you can reinforce them. That’s why I was never upset when things didn’t go as planned.  Looking back to a few weeks before project period, I took the entire exhaust off trying to fit the original headers that came with this turbo kit. The kit reconfigured the stock systems in order to flow air into the turbo. The original idea was to change the exhaust manifold into a single dump manifold that would connect to your turbo inlet pipe. This failed because the headers included in the kit rubbed up against the intake manifold, causing air to get in through the gasket. We didn’t realize our problem at first so we bolted the fuel rails and our throttle body back on and started her up. The car turned over right away and instantly rode up to redline. I couldn’t get a read on our

  Week 2 was starting strong with a running jeep. There was a lot that needed to be done to the car but it is a good start considering that it drives. My plan of attack this week was going to be finding a welder to fabricate the turbo kit. Then I was going to heat shield my injectors to avoid heat soaking the fuel. I was able to get a lot done but not enough.  On Monday I started out in Massachusetts trying to find a pipe that we will use to link our turbo inlet pipe. I ended up finding a catted pipe for pretty cheap that will run from my headers to the inlet pipe. I got it shipped up by Tuesday so I could get working on the car. I contacted a few welders to see if they would be able to weld my pipe in time to get the car to proctor. After 2 days of calling around for availability, I couldn’t find anyone to do it in my time frame. This left me with the product I started with, and a few more bolt on and protection mods I could put on there. I ended up wrapping the injectors with fibergl

 I spent my final day driving back up to new hamshire and packing the inside of the jeep with all my tools to get ready to bring her home. I disassembled all my spare parts out of the barns in wilmot and put them in a safe space before being transported home. I also took the time to scrub the barn floors clean so all the coolant, power steering fluid, and gasoline was off the floor before I left. This was a total of 7 hours at the house cleaning up, including a 2 hour drive in the morning. 

 Day 11 I was down in Massachusetts cleaning up the boxes at  home that the turbo kit came in. All the stuff that I had put on the jeep came in big boxes that I was able to throw away. I also worked on getting any unused parts off the floor of the garage and packaged up to get returned. Most of the parts I had bought in the beginning of the project will never see the car. Spent 6 hours cleaning the garage and 3 hours getting new boxes and styrofoam to package all the stuff up.

 On the tenth day of this journey I continued to work on fixing the dent i had put in the quarter panel. I also washed off the steering wheel and the inside of the car. This was about 4 hours in the morning of work. I went back over there that afternoon to finish torquing everything to factory spec. This will help everything sit in the right spot without damaging anything. If I had those bolts on loose I could possibly run into the same problem I started the week with.  Put in a total of 9 hours that day. 

 On day 9 I was trying to get my passenger door fixed. It is stuck on the handle side so the door won’t open from either handle. I unbolted the front side of the door (mirrors, and hinges) I began wrenching the door out hoping to break the clip that the door handles control. I ended up bending the side of the jeep and ruining the car more while trying to do this so I stopped after a few hours of finagling the door. This made me incredibly upset considering the car is more broken than what I started with. This took me about 6 hours to prep the door and try to get it back in place after destroying everything. 

 Day 8 I took the car out for a drive in the morning to make sure everything still worked fine. I noticed a gasoline leak on cylinder 4 so I needed to take the injection system off again… this resulted in 4 more hours of replacing rubber gaskets that are wrapped around the inside of the injectors, there was no visible damage to the ring that went bad, but I replaced it, and the problem was solved. Once the injectors were done for the third time I threw in the towel for the day and clocked in a total of 6 hours. 

 On day 7 I called around to some local shops to try to get someone to weld the kit. Couldn’t find anyone who could take on the job at this point. I took my fuel rails and injectors back out to put some heat shielding in between the manifolds and my injectors, total time spent was 8 hours.

 Day 6 I began shopping for piping in the morning to weld into the pre existing turbo kit, me and Chris drove down to Boston to pick up a y pipe that will split under the front pipe on the bottom of the car. We were out for about 3 hours on the morning then came home to pack up the rest of the turbo kit to bring up north. This was a total of 9 hours considering the drive time up and down from Boston and Andover.

  Tyson D’Orio Senior Project  May 14, 2023 Week 1 of Senior project was very successful considering the amount of time I had put in. It didn’t take me long at all to get the car started up so I could test what was wrong. I was concerned about how productive I was going to be considering I didn’t have much packed on Monday. Things ended up taking a turn on Tuesday morning.  I had a friend go over to the house and pack my tools into the Jeep and coordinate a tow truck to bring it up. The towing company came Tuesday morning and picked the car up. They hauled it through Mass and up to Wilmot. When it arrived I had already spent Monday morning disassembling an intake manifold and an exhaust manifold. This helped me out big time. On Tuesday afternoon when I got back from practice, I began assembling the sensors on the new throttle body. After that, I got my injectors mounted inside the fuel rails and sealed them to the intake manifold. I spend some time that day putting together a list of w

 Day 5 was a drag since I didn’t have any new parts to put on the car. I worked for an hour or 2 checking for exhaust leaks and making sure those new gaskets were sealed up nice. Ended up braking my garage door so I needed to move my tools out of the garage so they didn’t get stolen. Called the garage guys and got a date on when they could come. Had lunch with Don McCarthy mid day to take off some weight. Got back to an hour of wiring work in the afternoon. Total of 4 hours of work on Friday. 

I started my Thursday morning off going for a (little ride) this turned into a coolant bust that covered the motor in coolant. It was originally leaking powersteering fluid, I went over to the hardware store to fix the leaks but it ended up being an hour in the parking lot waiting for the engine to cool down. I couldn’t get my hands in there to fix it without burning them. This took up 2 and a half hours of my morning. I spend a few hours flushing that coolant again since it was a funky color. I might need to replace a gasket or 2 starting next week so I don’t get any more leaks. Spend a total of 6 hours in the garage and 2 hours on the road fixing the jeep, another half hour of driving time. 

 On day 3 I swapped the valve cover gasket and tuned the throttle body. Worked on sealing up the coolant lines and also patching the power steering system. It was leaking fluid after the first drive. Worked for about 6 hours in the morning then had a game. First day I logged 7 hours, and day 2 I logged 8. Work will be slowing down for a few days before the test pipes come in. 

 Day 2 was a big day for the operation. Jeep got hauled up to wilmot in the morning. I began unloading tools and parts out of the truck to get me ready to roll. Headed out to baseball practice shortly after the arrival of the jeep. When I got back I began assembling the sensors on the new throttle body (circular part with butterfly valve in the middle). After that I got my injectors mounted inside the fuel rails and sealed them to the intake manifold. Spend some time putting together a list of what I needed from Massachusetts and the hardware store. 

 Spend my morning in Massachusetts disassembling an intake manifold and an exhaust manifold off the jeep. This will get the car prepped to tow. I packaged all my tools and parts inside the car so it can get shipped inside. I packed all the turbo kit parts into boxes and got it ready for shipping.