Joe Handley

WOW, and I thought the Aztec was the fugliest thing on wheels

hmmmm, this ain't good....just found the "Battle of the Bulge" "Armored" version of this on the shelf http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti00...=LXFHL3&P=7

That one probably had a Chevy motor in it

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Jeep-Rat-Ro...d=p4506.c0.m245

Sorry to make it sound like that didn't solve anything, I ment to say that this fixed it and it runs no hotter than it did before the pump came apart!

One fine looking model!

Just saw that whe I went to check my e-mail, what a shame

Dad and I got it back together today and it running the same temps as it did before the pump failed

After what he did to CB's finger, Mr. Squirly is fine by me

Dad already had a t-stat when he discovered the WP problem and IIRC it's either 195* or 205* on that. The plugs are Bosche Platinums that I put in at 77k and were the ones that were supposed to be for the 4.0l (counter worker handed them to me, so I had no further influence in what he looked up) so they should be the proper heat range.

A Daytona C/S, That can't even be as common as your Plymouth was I see you relocated you battery to a better location, but I do have to ask, did you add a computer fan to the SMEC module to help keep it cool at low speeds and idle? Had that problem with the underhood computer on the Lebaron a couple times and a ziplock bag of ice worked wonders in a pinch

I'll ask about that, IIRC there was an article in Street Rodder about that 10 years ago and thought about getting a couple for my K-Cars since they used aluminum heads on Nickle-Iron blocks but never got around to trying to find them locally (didn't even have the internet at the time). I may replace the lower hose while it's apart and save the current one as a spare too.

What's odd is that we've had 3 other 4.0l Cherokees that ran over 200k that didn't have this problem with any of their water pumps.

Dad did flush the cooling system yesterday and I'm hoping to get my radiator back from the shop monday, I guess they were going to boil it and roddit out so it's completely cleaned out! Dad thinks the impeller was aluminum and with the rest of the engine being cast iron, electrolisis would explain what happened. I'm wondering if that may have been changed between late '97/early '98 when mine was built and '07 when the replacement was built though.

My '98 Cherokee started running kinda warm the other night on the way home from the gym and the next morning on the way to work I stopped at a 7-11 and the coolant bottle was gurgling and vibrating a bit violently. Normally it'll run in the 190-200* with the 3 row radiator but is currently running around 210-235* no matter if it's 69* and 10:30 at night or 85* and 1pm. I did add about 1/2 gallon of coolant/water mix between the radiator and overflow bottle (which put it about 1/2 full) and took it for a quick test drive on lunch. It was fine until the about 10 minutes or so in when the needle got into the 210+ range and stayed there until I got back to the store and turned the engine off, then it started puking some coolant out of the overflow bottle as well as having the bottle vibrating a second time. Dad and I weren't sure if it's a major lack of coolant, dieing fans or water pump, or faulty thermostat and I couldn't seem to find any obvious leaks. The fans, water pump, (the plugged) heater core, upper radiator hose, and heater hoses were all factory 131k mile originals while the all brass 3 row radiator (Trans Pro), thermostat (MOPAR Parts), and lower hose (also MOPAR Parts) were installed at 88k. Friday Dad started to take the truck apart and at least swap out the T-Stat and try to flush the radiator, but suggested that I try to get another just in case. I called the radiator shop I bought this one at (for $190 or so) and was told that this one was discontinued and the only choice was a factory replacement aluminum w/ plastic end cap for $115. I also asked if they had ways of cleaning it out if it wasn't leaking and they could do that to (looks to be about $90 or so with tax!) The radiator didn't have a leak but Dad decided to drop it off their and have them clean it out even though he managed to get some pretty decent water flow through it. While Dad was driving me to work he suggested that I call and a friend of mine that works at a local NAPA certified service center that used to be a Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge dealer and give members of my Jeep club discounts to see if they had any water pumps in stock for the it and he'd swap it out while the truck was apart. They had reman's for less than $50 and new for $120 but with my discount the new one would cost around $85, so I had that one put on hold so Dad could pick it up after dropping me off at work. when he took the OEM water pump off it had all but one of the blades corrode off of it, the only time I remember seeing that happening to somebody else on NAXJA.org in late 2003 or sometime during 2004 had the same problem. All of these pics were shot while the parts were sitting in the back of Dad's '90 Laredo this morning. Here's the new and old pumps together. The new one alone and the box for it All that's left is to get the radiator back from the shop and put the truck the rest of the way back together, Dad's thinking it's going to run even cooler now than it did with the just the radiator swap!

Ummmm.....IIRC, didn't Bruce Lee have issues driving the original?

Looks good! I'm clueless as to why, but it reminds me of a strawberry Pop-Tart for some odd reason

Visually, that car is down right sexy compared to that Ferrari (kinda ugly if you ask me) and the F1 (visually boring compared to this)!

Heres one of the last pics of my first car, an '85 Lebaron GTS Turbo, bought it with 101k on the clock in '95 for $2300 and scrapped in 8 years later in early 2004 with 150k on the clock. I jumped the timing belt and it ran well enough to get home and ended up replacing it for good with the Cherokee I'm currently driving because the car was so rusty. It was a decently reliable, suprisingly fast little car that was also fairly easy for me to work on. It's also the only FWD car my Dad has ever driven that he could actually trusted to push hard and even gave a few guys in a then new mid 90's Impala SS (with loud exhaust and cross flags on the front fenders) a serious run for their money, Dad just doesn't know how fast they were going since the speedo only went to 85 MPH but the guys in the Impala were looking at him awful funny My little sister even drove it during high school and when of her friends and co-worker announced that his '91 Caprice was "The Beast" (yup, all 305ci of TBI thunder ), another friend and co-worker told him "Your car isn't "The Beast", Nicki's is!" Wouldn't mind finding another, this was a pretty fun and stealthy car!

I'm going for real on this one....as well as one sweet looking build no matter what scale it happens to be!

Anybody know if there's footage on line of the "Winged Express" being driven by Wild Willy himself?

Yup, and the Navy has been using the process for years now on their nuke subs to produce oxygen too!

Looks good, did you start with the A-Team van?

I guess depending on how you look at it, since it's our money that funded this program, wouldn't those be our cars?

It wouldn't be the first time I've seen a 40-41 Willys like that......................