Trying to get it mostly right the first time: A 5.9 and 46RE swapped Tummy Tucked Daily Driven Jeep TJ

[dgoodwin10]

It’s road trip time!

After all the work I’d put into the TJ to get to this trip I was beyond excited. Maybe even a little giddy. My wife and I got loaded up and headed out about 2pm, dropped the dog off for boarding and hopped on I-459 headed east at (roughly) 70mph with the A/C going. It was in the 60s outside, so not that hot but warm enough to want some conditioned air. It was peak leaf season and we wanted to take the backroads route, so we chose to drive I-59 to Gadsden, AL and cut over to Blue Ridge, GA with Maggie Valley, NC being the final destination to meet up with some close friends to spend a weekend together. Did I mention that I was beside myself since this trip was actually happening?

About 20 miles in the temperature gauge starts creeping up again and eventually pegs at 260. Crap. I pull over at the next exit, let it idle for a few minutes until the temperature gauge slammed back to 210, hop back on the interstate and keep rolling.

Only for the TJ to overheat again in a few miles.

I find a gas station to pull into and let it cool down. Again. This time, I’m pretty frustrated and starting to feel defeated. We were far enough into the trip that I needed to make the call to either turn around and head home to get another vehicle or turn the A/C off, hope that fixes the problem, and send it. At this point, I'd come too far and put in too much work to call it quits so I made the call to run with the A/C off and deal with a little butt sweat.

We merge onto I-59 headed toward Gadsen and clicked off 120+/- trouble free miles until our first stop in northern Georgia. Bucees.

In Blue Ridge we spotted this rad VW suv turned rock crawler.

We rolled into (I’m guessing – don't remember exactly) Murphy, NC well after dark and came into 30+ miles of 2 lane mountain roads and heavy rainfall. The added weight in the back of the Jeep had apparently aimed my headlights directly at oncoming traffic and I was getting constantly flashed by making already poor visibility even worse. I hate being THAT guy, but that was an issue to deal with later. Add to that a little (okay, lot) of hanger, the little bit of drama earlier in the day, ZERO phone service and my nerves were SHOT. I’d never been happier to see a 4 lane road in my life.

The remainder of the drive went without issue and we pulled into the cabin at 9pm where our friends were already there waiting on us. We proceeded to stay up until well after 1am catching up on life. The next 2 days were spent exploring the area.
We rolled out Monday morning headed to the Biltmore house then to an AirBnB in Knoxville via Tail of the Dragon, a popular road among the sports car / bike crowd with 318 turns in 11 miles. I’m a bit of a construction nerd and really enjoyed BIltmore and would highly recommend that anyone go at least once.

The route from Asheville to Knoxville was almost entirely on backroads and man were the views worth it! The route took us through winding 2 lane backroads and spent a lot of time along the Little Tennessee River. The Jeep didn’t miss a beat and cruised the backroads like a champ.

We completed the Tail of the Dragon as the sun was setting and pulled up to our AirBnB in Knoxville at dinner time.

 

[dgoodwin10]

Road Trip Day #5 (aka Tuesday)

We had 2 days in Knoxville so I got to plan one and my wife the other. So I did the right thing and took us to Windrock, which was only 45 mins away. The general plan was to see the scenic overlook on G9, grab lunch at the prison and possibly hit Caryville Flatts if time (and the tone of the day) allowed. My wife supports this crazy hobby but doesn’t have much interest in participating so I was well aware that I needed to ‘read the room’ and make sure we weren’t broken on the trail past dark. I’m not a fan of wheeling alone and was banking on the park being busy enough to make me feel better about being solo since it’s always been busy when I’ve been in years past.

Side bar - My last trip here ended with a 4 seat RZR breaking an entire corner off the rig and having to be towed up the hardest trail in the park (Trail 39 to Cadillac Hill) by 2 RZRs daisy chained together. I walked most of the trail a few times over helping pull cable for 5 rigs to get us home. At 3am. The most fun I’d rather not have again for a while.

We started the day getting passes at the new General Store and were greeted with a mostly empty parking lot – I guess I’d never been here on a Tuesday before! I also found out the prison was closed during weekdays so we picked up some snacks for lunch. We made it up to the overlook on G9 (which is a paved road...nothing to write home about). This stop included the obligatory poser shots too.

G9 is a main access road and a former mining road, so the top gravels have worn off and left the large stone base exposed. I’ve only ever ridden Windrock in RZRs and take for granted just how good the suspension and ride quality is on those rigs. With that as my reference, I was severely disappointed with how the Jeep rode - even aired down the trip to the overlook was rough. Really rough. G9 is a large loop that goes back to the General Store, so I made the decision to head back to the store and re-group.
We bounced down a few more miles of trail and I hear the Jeep chime, look down and see the fuel gauge on empty (which I knew wasn’t correct since I’d just filled up), and then the Jeep started to sputter and die, thankfully not in a mud hole. Keep in mind, we’re well into the park and have barely seen anyone all day. So this was going swell. Since the fuel gauge and fuel pump both died I figured the wiring harness had come unplugged and sure enough, the connector had come unplugged. I was able to get us back running with a few zip ties to hold the connector together. The Jeep fired right back up so I put it in gear and kept making tracks toward the General Store, only to have the Jeep randomly sputter for a few seconds at a time on the trip back. But we made it.

I knew at this point it was best to call it a day and head back to Knoxville with my tail between my legs and feeling quite defeated. I’d hyped this trip up in my head and this was NOT the way I wanted it to go, but such was my luck today. The Jeep sputtered a few more times in traffic while getting onto the interstate but didn’t miss a beat while cruising so we continued back to Knoxville.

Once back in city traffic, the Jeep sputtered again except this time it lasted for 30 seconds plus and wouldn’t take any throttle until it all of a sudden cleared up and ran fine. 30 seconds feels like an eternity while sitting still in traffic with a dead engine, in case you were wondering.

It was at this point I knew we had a serious issue and needed to figure some stuff out.

We made it back to the Air BnB, unloaded and I headed to the car wash to clean the Jeep up before going to dinner that night. The Jeep acted up twice on the way to the car wash and once on the way back and was getting to the point of not being drivable. We showered and headed to dinner at Not Watson’s (highly recommended, BTW) and the issue continued on the short trip there. I did get a good picture from downtown:

I tried for our predicament to not dominate the conversation at dinner but it was hard for it not to be. The next day was a trip to Dollywood in Pidgeon Forge and back, then to Nashville and then home so there was a lot of road miles ahead of us and I didn’t want to have to fight the Jeep and risk getting stranded with my wife so we started scheming our next moves. The decision was made to rent a car for the day tomorrow, figure out our plan on the road and enjoy the rest of the evening.

And yes, the Jeep sputtered and tried to stall on the way back to the Air BnB too.

 

[NickMaul]

Tough break. The worst I ever had from my younger days driving my XJ to and from trails was enduring a 4.5 hour drive with a shot front track bar and dash rattling death wobble. Definitely dampens spirits!

 

[NCJeeplover]

The most fun I’d rather not have again for a while.

This is one of the best things I've read all week. I know that feeling well!

 

[gslander]

Nice recap so far!! I love those back roads between Knoxville/Chattanooga and Asheville and find every excuse to take them when I have to go through the area!

 

[dgoodwin10]

This is one of the best things I've read all week. I know that feeling well!

Everyone that's been there knows the feeling all too well. If you're familiar with Windrock, the carnage happened on Airplane Hill and the RZR was yarded from there, up Rail Trail and to the main road.

Nice recap so far!! I love those back roads between Knoxville/Chattanooga and Asheville and find every excuse to take them when I have to go through the area!

That was a first but hopefully not last time for me. That scenery is absolutely top notch. I've got the next trip update already written and should post it tonight to get back to our regularly scheduled fabricobbling.

 

[dgoodwin10]

There’s less chatter and more build coming up, I promise.

The plan was to spend the next day at Dollywood since I’d never been and my wife had worked there for a summer. I knew the Jeep wasn’t able to make the trip so I made the call to rent a car while we figured out what to do with a cantankerous TJ.
Wednesday summary - If you’re ever within a 60 mile radius of Knoxville, stop and grab a biscuit at Matt Robb’s. Yep, it’s that good. Also, Dollywood is a solid 8/10 theme park.

We had 2 things that needed to be accomplished: get to St Louis by Friday and get the TJ home. After running through no less than 6 different scenarios, calling a friend that’s a U Haul rep and trying to shotgun an IAC and MAP sensor on the Jeep as a quick fix, the final plan we settled on was to leave the Jeep at U Haul in Knoxville, drive a rental car to the Nashville airport to get to St Louis as planned, then come back and trailer the TJ home. I wasn’t crazy about this option but it was the lesser of all the evils.

Time to execute. As we were packing up on Wednesday night, I just couldn’t stop thinking about what might be wrong with the Jeep and on a whim figured I’d check for vacuum leaks with brake cleaner. I started on the driver side of the intake manifold and worked my way around the Jeep and sure enough – I got a reaction in the front of the intake manifold. I sprayed that spot a second time and the engine backfired.

And caught all the brake cleaner on fire.

Fire extinguishers are important, y’all. I snatched the extinguisher off the roll bar and put the fire out There I stood in the driveway of our AirBnB with the Jeep still running, a fire extinguisher in my hand just staring into the engine bay wondering what on God’s green earth just happened. It’d been a long few days, the AirBnB, although really neat, had gotten SMALL for 2 people, and I’d had enough.

I took all of our planning from the day prior, wadded it up and threw it in the preverbal trash. We’re towing this junk home tomorrow. We roll out the next morning headed to get a box truck and car hauler from 2 different stores, grab a biscuit and head back to Birmingham. Side bar – the new GM 6.6L gas engine and 6 speed tow really well.

We made it to Birmingham without issue, dropped the TJ off at home, hopped in my wife’s car and headed to St Louis for the weekend. In all, we were on the road for 16 hours and 800 miles that day. The TJ sat untouched for a few weeks while I got caught up on some other projects I’d been neglecting.

Now, back to more mods and building stuff!

 

[baggednissan]