Rebuilt 2005 GX470 Project - From CO to TX and Back (soon)

Fingers crossed. Out getting gas now and it still feels rough. Buuut, i was also bombing the jeep through huge puddles of wager during all the rain recently. Sounds like an exhaust manifold is leaking for sure

 

Nope, still a misfire on cylinder 5....

 

What year is the jeep? Pentastar?

 

2010, 3.8L, 108k miles. I think the 3.6L is the Pentastar

 

That'll do it.

 

Ok, that motor still has old school spark plug wires that go bad over time and will arc out on the motor.

 

I replaced the wires too. One of them did have a loose metal sleeve that stayed attached to the sparkplug when I pulled the wire off.

If I wasn't cash strapped ATM I'd say engine swap time! But also need to get this thing inspected and registered asap

 

Holy crap lol. That's from the backside of the throttle body! It's coming off now...hopefully cleaning it helps...

 

Cleaning it did nothing. I've never done a compression test before and I'm guessing it needs that next

 

No fun.

 

That or injectors. Run a butt ton of fuel conditioner through the system? Can't really move coil packs around to since it ain't got none. Maybe move the injectors around?

 

Sweet! Jeep misfire actually fixed now! Replaced coil pack. Test drove and it was worse. Oops wired up the cylinders in wrong order. Fixed that and no more misfire!

 

Got it fixed with a new coil pack/distributor, finally. But it does feel like the injectors need to be cleaned. I've run some conditioner in the tank before I left CO. But have a bunch left over and going to run some more through.

 

Awesome!

 

OK OK, NOW the jeep is fixed and running nice and proper!

I'd also been getting a battery light on and off. Thought it was related to misfire. But was definitely a bad alternator. Replaced it and the voltage was back up to 13.5, from 11.5, and the alternator whine went away.

Retuned it with the superchips module from Performance 93, to the 87 octane tune. I was running the Tow tune which was great with the 37" tires, but it requires 91 or higher octane. TX only has 87, 89, 93. And 93 here is a bit more expensive than 91 was in CO.

I gotta double check my insurance cause TX also requires higher insurance minimums than CO lol. And they turned me away. Calling the agent on Monday and maybe finally get this DL squared away

 

Did you find a place to move (hopefully with a real garage)

 

I put in a app with a couple of places but they also had a person ahead of me already. So still looking.

 

boo

 

So what's happening???

 

It's crazy that rent prices in North Dallas are roughly the same as in Denver! There are so many houses listed to rent, yet the owners are sticking to crazy high prices for places that aren't even kept up that well.

I almost pulled the trigger last night on a nice place that would cost $6200 to move into after deposits, 1st months rent, and fees ($2500 monthly rent + all utilities). But it was almost 30 minutes from work *with no traffic.

Then, a place I applied for a few weeks ago contacted my realtor saying they want to move forward with me. $2049 for a decent duplex that's 1.5 miles from work. No garage, but has attached 2 car covered parking, and a park across the street. it's also crazy how few neighborhood parks there are around here compared to Denver! And the ones they do have are either a fraction of the size, or really is just an empty field.

And I STILL need to get my shit from the Denver house and get that rented out.

On the bright side, work is doing what they said they'd do when they hired me. They're having me shadow and train up from Data Center Engineer to Data Center Project Management. Hopefully I can go 100% remote in the next 1-2 years and move back to CO!!

Nothing I can do with the GX project until I can square away all this.

 

Sorry that sucks. Good luck sorting it out.

 

Lol, I had work redo my address on the w2 back to my CO house. Kind of a loophole to reset the time I get to transfer my drivers license to TX. Because I still need a vehicle that can pass an inspection, before I can register it, before I can swap my DL. And with any luck I'll have the M3 down here before the end of August. I start moving into the new place next weekend. I should be all reset and ready to tackle the rest of the body work on this project in September.

 

What new place? Hope it's better. Did you get out of the old place without drama?

 

New place is in Plano, TX. It's the duplex mentioned in post above. Much nicer area. Last day on current place is the 27th. So far the landlord has been fine after I gave notice, fingers crossed on my deposit.

 

Couple of minor updates. Air up the tires and did a quick test drive around the block. Having a friend follow me as I drive it 9 miles to the new place.

 

And then this past Monday I caught a kitten in the undercarriage! His momma and 4 siblings showed up at the end of May. Id.been feeding them off and on. But cut back since I was moving soon. Since there aren't any no kill shelters around, I figured I let them be. I already have 2 dogs and 2 cats so catching all and fostering wasn't an option either. And none of them except one would even let me get close enough to touch them, especially momma.

Anyways after I cut back on the food a few weeks ago, they stopped.coming around except for one. The "friendliest" one of the bunch. I'd only ever pet it once while it ate. Saw.him run into the garage so figured I give it a shot and catch him. After about an hour of playing chase around the GX, I was able to catch him by hand. And he didn't even put up a fight. We'll a little but no claws or biting!

So now I've got a 3-4 month old kitten I'm fostering. Meet Locke! Named after main character in book linked below.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29588376-the-lies-of-locke-lamora

His mamma and 3 siblings retured Thursday and one of the siblings did the same thing. After I caught it under the GX, it went ballistic lol. Scratched and bit the shit out of me. I abandoned that one and sae to my wounds lol. I think the rest will be OK. They aren't the only stray cats around these townhomes.

 

I think for tires I'm only going to go one size above whats on now. The Eibach lift is pretty much where I wanted it, only like 1" above stock.

 

That’s the universes Cat Distribution system in action.

 

Hyping myself up for the quarter panel work by watching some Matt Armstrong. He removes and welds in a new rear quarter at about the 34 minute mark. ET for me to continue project mid to late August.

Work is sending me to Denver in two weeks. Flying up there, do to work stuff. At same time clean out the house, load the uhual with tools, the M3, and all the rest of my crap. And hopefully get the house rented out ASAP! I could really use the extra funds, paying a mortgage and rent and utilities for both isn't fun lol.

Pretty much all moved into the new place

https://youtu.be/CaZHQYIiTfY?si=ZGRlOOksUB8vhl3_

 

Oh this is the video I need! Basically doing the same qp replacement I am, but on a Rav4

https://youtu.be/Ji8Kp9abtKc?si=jaLRCIH1l0byN-pc