Prepping for paint and interior updates

 I test fitted the new Voltex swan neck wing on my spare trunk lid so now that can go off for paint. While I'm at it, I decided to go ahead and repaint the rear bumper which had gotten some bad flaking towards the end of last year along with the over fenders that took a serious beating as well. 

Bumper and trunk lid removed

Overfenders removed

While I'm getting this done, I've been wanting to get the interior reupholstered with the same yellow/black houndstooth cloth I used for the seats in my Cayman. I took out the seat cushions and door panels so I could drop those off with my upholstery guy.

Door panels and cushions out

While I was doing this I figured I'd also get my oil change done, inspect the catch can lines, replace the oil pressure sender and the PCV valve. The last one I think might be the cause of the oil spray I was seeing on my windshield last year as it was gummed up and maybe stuck open spraying oil into my catch can.

New oil pressure sender

Gummed up PCV valve

I also wanted to address the water getting into the trunk last year. That was from oil getting into the trunk vent that goes to the bumper. The seals around it had worn over the years so I used a bunch of RTV to seal it up instead.

Vent removed and old gasket cleaned off

Reinstalled with a lot of RTV

Maintenance update:

Mileage: 65,127

- 5.5 quarts Amsoil 10W-30

- 1 new Honda oil filter (15400-PCX-306)

- New OEM PCV and washer

- New AEM oil pressure sender

- Trunk vent resealed

Solid State Fan Relay

Continuing on with reliability mods for the 944, I wanted to get rid of common failure points and the mechnical fan relay is one of those things. Since I got the solid state DME relay from F9T, I decided to get their solid-state fan relay with diagnostics as well. It's a pricey unit but being able to quickly tell that the fan relay is working is worth it for me. 

Solid State Fan Relay with Diagnostics 

New relay installed

Old relay with date stamp from 1990

I also picked up some nice ignition wire separators from LC Engineering for a clean install since the Clewett Engineer wires are a bit thicker than factory.

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 96,641

- Solid-State Fan Relay

New oil cooler and Jeep maintenance

In the past year I've noticed a burning oil smell after driving the Jeep for some time. Given its mileage and the fact that I couldn't see any visual leaks from around the engine bay I suspected the leak was from the oil cooler which is a common failure point on the 3.6L Penestar engine. I had ordered a spare cooler a year ago in anticipation of this potentially happening so it was now time to get it done. 

New OEM oil cooler assembly with sensors

I dropped the car off with SJF so he could take care of this along with a laundry list of little maintenance items that has been on the backburner. One unfortunate discover after removing the intake manifold was the existence of an old mouse nest. That had to get cleaned out. 

Little mouse nest

Then, it was confirmed that there was indeed a small leak from the oil cooler that was just enough to pool some oil in the valley of the engine but not enough where it would drip off onto the side. It hadn't reached that catastrophic failure level yet that is well known among JK owners so I'm glad we got to this early. The old oil cooler was removed, replaced with a new OEM cooler I bought in late 2022 as a spare. New Fel-Pro gaskets were then applied to the intake manifold. 

Confirmed oil under the oil cooler

Fresh IM gaskets

While he was in there I had him also replace the spark plugs with fresh NGK iridium plugs. Iridium is probably overkill here but I'm a big fan of these plugs in general. 

Some of the old plugs

New NGK SILZKR7B119723 plugs

At this mileage I also suspected the PCV valve was on its way out so I got a new Mopar OEM PCV valve. The old one was definitely oily and getting some oil into the intake so I'm glad that was replaced.

New Mopar OEM PCV valve

Since a little bit of coolant spilled during the removal of the old oil cooler, it was prudent to do a full oil change even though I just did one in the fall. Oil is cheap enough and it's not worth the risk of having contamination. 

Some fresh Castrol Edge 5W-20

The battery is now also almost 8 years old and the negative terminal wasn't a snug fit anymore likely due to terminal corrosion over time. Don't want my wife getting stranded due to a dead battery so a fresh Duralast Platinum AGM battery went in. I have a preference for AGM to not have to deal with any spilling issues you might get from traditional lead acid batteries.

New Duralast Platinum AGM H6 battery

I had also purchased some Delrin door hinge inserts from Quadratec last year. This really helps for both smooth door operation and also to make it easier to remove the doors if/when we want to. The old metal inserts were seized in there pretty hard. SJF definitely had to give it a bit of a beating to give up the ghost. 

removing the door

Old metal door hinge inserts

Fresh Delrin inserts installed

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 79,228

- New OEM oil cooler, sensors and associated seals

- New OEM PCV valve

- New Fel-Pro intake manifold seals

- New Duralast Platium AGM H6 battery

- New Delrin door hinge bushings

- New set (6) NGK Laser Iridium SILZKR7B119723 spark plugs

- 5.5quarts Castrol Edge 5W-20

- New Mobil1 oil filter

- Top off coolant with Mopar OAT purple coolant