The Adventures of Fiona - '08 JK Rubicon 2-Door

Just a quick update... Been running the new plugs, wires, and coil pack for about 1000 miles now. The venerable 3.8L is running better than ever. Idle and acceleration is smooth as butter. No lag, feel the torque curve as it should be with the new gearing. Cruises nicely on the highway. So far very happy with the new setup. Highway milage has increased to an average 14mpg at 70mph when I'm not dealing with hills or headwind. This is up from 11mpg at the time of the regear - which is up from 9mpg before the regear.

Also, had her windshield replaced today...
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Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
 
Been hearing and feeling a clunk from Fiona's front end when I hit the gas from a stop... Started feeling another one from the rear yesterday. I crawled under and started putting my hands on things to see if I could figure it out and found that I could wiggle one of the front and rear control arms. That's not good... My first assumption was blown out Johnnie Joints since I never did rebuild them before I had the new-to-me arms installed a few months ago. However, on a whim, I figured I'd check the torque settings on the bolts. Bingo! Way loose! I checked all of the CA bolts since I was under there and found only one that was to spec.

Moral of the story, torque your bolts boys! 😉



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Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
 
BaddestCross said:
Been hearing and feeling a clunk from Fiona's front end when I hit the gas from a stop... Started feeling another one from the rear yesterday. I crawled under and started putting my hands on things to see if I could figure it out and found that I could wiggle one of the front and rear control arms. That's not good... My first assumption was blown out Johnnie Joints since I never did rebuild them before I had the new-to-me arms installed a few months ago. However, on a whim, I figured I'd check the torque settings on the bolts. Bingo! Way loose! I checked all of the CA bolts since I was under there and found only one that was to spec.

Moral of the story, torque your bolts boys! [emoji6]



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Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
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Loctite too.
 
So now Fiona's at about 105k miles... When I dumped the oil for the last change I realized that there was maybe only 3 quarts left. 😱 Up until now, she has never burned oil so I've been really lax about checking in between changes (yeah, I know). I just took a road trip up to see my daughter last week and decided I'd better check the levels... After 1000 miles she was a quart low. 😢

The last oil change, I also did a Seafoam deep soak upper, lower, and gas treatment so I'm hoping it didn't clean things up so good that the carbon buildup that was there was keeping any blow-by from happening.

Anyway, before I go crazy trying to figure out if I've got a major internal problem all of a sudden, I decided to replace the PCV and see if that helps the burn. Today I picked up a new valve and went about doing the deed.

The first thing I noticed was the hose going from the PCV to the intake is hard as hell. Pretty sure it's not supposed to be. When I removed the hose from the valve, it split a little. I couldn't get a replacement locally, so until I can order one, I filled the crack with some RTV as a band-aid. 🙄

The old PCV was hard as fuck to remove. I read about some tricks with a zip tie and leverage to pry it out, but no way was it budging. I finally cranked down some vice grips on the nipple and was able to pry against a socket extension that I put across the engine block and distributer bracket. When it popped out, the old rubber seal broke in half and stayed inside the nipple on the valve cover. I'm guessing this was the original PCV because the rubber was solid... Luckily, I was able to pry out the remaining piece without dropping anything down into the valve train.

I dropped the new PCV in place and seated it into the valve cover with a 17MM socket, short extension, and a hammer.

There was a lot of oil around the old valve and inside of the hose was wet, so I hope the new valve will take care of the consumption issue. I'll be checking it every 1000 miles and if it's still excessive at the next change I'll up the weight of the oil to 5W30 and see if that has any affect.

Fingers crossed, this new PCV is the culprit since, as I said at the beginning, this is the first time I've had a consumption issue. When I replaced the plugs at 100k, there wasn't any evidence of oil on the old plugs.

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Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
 
Timely post. I recently noticed more than usual as well, 08 Rubicon. I also had the oil change light come on at 2400 miles, which is very abnormal as I have been going over 5k regularly. I know it got reset last change so was wondering if it was a system fluke.

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BobNH said:
Timely post. I recently noticed more than usual as well, 08 Rubicon. I also had the oil change light come on at 2400 miles, which is very abnormal as I have been going over 5k regularly. I know it got reset last change so was wondering if it was a system fluke.

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I hear tell that the change oil notice will change according to driving conditions. Mine averages about 3000-3500 miles. No low oil indicator came on so I was really surprised how little oil dumped at my last change.

The reading I did regarding oil consumption on the 3.8L showed that Chrysler considered 1 quart per 1000 miles "in spec" which seems crazy to me. I understand the early JKs had issues with bad rings which caused a lot of blow-by back in the day but it didn't affect all of them. I figure that if the engine reached 100k with negligible oil consumption that the rings are fine so the PCV seemed like a likely culprit. I hope I'm right.

My engine runs really well for such high mileage and after I replaced the plugs and distributer it idles really smooth and has a lot more power. I don't get any smoke out the tailpipe, and as I said before, the plugs - though worn - didn't show signs of any major fouling. So unless the Seafoam deep soak fucked something up, I'm fairly sure that the PCV should correct it. Particularly after seeing how much oil was in the tube and around the old valve.

How many miles do you have on your Rubi?

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Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
 
Ordered both crankcase breather hoses today from MoparPartsGiant... For future reference, the part numbers for them are:

4666042AC - 3.8L PCV hose (from PCV to intake)
4666041AB - 3.8L crankcase breather hose (from valve cover to air box)

Should be here in about a week or so.

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Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
 
BaddestCross said:
I hear tell that the change oil notice will change according to driving conditions. Mine averages about 3000-3500 miles. No low oil indicator came on so I was really surprised how little oil dumped at my last change.

The reading I did regarding oil consumption on the 3.8L showed that Chrysler considered 1 quart per 1000 miles "in spec" which seems crazy to me. I understand the early JKs had issues with bad rings which caused a lot of blow-by back in the day but it didn't affect all of them. I figure that if the engine reached 100k with negligible oil consumption that the rings are fine so the PCV seemed like a likely culprit. I hope I'm right.

My engine runs really well for such high mileage and after I replaced the plugs and distributer it idles really smooth and has a lot more power. I don't get any smoke out the tailpipe, and as I said before, the plugs - though worn - didn't show signs of any major fouling. So unless the Seafoam deep soak fucked something up, I'm fairly sure that the PCV should correct it. Particularly after seeing how much oil was in the tube and around the old valve.

How many miles do you have on your Rubi?

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I have just under 137k on mine. I bought it August of 2016 wothb92k and barring my first oil change being low, which I figured may have been them forgetting to reset it, I have gone about 5k between indicator warnings. My driving style has not changed drastically, though I did add new slightly larger tires since the last change, along with a procal change to the tire size, coild be the culprit as my driving style has mot changed, still about 1100 miles a month.
The PCV sounds a good option, simple as hell to do and cheap to boot, so I ordered one as well after reading this, $12 shipped. Can't really go wrong, and like I said, timely post, glad you put it out there. [emoji106]

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BobNH said:
I have just under 137k on mine. I bought it August of 2016 wothb92k and barring my first oil change being low, which I figured may have been them forgetting to reset it, I have gone about 5k between indicator warnings. My driving style has not changed drastically, though I did add new slightly larger tires since the last change, along with a procal change to the tire size, coild be the culprit as my driving style has mot changed, still about 1100 miles a month.
The PCV sounds a good option, simple as hell to do and cheap to boot, so I ordered one as well after reading this, $12 shipped. Can't really go wrong, and like I said, timely post, glad you put it out there. [emoji106]

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Yeah, I probably drive about 1500-2k per month combined high-speed hilly highways and low-speed rock crawling so I'm running the RPMs pretty high in either case so my indicator comes on anywhere from 2500-3500 miles. Since the regear, it's not pushing as hard on the highway, so I'm waiting to see if it will learn and adjust.

Right now, the PCV seems likely but it's still only a theory until I put some miles on it and keep my eyes on the levels. I sure hope it takes care of it... Hope it solves your issue as well. 🍻

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Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
 
James, at some point I’m gonna need your post-100k maintenance parts list. In about 8 years. [emoji23]
 
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Messing with a few piddly issues this last week... CB antenna mount on my tailgate broke, so I'm relocating it to my cage and making it a dual-purpose antenna for the stereo as well so I can remove the useless factory antenna.

Got the dreaded "gas cap" warning and the gas cap isn't the issue this time. As I was looking for an obvious break in the EVAP tubing, I realized that the axle leak had gotten much worse and has puked diff oil all over the wheel well and brake rotor. Good thing I ordered the new axle shafts, but now my hopes of hitting the trails next weekend may be shot. 😢


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Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
 
BaddestCross said:
Messing with a few piddly issues this last week... CB antenna mount on my tailgate broke, so I'm relocating it to my cage and making it a dual-purpose antenna for the stereo as well so I can remove the useless factory antenna.

Got the dreaded "gas cap" warning and the gas cap isn't the issue this time. As I was looking for an obvious break in the EVAP tubing, I realized that the axle leak had gotten much worse and has puked diff oil all over the wheel well and brake rotor. Good thing I ordered the new axle shafts, but now my hopes of hitting the trails next weekend may be shot. [emoji22]


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How about June 9-10?
 
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