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  1. #21
    Finished around 2:00 am this morning. 17 hours with only a few breaks. A friend also stuck by my side til the end and provided much help. I'm exhausted.

    It goes.

    I haven't driven it enough yet to really comment on driveability, other than it definitely goes, and the whoosh of the wastegate is music to my ears.

  2. #22
    Awesome. Take a well deserved break and when you can some pictures.

  3. #23
    Awesome - great work. Looking forward to your well rested opinion.

  4. #24
    Senior Member Timmy's Avatar
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    That's like a doctor going through heart surgery and then coming out and telling the family "they're alive, can't say much more than that, we'll chat tomorrow." Hahaha... Nice job good sir, can't wait to read the future reports.
    2014 Jeep JKU Sahara, Manual - /OlllllllO\ - 4" Metal Cloak lift, 37" Toyo Open Country's on 20" XD Bully Rims, 4.56 Yukon gears, Mopar High Top Fenders, ARB Front Bull Bar Bumper, ARB Rear Bumper, Teraflex HD Tire Carrier, Teraflex Tire Carrier Accessory Mount, Twin Rotopax mount, Hi-Lift Jack mounted on front bumper, Reverse LED work lights, Warn 9.5ti winch, Synergy Drag Link, Trackbar Relocation Bracket, AMP Power Steps, JK1001 Radio, SpiderShade.

  5. #25
    27 hour total install...

    Did you run into roadblocks? What is your level of mechanical understanding? You seem like professor turbo so far.

  6. #26
    Thats not a hard 27. Pickles may have been documenting and taking pictures etc.

    Show us what you've got pickles!

    Also, you don't speed thru an install when you are the first to do it.

    Pickles, tell if there is anything that others should look out for when installing.

  7. #27
    That 27 hour total includes:

    - Setting up my work area in the driveway, and cleaning up the driveway of tools and parts at the end of the day, 2 times.
    - Lunch, dinner, and other various short breaks.
    - Running around to stores/dealer for 2 hours trying to get replacement fuel line clips and some wrenches in sizes that I didn't have (which didn't even end up helping me; you'll get details of this saga when I do my detailed install writeup).
    - Taking pictures.
    - Never rushing to do anything, taking my time and double/triple checking things along the way.
    - Re-routing various hoses/etc multiple times until I found the path that I was the most happy with (instructions don't attempt to fully detail exact routing paths).
    - Cleaning up coolant spills multiple times. Even when you think a hose is done spewing coolant, you move it again a few hours later and more comes out!
    - Being cautious and frustrated because of stubborn bolts in tight places.

    I am not a pro at all. This is the most in depth I have ever gotten into working on a car. I've done some work on my motorcycles, but there's much less curse-inducing corrosion on a motorcycle that is never driven on Michigan's winter salted roads.

    There were many temporary road blocks for me. A seasoned mechanic would probably have determined the best approach to get things done more immediately, but nearly every step along the way was a new puzzle for me to solve, often with trial and error. Trying to get a wrench on a hard to reach bolt, attempting multiple angles of the wrench and multiple positions of my body, trying standard box and open ended wrenches, socket wrenches with and without various numbers of extensions, etc. The instructions are intended for someone that generally knows how to work on cars already, so they don't detail anything like this. I won't even be able to describe the best way to do these things because I was focused on solving the problem in the moment. Taking time to take clear photos and notes for every detail and trick of every step of the way would have taken forever.


    Some teaser pics...


    My high tech work area. yes, that's an old counter top on saw horses for a work bench




    A little helper:




    Finishing up in the dark on Saturday night:




    Turbo blanket was the final touch installed on Sunday afternoon:





    Last edited by UselessPickles; 11-22-2014 at 11:23 PM.

  8. #28
    So is it fast?

  9. #29
    Does a bear poop in the woods?

  10. #30
    They recommend only light/moderate throttle during the first 50 miles.

    Unfortunately, I won't be able to really get through that initial 50 miles right away...

    They also recommend a minimum 2" lift "for best results". I was caught off guard a bit because this was never mentioned to me. I didn't know until I saw it in the install guide. I have a completely stock Jeep. I had the turbo kit already, and I wasn't going to just return it and abort the install now. I was committed already. I have, of course, recommended to Prodigy that they begin to be more proactive at communicating this recommendation. Prodigy says that their Jeep is doing fine with only a 3/4" spacer lift and that it should be enough lift for me, but the official recommendation remains 2" minimum.

    So I have the turbo installed, but no lift kit yet. I thought I could do some test driving while waiting for my Daystar 3/4" lift to arrive later this week. I quickly learned that street driving without any lift at all is a bad idea. Medium bumps (relative to Michigan road bumps) and moderate braking cause the front driveshaft to contact the downpipe. Prodigy has suggested that I could gain a little more clearance by pushing the exhaust pipes in the desired direction while all exhaust bolts are loose, and continue holding while the bolts are tightened.

    Again, there's some wiggle room that could have given me a bit more clearance if I was thinking about it at the time I tightened everything, but from where things stand on my jeep right now, this is what I observe: When someone stands on the front bumper and bounces the suspension, I can see the front jounce bumper (yellow squishy thing inside the spring) contact the bump stop and just about the same time I hear the clink of the driveshaft touching the downpipe. The jounce bumper is capable of full compression before a hard bottoming out of the suspension. This means I need a bump stop extension at least as long as the jounce bumper to prevent damage to the downpipe under full suspension compression. I measured the jounce bumper at about 1.75". A 2" bump stop extension would give me about 0.25" clearance under absolute maximum physically possible compression. No sense only installing a bump stop extension, so a 2"+ lift with 2"+ bump stop extension makes sense (NOTE: the bump stop extensions are the important part to absolutely guarantee no clearance issues!)

    Based on these observations/measurements, I am not comfortable with trying only a 3/4" lift. I want to be 100% sure that I will never have any contact, even when I accidentally drive over the top of a sand dune a bit to fast and catch some air.

    I'm picking up the AEV 2" spacer lift kit tomorrow (I'm conveniently only a 15 minute drive away from their office/warehouse, so it's kinda like getting free overnight shipping!). I have a dentist appointment tomorrow after work, and it's supposed to rain on Wednesday. I'll probably install one axle Thursday evening and the other Friday evening so I can finally start some real driving this weekend (including a Sunday trip to an ORV park for off-road testing!)

    I was too late on canceling my order for the 3/4" lift, so I have to hope that either my wife or I are home to refuse delivery when it arrives so I can avoid paying for return shipping.

    I withheld this info while I worked through the details and my solution to avoid useless emotional ranting. I was mentally and physically exhausted at the time I was initially working through all of this. It would not have been pretty or productive for me to post about it at the time.

    In the grand scheme of things, I'm not too bothered about being somewhat forced into a 2" lift (wasn't really forced, because I could have returned the kit when I learned about the recommendation if I really wanted to). I eventually want about a 2" lift and 33" Duratracs anyway. The inconvenience is that I won't be able to afford the tires/wheels for another year or two. I'll have to get used to my jeep looking like this for a while:



    I'll get used to it. I can't see the tires from the driver's seat, but I sure can feel and hear the turbo
    Looking forward to some worry-free driving this weekend!

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