Welcome to the club! Which engine did you go with?
Not sure where you live but if it's somewhere that gets a real winter - those tires are criminal in the snow. I have a set of snow tires I'm going to throw on next month.

 

nice. I'm in south Ontario Canada so winter's are meh at best. Just drive slower and 4wd is fine. Never had an issue in 30 years of driving. Even ran a set of summers all winter once lol. Now that was fun.

The V6 with etorque. 3rd 3.6 v6 engine. It's tried and true. Plenty for this Jeep

 

You're going to have a blast - enjoy it!

 

Filly got the angle grinder onto this. Looks better and pretty solid. So I'll clean it up, give it a shot of paint and reuse

 

So this is finished

 

So when taking off the thermostat housings. Driver side was fine....

But the passenger side didn't go as well.

The 2 bottom bolts? Studs? Idk. Top left one was a stud, top right one was a bolt so I dont know what these 2 are. Bolts I think.

Anyways they snapped off as soon as I wrenched on them. I had sprayed the previously a few times as well. Only was using a 1/4 ratchet too.

So this is where I'm at




I dont mind drilling and tapping but I can't get a drill in there.

It looks like that housing can come off... 4 bolts or studs...can it come off?

So I sprayed them and gave the first one a little try and it felt really tight so I stopped. I'll try again tomorrow after it soaks for awhile.

 

The housing is all part of the water manifold, and to get that off can open Pandora's box, as the manifold fixing bolts also sheer off very easily. Ben Kenobi has recent experience of this!

I had exactly the same trouble a few years ago. From memory, some are bolts and some are studs! It does not matter which sort you use to replace them, but use stainless. I happened to have this sort of drill:

which I seem to remember I used.

 

Ok thanks for the tip about the water manifold. I've gone down the rabbit hole long enough lol.

I could always use a new tool lol

 

Fixed using this attachment for my drill I bought.




Retapped to 6mm. Need to resize the bolts

 

Little more puttering

Cleaned and painted the thermostat housings.



Removed the clutch fan housing and idler



Cleaned up the front my using a scraper to get the Ole gunk off. I'll keep at it while I have the room



Also drilled the 2 small holes in the new thermostats. No pic.

 

Rescue, while you are in there, check theintegrity of the rubber plug, A bank front, just above the water pump casting crescent part. Always leak because the rubber gets cooked in no time. Nice ally plugs are available and are really worth having:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324493991...IAAOSwXGxgMnfY

This is mine, bought years ago from the USA, very nice guy now deceased sadly Just fit and forget:

 

This spot?




Was pretty dry around there. But I'll take a closer look today when I do more cleaning.

Also if I pull the old one out will oil come out. I didn't drain the oil for my rebuild.

 

Yes, the place you indicated. No oil will come out when you remove it, and do not worry if pieces drop inside; no harm will come.

 

Thanks I'm just cleaning still. Ugh I do more cleaning of 30 year old gunk then rebuilding lol

 

More cleaning done. 3 cans of brake cleaner and a bunch of scrubbing lol.

I think ill stop here. Much better then before and I don't need it to be showroom condition. At least I can see the bolt heads now

 

Here is what the plug looks like

 

It looks fine. If you do not change it, make sure you keep an eye on it, as once you start using the car it will leak.

 

damn jealous over here!

 

Lol thanks.

 

Hi all.
got called away very quickly for work. Was gon 17th Nov to Dec 8th. and found out today we are back to work from home state til Jan 10th. So I have some time to work on the Jag now.

I got the rad mounts in the mail as well as the plug for the block while I was gone.

I've been debating about the water pump. I didnt see an issue with but now that I'm staring at it on the engine I'm debating on touching it. Lol. But it's not really in a bad spot if it fails down the road and I think I've touched enough stuff.

I did read about someone replace the water pump with an electric one which interested me.

Anyways I'm gonna take my radiator to a shop tomorrow and see how much to refurb it.

In regards to that is there anything that's super special about the rad. It's a business that's been around for 30 years so I would hope they have done one xjs / xj rad lol. I have a price in mind that will be acceptable. I've also priced after market so I know when to say refurb or not.