I have yet to make any more progress on the jeep. I have removed all but 4 of the freeze plugs, the remaining plugs are hiding behind the motor mounts. When I knocked them out some wild weird blue fluid came out along with lots of scale. Anyways, I am going to jack up the engine, remove the mounts, then put some kind of blocks under then engine so i can wheel it out and do another flushing of the engine and remove the remaining plugs. I'll take care of this Saturday morning and then start with the MEK and engine paint work.
I think I almost have all of the parts I need to doll/fix up the engine. I'll update the parts list soon. Mental note: plug wires, valve cover gaskets, water neck, fan to be accounted for.
I am currently researching my options for the exhaust. Hopefully I will have some good numbers later. I am debating doing the welding myself. The upside is I save $200 labor, the downside is I have to buy a mig welder $529. I want to buy this welder anyways to have for future projects. Since I'll save $200 on labor this puts the price of the welder to effectively $329. The downside is that I have to find a place to do all my bending. I am not putting catalytic converters or a smog pump on the vehicle since it will be used for "off road" use only.
This weekend I plan on having at least collected the steel that I need to fabricate the rollcage mounts and will have the engine painted and new freeze plugs installed.
