New member in Southern California

[KJUSA]

Hello,
Just bought my first kJ, it’s a silver 2004 limited 4x4 w/ 169k. Bought it at auction for 150 bucks, running. It runs just not real good! Has a slight knock but sounds upper engine. Hopefully a stuck valve. Anyway, since having my second daughter my wife wanted something more spacious than our samurai for our off road toy. Here’s what has been done to it so far.
1. Blower motor resister upgrade
2. Rear ome medium duty coils
3. Rough country n3 rear shocks
4. Lokka(Aussie) rear auto locker
5. New rear rotors and pads
6. 16x7 with 4” bs rear rims
7. 245/75r16 crosswind a/t tires

Have the new front struts, tmj hd coils, upper strut plates and isolators in the garage. Just not assembled. Will be replacing pretty much everything on the front end, just to know where i stand with it. (Lca, uca, cv’s, front auto locker, rebuild the 231, ujoints)

let me know if you have any recommendations! Thank you and have a great day/ New Years. God bless

 

[LibertyTC]

Welcome to the forum. You have done quite a bit of work so far!
The engine knock is a bit concerning though.
Possibly consider a compression test & removing the rocker covers for an inspection.

 

[KJUSA]

Yea the knock is a bit concerning but worst case I’ll swap in a rebuild. Definitely a longer term project but not going to skimp on servicing anything as i go through. The covers will come off soon, well as soon as the snow is gone and it gets about 40 lol

 

[tommudd]

Hate to start off on the wrong foot but you really need to rethink your new suspension set up if planning on a good ride, better handling and keeping it a while
You need good springs ( OME ) and good shocks ( Bilstein or OME ) proven time and again to last and work well
The Rough Country rear shocks are , well, best a joke , no better than cheap Monroes .

hate to see anyone throwing away money on junk parts

front, coil over shocks , none ever had struts

 

[KJUSA]

No wrong foot started off on, thank you for your input. Shocks are already installed and the tjm coils my cousins have been running in au for quite some time, so i feel pretty comfortable with that choice. Adding the weight of a front bumper, winch and roof rack seem about right for the listed capacity? No crying over spilt milk, stuff has already been bought and paid for. If it doesn’t work out then I’ll go from there. After driving a lifted leaf spring samurai for 3 years my definition of a smooth ride may vary a bit haha

 

[tommudd]

Sad, oh well
I own 3 KJs , 2 lifted , my 04 I bought new was a test KJ for many lifts, trying them out, tested one again another
it was lifted with less than 20,000 miles on it and now over 232,000
If running an aftermarket bumper with winch need OME 790 springs
(Yes have done both )
But then I've only installed a little over 60 KJs lifts , so go with someone more qualified

 

[KJUSA]

Interesting, don’t take it like I’m questioning your knowledge on the subject. Like i said, this stuff is all sitting in my garage or installed. If the tjm prove to be a terrible product then I’ll report back and go the ome route on the front. I like ome leafs, i have them on one of my samurais. But I’ll definitely be bouncing some ideas off you, for some future purchases