Josh can call me “Mopolar” for swapping jeeps again all he wants. If the journey through building the Red 2-door and Silver JKUR is what it took to land with this jeep I am just fine with that.
Yeah yeah a few of you warned me off of the 3.8L when I bought the silver one this summer. I blew it off cuz I had the same engine in my 2-door manual and it was just fine …but man with the weight of an Unlimited and paired with an AT that thing was a dog. When we went up to AAOA a couple of weekends ago I was literally angry by the time I puttered up the hills there at 25 MPH with the engine straining at almost 5000 RPMs half the time. So I texted a guy who had previously shown interest in it on Friday night as soon as I hit camp, lightly wheeled Saturday, drove home Sunday, and sold it to him on Monday. Then it was back to the drawing board.
So on to my SuperGekko
She’s a Gekko Green 2013 JK Rubicon with a nice list off goodies and a few things that’ll need enhanced or replaced. I found her at a Subaru dealership up in Maryland. Their sales manager posted it on FBK marketplace before they had really prepped it for sale and he said that it was the fastest turnaround he had ever seen. I sent my inquiry 18 minutes after it was posted and was up there going over it within an hour. On arrival it quickly became apparent that their mechanic did not know much about Jeeps and that they did not know what they were sitting on.
She was not presenting well when I got there and so I was able to convince them to sell it to me at a wholesale “as is” rate $5000 below their list price.
The list of problems will be easily resolved.
- She was not running smoothly (I found a vacc line unplugged). Cost of fix = I plugged it back in $0.
- The Radio was not working (Replaced the head unit yesterday) $400
- The rear brakes are worn (new Brakes and rotors going in today) $200
- The LED rear lights were “hyperblinking” and driving a “blinker disfunction” dash warning (ordered resistors from the dealership and wired them in yesterday) $10
- I’m getting a “gas cap” code. Have replaced the gas cap and evap canister so far but no joy. Its not effecting performance at all so I will take it for a smoke test next. Worse case scenario I pay whatever it takes to hit the amount of money that’ll let the DMV waive emissions this year and deal with it later. I think its $400?
So roughly a grand out of pocket for a $5K price reduction? Not too bad. Certainly frees up some funds for the build!
She came with a nice list of goodies that Ill probably keep such as…
- A RIPP supercharger! (400 HP at the engine and 300 at the wheel as opposed to 285/180 stock).
- JW Speaker Headlights (or maybe they were trucklights? - don’t’ recall)
- LED rear lights
- Warn Winch
- Brand new premium soft top
- Brand new 35" Nittos that I’m leaning towards keeping (I am not convinced that moving to 37s to gain that extra inch mattered before and don’t think I want to do all the mods needed to support going much larger)
Some things that Ill run for now until I get around to replacing them.
- 2.5" Adams Jeep lift
- Front and rear aftermarket bumpers that may well be ugly but they are serviceable nuff until something else pops.
- Aftermarket wheels that are less ugly now that I have pulled the green center caps off. They will be replaced with Beadlocks once I find what I want.
I only have a rough draft of my build plan so far but here is what I have ordered so far.
- Full Rock Hard 1/4" skid plate setup (engine, trans, TC, gas-tank)
- Poison Spyder frame mounted step sliders (Ricochet Rockers)
- Ben’s spare set of front RCVs
Near future plans:
- Beadlocks (leaning Method 105s again just cuz I know them well)
- TW 1310 front driveshaft (already have it leftover from the red JK)
- Adams 1350 Rear DS
- Upgraded lift (2.5" or 3.5"?) (Metalcloak or JKS or other? Must have beefy LCAs since I seem to like breaking those)
- Barnes 4x4 aluminum tie rod (really impressed with the one I had before - in fact Ill go order that as soon as I’m done with this write-up)
- Re-tune with the diablo tuner for tire size/gears/etc as soon as it gets here (PO forgot to give it to the dealer but it is en-route)
- Its a 7 year old jeep but the paint is flawless. I might go Winchester’s route and clear wrap it.
- Kind of want a cage.
- Rear bumper with integrated swing out carrier that operates with the tailgate. I liked the AEV but am open to brand.
- Stubby front bumper (ARB or PS Brawler series)
- Rear Chromoly axles
- Maybe a front big break kit? This fucking thing will accelerate from 70 to 90MPH going uphill on a steep grade (tried it - scared myself) . Might not be a bad idea to make sure I can stop!
- Re-gear? IDK - the 4.10s might be just fine if I stick with 35s.Power is certainly not an issue. Only reason I can think to do it is to get stronger gears and to enable brake free downhill crawls. So…Undecided. If I do it’ll be Yukon 4.88s and Ill have the axles trussed and gusseted while at it.
Plenty more will happen to empty the bank along the way but thats enough for now I think!
