OKJK was actually something I brought up back in '08, and if you look lower down the page, Mark made a quick sticker design.

 

Okay, Mark Doiron's theory of motor vehicle oil and when it's changed. These are the beliefs I hold:

1. Petroleum engineers know more about oil than mechanics and Internet forum posters. That would include me, BTW.

2. That while we may want to go an entire cycle between oil changes without adding oil, the manufacturers in fact hold that a quart every 800-1000 miles is okay. Personally, I think that much consumption is going to be bad for the engine after a couple hundred thousand miles--all of the burned up hydrocarbons are not going out the tailpipe.

3. That man is not capable of making a gasoline (or diesel, for that matter) engine that does not require break-in. Well, we can, but the vehicle manufacturers will not do it because of the expense to keep the tolerances that tight.

4. That synthetic oils work as advertised. That is, that they essentially stop wear. A friend of mine, a shadetree mechanic on steroids (rebuilds Trans Am engines as a hobby) did a test of his own on his wife's Oldsmobile about 20 years ago. He ran the engine 100K miles on Mobil 1. At the end he tore down the engine and mic'd every engine component. There was almost zero wear on the components from factory tolerance--first time he'd ever seen so little wear. After the rebuild, he put dino oil in for break-in. The engine burned oil forever. It would not break in the new rings normally for a very long time. He finally got it to stop smoking, but figures that somehow the Mobil 1 had so penetrated the cylinder surfaces that it was still effective at combating wear even after it had been replaced by dino. IOW: It's difficult to go back once you've switched to synthetic.

5. Because of the preceding, and just based on what I learned as a kid, I change oil the first time at 500 miles with dino--that's to get any left over material from the manufacturing process out of the engine, and to continue the engine break-in. Normally this oil is black and looks as if it's been run forever. However, when I did the JK, surprisingly, it was actually quite clean looking, having me wondering why I had even bothered. This also had me doubting, just a little, my belief number 3 above.

6. The second change is at about 2.5-3K miles. Again: Dino. Now, you can find threads on this forum where some folks say the JK is delivered from the factory with synthetic oil, some say dino. I say that unless you believe that Chrysler is capable of making an engine to such tolerances that it doesn't require break-in, that would be nuts. AN ENGINE WILL NOT BREAK IN ON SYNTHETIC OIL. So, I use dino oil until at least 5K miles. At about 5-6K miles I do the next oil change, and switch to synthetic at that time. After that I change the engine oil once a year or at 12-15K miles whether it needs it or not--the exception being after something like a very dusty three days on White Rim Trail--then I change the oil upon return.

7. In three decades I have had to add a quart of oil between changes only once or twice--so infrequently that it's not even worth remembering. I just changed the oil in my Jeep at 11K miles--never added a quart and drained pretty close to six quarts out of it. The engine is now at 78K miles. And it is not one of the ones that I added a quart to (that was an old Ford EXP with 147K miles when I traded it).

8. I remind the reader of number 1 above. YMMV. Literally. LOL.

 

Well, I do have nearly 4K miles since SLC worked on it (drove out to San Diego last week). So far, the only thing I've round on my rig that SLC screwed up was the tire balance. I explained to them that because of the Currie tie rod, they could not place balance weights on a certain part of the inside of each wheel lest the tie rod end scrape it off. So, they did the wheel that was on that position properly. But the other three wheels they placed the weights where once rotated to that position the weights will scrape off. And, I bought the spare tire from Goodyear here in MWC and, after explaining the problem to them, they did the same exact thing!!! So, I found another tire shop, a local place rather than a national chain, and spoke with a young man there about it. This was yesterday and was one of the things Jeff and I were tending to. He said no problem, rebalanced the tire rotating into that position (passenger front), and told me to bring in the other tires as I rotated them into that position. He also owns an older Cherokee, 4WD, and is interested in what I can advise him on building it up. So, I think I found a winner.

BTW, back to SLC: Other than that tire balancing, my Jeep runs great. The alignment is perfect, as best as I can tell. I'm delighted with the work they performed on my Jeep. Obviously, that doesn't excuse Manoj's poor experience with them.

 

It's a great lift. When I did mine David recommended the front TF Monster and rear JKS trackbars as not absolutely necessary, but very desirable. But, these things have gone through some redesign, so he may have different recommendations. I'd say take his advice.

 

Yes it does. Or at least mine did. But I think it's for the rear (still have it in my garage). Never installed it because went with the adjustable track bars instead, and wanted to avoid the possibility of broken brackets.

 

Last week in San Diego: Paid over $4.00 only one time--by a penny. The problem out there is so few places take credit cards. Most take ATM cards, but I hate to use that. So usually ended up paying cash.

 

ThaT jeep belongs to a guy that works on ft sill I believe...he is air defense......he is one of the very few that actually wave.....it its the one with black and silver rims on about 33's......let me know if you need help gotta give me a good weeks notice to make sure I'm not " playing army "

 

I guess in my mind I was thinking about the front trackbar... With all the DW discussion and all... Plus, the front (of mine at least) seems to shift more easily than the rear when I lifted it.

But, like you said, brackets aren't the greatest... Which is one of my weekend mods, to remove my rear bracket and install my JKS.

 

Who's interested in going to Moab in June? I have specific dates set to join my oldest daughter and her family in Moab. If anyone is interested, please let me know and I'll PM you the specifics (I don't like to put exact extended travel plans on the Internet).

Also, who's interested in going to Colorado in late July or early August? I have some flexibility in dates, but I do need to get something set in the near future so that I can let a friend of mine know who will travel with me. I hope to spend a few days taking some of the longer trails--not really interested in the 4WD playgrounds (half day and done). Want to get into the high country wilderness and do some serious traveling and camping. My friend and I are serious photographers, so there will be stops for that purpose, And I enjoy hiking, so will probably also take a couple side trips to summit any convenient mountains.

 

what size lift are your rear trackbar brackets for...