Yeah it always needed some extra TLC under the hood after I bought it, she lived out on a ranch in Central TX for 6 years just as a deer lease vehicle. It ran awful when I bought it as it would not idle, and I seriously doubt all 8 cylinders were firing properly. Heck I'd even found 3 spark plugs just rotating in the heads when I first ran it lol. I did a massive tune up and swapped out the badly corroded ECU when I got it (took a while to track that down), but then the stress after the HCRR 2019 event caught up to it and the passenger side HG decided to blow out at the rear coolant jacket. When I removed the HG you could see the little line where coolant was passing thru. HG job was super easy, but OMG the cleanup of all the parts was a nightmare. She'd been seeping from her valve covers for I dunno how long and the heads, upper intake, and the valve covers were just coated in crud at least 4-5mm thick. Cleaning all that was certainly the longest part of the job. Inside the engine was another story as it was very clean for it's age/mileage. Put her all back together, and she fired right up. I had a lifter or a rocker which was apparently not getting oil for a few startup/shutdown cycles, but on the 4th startup and warmup she finally went quiet! Runs very well now and she should be good to go.

She will never be perfect as the body is pretty rusty along the bottom (would need a body transplant one day), but the frame, interior/exterior body/trim, all electrical/mechanical hardware works great. The paint is worn with clear-coat peeling now in a few places, but I kinda like the rough look vs being all nice and shiny as it matches it's personality/character.

 

Engine is running excellent and I was just putting a few miles on the HG job. Got back and noticed fluid dripping under the drivers side. One of the rear brake lines got a hole in it due to rust...... Now I've got to track down some good used ones to replace both back ones with. It was stopping fine, but I did notice the lines were rusty when I was doing the HG job, and I also saw the brake fluid level was a bit low. Well the leak today explains it. XD is grounded until I locate some replacement metal lines now.

If I can't locate any good OEM lines I'm probably going to try the 3/16 brake line and re-use the OEM ends and flare em myself.

 

I had made one replacement rear line myself, but as soon as I fixed that one (which was not OEM to begin with) the other rear line basically snapped in half. My good friend Chris grabbed all the rear OEM lines off his parts truck, and today I finally got them installed. The XD is cruising around again!

I might bleed the brakes again as I'm not 100% satisfied with the pedal feel by bleeding them by myself. It stops fine, but I remember a shorter pedal travel before (unless I am just not used to it since it's been so long since I've driven it). They're going to have the 2020 HCRR event this year without all the sponsors and gathering, but I'm pretty sure the old XD will be making an appearance this year!

Next thing I "might" tinker with is that aftermarket aluminum radiator which I DID NOT get my $$$ back as the Ebay seller was awful and they didn't stand behind their product at all and just left me stuck with a radiator which DID NOT fit my 95/97 D1's. I was given a set of couplings which should allow me to attach the cooler lines. I have to also modify the mounts which secure it to the core support as they're also totally WRONG.

 

What aftermarket rad did you get? I bought one off of eBay for my d2, although it would not mount the same, all the connections were in the correct spots. So far it seems pretty good.

 

Can't remember the name but it was basically a clone of the $$$ unit. To bad they didn't make the cooler line connections properly and they certainly DID NOT stand behind their name or product.

 

im running those same tires. I know they are good in deep snow not that you get snow lol.

 

Well I got the non fitting aluminum radiator in. Not really happy with the tiny inlet/outlet size of the coolers, but we'll see what happens. 350.00 just sitting there ticked me off. I had to modify way to much to make it work and then the darn cooler line input lines wanted to leak... I then had to modify the shroud as it left a 1/2 inch gap so the fan was sucking from the sides vs 100% from the front.

I thought I had it all wrapped up for the 2020 HCRR event, but the brake pedal got squishy and it didn't really stop all that great. I went to bleed the brakes one more time, and the bleeder which has had me curious since the day I bought the XD decided it wanted to play 1.5 days out from the trip. All the other bleeders were the normal 11mm LR units while the RF caliper had a longer 10mm head bleeder on it. Well it just spun when I went to bleed it, and when I did bleed it that caliper had air in the line. I went out to my D2 parts truck, and grabbed one off of it. I was extremely lucky as the bleeder someone just stuck in there for God knows how long was only in by 2 threads!!!! The OEM LR one was much shorter so once it got pas the messed up 2 outer threads it was good to go. Bled it and now my pedal is good to go! Trail box is loaded up, coolers, and I'll finish packing my bags tonight. Then I hope to head out after work around 1:30PM to 3:30PM and drive out to Hidden Falls Adventure Park for the 2020 HCRR event.

 

Well I didn't make it to HCRR this evening as planned........

First I had to deal with an awful cold front blowing thru which had awful wind gust just as I got into 5:00 Houston traffic. Then my friends D1 had alarm issues & kept not wanting to start. However it finally woke up and we started our trip North.

I had just made it into Austin when a grey RRS pulled up next to be beeping & rolling the window down. It was my best friend from Austin Roverworks! He said he'd see me tomorrow so he passed me up & at that moment the XD literally exploded!!!!! White smoke/grey smoke was gushing out from under it & as my friend exited he was looking over at me and I read his lips to something along the lines I think you're on fire!!!!

I pulled over ASAP & my friend following me pulled up behind me. I got out popped the hood and the dang radiator from china had died at AT cooler sending all my AT fluid out and onto the drivers side cat.

Austin Roverworks buddy got me hooked up and I went and grabbed the parts I needed. We did the repair ASAP & I finally made it into Marble Falls at Midnight. With "just" a 3.5hr delay lol.

I will NEVER touch another china made radiator!! I am grateful for both my friends!! Or I'd have been up a creek without a paddle BIG TIME.

 

A few pictures from the 2020 HCRR Event. This was the first time I got to put the Korean Thunderer M/T tires thru their paces. I never even aired down and I hardly spun a tire even totally off camber with just 2 wheels on the ground. XD did extremely well out on the trails. Rear Spring retainers kept my coils in place and it flexed really well with zero rubbing.

 

Well ever since the days of Arnott Industries having basically 8 1inch aluminum lift pucks for a P38 for $59.00 back in the day (what a deal!!!). I bought a set probably back in 2012 and since then I've used 4 (2 per D2) on the back of both my D2's while I bought the front 1inch units from friends or online. That left me with 4 more which after Hurricane Harvey went MIA.

Well late this summer I finally tracked them down! I carefully drilled out the center of 2 of the 4 to work on a D1 using a metal 2 1/8inch hole saw bit. Then I got busy trying to get the XD's HG job done so I could make it to the 2020 HCRR Event. Well today I finally had some lovely weather and time to spare after work so I slapped my 4 1inch aluminum lift pucks onto the XD for a total of 3inches of lift. Hardest part of the entire job was getting the nuts off of the front shocks!

After the cheap Chinese radiator explosion when in route to the 2020 HCRR event which also took one of my transmission cooler lines. I was able to get her back on the road by using parts my dear friend let me take off a D1 at his shop. However now safe and sound at home the transmission line I used to get me to and from the event is seeping pretty good. I've emailed Erik at Lucky8 and a few other people and no reply yet on a price of a new one. I want to get a new one and be done with seepy transmission lines for longtime. Once that's done she should be pretty well sorted out for now.

I want to go back to Hidden Falls before the end of the year! I had a blast out there and the XD did really really well.