Dan.2005WK's Garage

[Dan.2005WK]

So, here's what I have: a very stock 05 WK Limited with a 5.7L Hemi. Pretty sharp looking ride, with the exception of a tear in the driver's seat and a little paint missing from the edge of the driver's door. Have a look:
2631

Well, I couldn't leave it stock for long, so I slapped on a K&N 57 series CAI:
2632

Today, I had a shop install a true dual system. They deleted the y-pipe, matched pipe lengths, and put a Flowmaster 50 on each pipe, then routed both back to the stock location, did a 30° downturn, then cut the pipes flat. It sounds phenomenal. I have yet to really stomp on it, but I'm thrilled with the sound. It really sounds like a Hemi now. (I know what you're thinking: no crossover pipe? Well, as I understand the physics, you don't need it, as long as you've matched the length of pipe to the muffler. Correct me if I'm wrong. Seriously. I don't like not knowing things.) Pics to come. I wish I had snapped a few photos while it was on the lift, but I was too excited to think about it, hahaha.

(added on 4/18/2015)
Later in this thread, I'll discuss a problem with my rear axle seeming to lock up, paint chip repair, and faux leather seat repair. I also go over an issue that seems to plague a lot of early WK's: lift glass (sometimes called "flipper glass") randomly opening whenever all the doors are unlocked. I could even hear it actuate when the glass was already open.
I hope you find this stuff to be helpful!

(added on 7/11/2015)
Later in this thread, I'll also discuss the installation of long tube headers originally designed for the '06-'10 SRT8 WK's. Long story short: I don't recommend it. If you have a custom exhaust shop near you, have them fabricate custom headers in-house and avoid the extra time and expense.

[Roguecommander]

Sound nice! Can't wait to see some pictures.

[06JeepXKHEMI]

The dual in dual out acts as a crossover that's why there's no need for one. Sounds like a great set up, looking forward to pics and videos!

[Dan.2005WK]

I agree, but he didn't do a DI/DO, he put a single 50 on each pipe. Either he misunderstood me or he figured this way was better. You'll see what I mean when I finally post some pics. I believe I owe you a vid as well, haha.

05 WK 5.7L
K&N 57 series CAI

[06JeepXKHEMI]

Hahaha yea you may want to consider a crossover pipe at some point to help keep back pressure and scavenging right. Matt explained everything to me maybe he will drop in again

[Dan.2005WK]

Yeah, I just did a bit of Googling on the topic. Looks like you can even squeeze a few more horsepower out of your engine with an X-pipe. It makes sense, too; there'd be less backpressure on the piston that's in the exhaust stroke. X's seem to have more advantages than H's, but both are advantageous. Now that I understand the reasoning behind it, I know what I want to do next. I'll probably figure out where I want the X-pipe placed (methods of determining that aren't hard to find, so I won't dive into it now), and have the shop do that when I ask them to put in new headers. Gotta save up for it, though.

05 WK 5.7L
K&N 57 series CAI

[Sal-XK]

Can't wait to hear what this sounds like!

[Dan.2005WK]

It was a real treat compared to the stock exhaust!
Since New England hasn't gotten the memo that it's spring, we just got a fresh blanket of snow. Still, I hope to post at least some pics tomorrow, if not a vid.

05 WK 5.7L
K&N 57 series CAI

[Dan.2005WK]

So sorry for the delay! Here are a few pics, vid to come...

Here you can see the demarcation between the stock cats and the new pipes. It's not really visible, but they deleted the y-pipe.

https://theultimatejeep.com/images/imported/2015/04/307eef2376042904c7390eb597c16704-1.jpg

Just working my way back. In this photo and the next, you can see that they used two Flowmaster 50's (offset in/offset out) instead of a DI/DO. They also didn't put in a crossover pipe, but apparently it doesn't make much of a difference in power for street applications. I think I like this way more; it doesn't sound smooth and European, it sounds brash and unrefined - just the way I like it! 😃

https://theultimatejeep.com/images/imported/2015/04/92e3866e34c637827dc0d941cc07dbe4-1.jpg

https://theultimatejeep.com/images/imported/2015/04/d105a433fbcaa3c686ec8777778f5f85-1.jpg

Here you can see how they kept the pipes next to each other as they went over the axle and that I still have my spare tire in place.

https://theultimatejeep.com/images/imported/2015/04/6484d7ad983610de8e293e43cc41f6d9-1.jpg

And, finally, the tips. Nothing fancy; just a 30° downturn and a flat cut. The hangar looks a little gnarly, I know, but I don't plan on doing anything about it unless it breaks. Function before form, imho. 😉

https://theultimatejeep.com/images/imported/2015/04/f8764231d6260c23a31d79ee98042a50-1.jpg


Well, there you have it! True dual on an 05 WK Hemi! The whole job, tax included, cost me $850. You'll pay about that to get a 3" Gibson catback professionally installed, so I'm very happy with it.

Like I said, I'll post a vid before too long. I have to take one first, lol.

05 WK 5.7L
K&N 57 series CAI
True dual Flowmaster exhaust

[06JeepXKHEMI]

Looks good man! The offset mufflers is good in the fact the exhaust has equal amount or close to it, distance before it hits the muffler on either side. Cant wait for the video!

[Dan.2005WK]

Yep! The shop owner mentioned that specifically, in fact. He said that he did indeed match the lengths.
Normally, I take the company vehicle home during the week, but I'm itching to drive my Jeep again, so I might take it home tonight and at least get a vid of a cold start. I really love that truck. I think I love it more than my last car, and that's saying a lot!

05 WK 5.7L
K&N 57 series CAI
True dual Flowmaster exhaust

[Dan.2005WK]

So, on my way home last night my CEL came on. I read the code this morning: P0430 Catalyst efficiency below threshold Bank 2. Arggh. Fortunately, the shop is pretty sure it's their fault and they'll fix it for free on Tuesday. It's probably a leak from a bad weld or a pinched O2 sensor wire.

05 WK 5.7L
K&N 57 series CAI
True dual Flowmaster exhaust

[06JeepXKHEMI]

Yea Def a leak somewhere. I had that same issue..

[Dan.2005WK]

Yeah, nobody's perfect. I won't raise a stink unless they try to charge me to fix something they broke. Judging by their reputation, though, that isn't going to happen.
Plus, the lady who works the counter is cute, and I won't object to chatting with her again. Lol

[Holiday Jones]

That all looks real good until the cutoff. Looks like they did it with a hacksaw.lol for $850 you'd think they'd smooth the barbs and dingleberries off.

[Dan.2005WK]

They stayed an hour and a half past closing to finish it, so I think their give-a-damn might have been operating at half power, lol.

05 WK 5.7L
K&N 57 series CAI
True dual Flowmaster exhaust

[Holiday Jones]

That makes sense.

[Dan.2005WK]

Question: I've heard of some people getting Durango headers (shorties or logs) to fit on their 05 WK Hemi. Is there any credibility to that claim? I've found a set of 2005 Durango 5.7 Gibson logs for about $530, and JBA shorties for about $750 (Summit Racing). I want more low-end power, and if these fit, they'd be perfect. I remember reading mention of having to dent the passenger side of the firewall about 3" to get the shorty headers to fit; I'd rather not have to do that. If the logs will work with my current custom setup, I have no qualms about springing for a set of those, particularly if I don't need to make any other modifications.
I'll be chatting with the shop about it, obviously, but I was wondering if any of you lads/lasses had any experience with using headers made for the '05 Durango.

[06JeepXKHEMI]

In my opinion, for a tiny bit more you can have long tubes by OBX. Yes the low end may be different than with shorties but you can help that with cats, X pipe etc... If I were to go to shorties, Id save a bunch and get take offs from an SRT8 GC and use those..

[Dan.2005WK]

Not a bad idea. Nevertheless, I'm going to take it to the shop tomorrow and see what they think would work. I plan to get a quote for headers and, out of curiosity, a quote for a heads-on cam swap.

05 WK 5.7L
K&N 57 series CAI
True dual Flowmaster exhaust

[06JeepXKHEMI]

so wheres this video of the current set up we were promised!!!

[Dan.2005WK]

Sorry, I've been working 12-hour days most of this week. Hopefully I can get a vid tomorrow. I keep meaning to do it, I promise!

[Dan.2005WK]

And then this happens:

https://theultimatejeep.com/images/imported/2015/04/c6dc51563fcecab5a53de67ebf9cd754-1.jpg

The shops thinks (and, reluctantly, I agree) that my rear diff has broken. When I backed it out of my parking spot, I thought I hit something. There was noise, and I thought I'd gotten my bumper hung up on something. After driving it forward and backward a little bit, I decided not to risk any more driving. So, I had it towed to a nearby shop, and they'll look at it Monday.
Please, God, let it just be a broken tooth on a spider gear...

05 WK 5.7L
K&N 57 series CAI
True dual Flowmaster exhaust

[06JeepXKHEMI]

Oh man that sucks!!! Jeep, just empty every pocket! Good luck man

[Dan.2005WK]

Thanks. It was a big surprise to me, to say the least. I love that truck almost as much as I love my dog, so I'm pretty worried about it.
They own a scrap yard, so hopefully I can get replacement parts on the cheap.

[Dan.2005WK]

So it turns out that it wasn't my rear diff at all, thank God. My e-brake shoes and pads came loose and got jammed up between the regular pads and the rotor. I don't know which side it was on, but I guess that explains why it was a lot worse when I was backing up than it was when I was moving forward. $350 for new shoes and rotors (cuz my old ones were pretty nasty).
Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
I still owe you chaps a vid of my exhaust. I've been slacking on that.

[Sal-XK]

So it turns out that it wasn't my rear diff at all, thank God. My e-brake shoes and pads came loose and got jammed up between the regular pads and the rotor. I don't know which side it was on, but I guess that explains why it was a lot worse when I was backing up than it was when I was moving forward. $350 for new shoes and rotors (cuz my old ones were pretty nasty).
Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
I still owe you chaps a vid of my exhaust. I've been slacking on that.


That's good news then! It's nice when things aren't as bad as you originally thought.

[Dan.2005WK]

Most definitely!

So when I bought my WK, I noticed that there was a paint chip in the driver's door. It looks like something was in the way and the door was shut. Either that, or it was some type of small, localized impact. This is how it looked:

https://theultimatejeep.com/images/imported/2015/04/880a8ba6f5a19014f12488046f437b80-1.jpg

Yesterday I went to AutoZone to pick up a product I saw on tv: a Duplicolor all-in-one paint repair pen thingy. It has an abrasive tip (which was nowhere near as effective as a wire brush and sandpaper), paint that's color matched for your vehicle type, and a clear coat. After getting all the rust off and making a generally smooth surface, I applied about three layers of paint. It was windy, so it started drying really fast. Put on the clear coat, too. I found some other minor rust spots nearby, so I cleaned and painted those, as well. For about $16 and a little more than half an hour (most of which was waiting for each layer to dry completely), this is the end result.

https://theultimatejeep.com/images/imported/2015/04/791d63fc82ab17fa9375811d8d55337f-1.jpg

It's not as nice as a professional job, but my priority was to avoid rust propagation. I'd recommend that Duplicolor pen to anyone who has a paint chip and doesn't want to spend the money on a pro. If you really sweat the details (sanding, smoothing the edges of the paint chip, even application of the repair paint, etc.), you can make it difficult to tell that there was ever a chip. I didn't sweat them too much, because my hands were getting cold, hahaha. Nevertheless, definitely worth the money. And there's still plenty left in there for me to do more repairs down the road.

05 WK 5.7L
K&N 57 series CAI
True dual Flowmaster exhaust

[Dan.2005WK]

By the way, I also have been having an issue with my rear lift glass randomly opening. It would happen at irregular intervals whenever all the doors were unlocked. It was as if I was hitting the button on the key fob, but I knew I wasn't. I didn't try too many things, and I nearly took it to the stealership to have them look at it. In one forum, this issue was discussed. Eventually, the poor guy found out the button to release the lift glass was getting stuck. Not the button on the key fob, but the button to the right of the lift gate handle. I didn't even know that button was there. So I wiggled the button around a little, and pulled it out some. I also hit it with some spray silicone lube because it was obvious that it was sticking when I actuated it. Well, I left the doors unlocked for about 5-6 hours today, while a patch job on my driver's seat was drying. Voila! No open lift glass!
So if you're having this issue of randomly opening lift glass, check that button first.

05 WK 5.7L
K&N 57 series CAI
True dual Flowmaster exhaust

[Dan.2005WK]

If you're curious about the patch job on my faux leather seat, it was pretty easy.
I picked up a 3M Vinyl and Leather Repair Kit from AutoZone for about $20. I can't remember exactly how much it was.
The instructions are very clear and precise. The only thing that I had difficulty with was mixing and matching the paint correctly. The gray color I mixed ended up not quite matching the seat. But the holes are patched up, so it's functional. I don't need it to be pretty.
There are a couple texture patterns you can use to closely match the texture of the paint with that of the seat. Again, if you sweat the details, you can make it look really good. I didn't sweat the details on this. I just wanted the tears to not propagate any further.

https://theultimatejeep.com/images/imported/2015/04/168e113e6da0c758b507239e66f4afb3-1.jpg

[Dan.2005WK]

So, at the recommendation of several people in this forum and in a couple other Jeep forums, I purchased a set of Kooks headers from eBay. These long tube headers and midpipes are built for the '06-'10 SRT8's, but are purported to fit. They do... sort of. There was no grinding of the transmission bell housing necessary, but there were plenty of other issues that made it a pretty damned expensive job. The shop only charged me for 9 hours of labor, but it actually took 12. First, and obviously, the cats and O2 sensors were farther back, so I needed wire harness extensions. Not too expensive, but it adds up. Second, the midpipes are 3", but the stock cats are 2.5". The stock cats wouldn't fit in the new spot anyway, so add new cats to the price. Third, they had to un-bolt the motor mounts and lift the engine to get the old log-style headers out and the new ones in (there were a couple broken bolts that needed to be removed, so it's possible that that's the only reason they had to lift the engine). Finally, and this is just a minor annoyance so far, the new headers have minimal clearance on the passenger side, so when I'm braking hard or backing up a hill, I can hear it rattling. I think it's the firewall, but haven't checked it out yet.
It would have been far cheaper for me to have them fabricate custom headers in-house for the quoted amount of $1000. They would have left the original cats and also would have had fewer clearance issues. However, they would only have been 2.5" diameter. I think I could have lived with that, though.
That said, they're totally badass. I can definitely feel the difference in power, and the engine revs up a lot faster. Before the cats went in, the resonators in the new midpipes gave the exhaust a very aggressive note. If you consider doing this to yours, I recommend getting your headers fabricated, cutting the y-pipe, and routing dual exhaust along the path of the original single pipe. I have a Flowmaster 50 on each pipe, and it sounds fantastic. If I did it over again, I'd use a DI/DO Flowmaster 50 to function as a crossover pipe and a Cherry Bomb resonator on each pipe after the muffler. You'd sound like a freakin' dragster, and your engine will breathe a lot better.
My next thing will be sending my Diablo Intune off for a custom tune. When I do, I'll post the link. If you lack the patience, just Google "Diablo Intune custom tune", and you should find it pretty quickly.
That's all from me, and yes, I know I still owe you guys a vid. Sorry about that!
Time to fire up the grill, crack open some beers, and watch the fireworks.

Sent from my HTC6600LVW using Tapatalk

[Sal-XK]

Great info! Looking forward to the video.


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[Knappster]

Sounds like a fun mod!

[06JeepXKHEMI]

Man its a been awhile since Ive been around here but glad to hear you tackled this! Need that video

[Dan.2005WK]

The video might be another couple days, unfortunately, and here's why:
I had an "oooohhhh crap" moment a couple days ago. For the last 1000 miles or so, I'd get a shudder when the TCC was supposed to engage. For a little while, I thought that loading the stock tune would make it stop. It did, for like 40 miles, then it came back. It was getting very slightly worse until two days ago when I started to leave my office. I put it in reverse, and it took a second or two to engage. Same thing when I put it in drive. Then, when I was driving on the highway, it simply refused to shift into overdrive. I was doing 60-65 mph at about 3k rpm. Normally those speeds would be about 2k rpm. After a minute or two, the ECU threw codes for incorrect gear ratios in gears 2, 3, and 4. Turns out, that's known as "fail-safe" mode. Naturally, I drove it straight to the local transmission shop.
I went in this morning to check it out and he showed me the trans pan, which had some cloudy tranny fluid and some white-ish foamy looking semi-fluid. (side note: I had had the trans fluid flushed about 2000 miles ago.) He said it looked like I got water or coolant in my trans fluid, either from condensation or from the radiator itself.
My questions: would water in the fluid be the only cause of the issues I was having, and have any of you other fellas (or ladies) had this issue? If so, did you have to replace your radiator? Would I have to rebuild the transmission?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. The guy has been working on transmissions for decades, but I would like to hear a second opinion before I say "eff it, do a rebuild, I have a spare kidney I can sell."

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[Sal-XK]

That sucks! I'm not a trans expert either but I would imagine you would want to make darn sure you figure out how the fluid became contaminated and fix it. From what I have heard a skipping trans with frothy fluid usually means it's done and needs to be rebuilt.


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