Now:
New 401 is ready to go in some I'm over at the mechanics helping them pull the dead 401. It comes out with releative ease, but the old guy in the group asks... "When did you rebuild the transmission? This atf is practically new and that tourqe converter isn't from the 70's". I thought it was strange that a th400 would have needed rebuilt in 110 thousand miles so I wrote it off as a fluke.
Then we got the engine out. And much to my dissmay there was writing on the back of the block in paint pen. It read " LBLOCK 11-07-89 MILES-190K STEVE JACOBS "
190 thousand miles! In 1989! I thought this must have been a mistake but the last oil change sticker from owner #2 in the glovebox read 08-12-89 and 88763 miles. Maybe he wrote the 190 instead of 90 by mistake.
After we got it out the builder from the speed shop up the hill from us came to offer me money for the heads assuming they weren't cracked. He flips the motor over on the stand and starts cracking up. "How many miles does this thing have!!?!" He breaks out the feeler gauges and starts poking around... "There's no way its 110k its more like 200k. And the rods that threw were sleeved; so it probably been rebuilt a couple of times or run out of oil once or twice before that last rebuild. You can keep this heads. I don't want em if there THAT broke in."
I know that jeep was daily driven until late in 04. I've got recipts from PO #3 in the glovebox that tell me so. I also know where he works and where he lives (written in owners manual). His commute was 42 miles round trip. PO #2 worked at the same hospital and was friends with #3. But she lived 48 round trip away from the hospital. #2 aqquired the jeep when it was a little over a year old. So let's say that it was driven at least 240 miles in a five day work week. Over the course of 29 years thats 250590 miles. I should have done this math before trusting what PO #3 told PO#4 in his driveway.
Still puzzled about the high milage of my tough old friend I set about replacing the defroster vent tubes. Only the drivers side was fully intact but I received the least flow. I thought that some insulation must have blown up inside through the heater box so I was just going to replace the drivers side too. I pulled it off and the first thing I notice is the weight. "This is a REALLY heavy piece of fabric hose" I thought at first. But what I found inside the tube was truly amazing. And helped to confirm my new high mileage findings.
Here are the pictures of all the goodies in found in there. Including an original key! http://imgur.com/a/Zwz0o
There's a matchbook in there for a hotel in Atlanta Georgia and Minneapolis Minnesota. So I know she's been that far. The others are just small local places... Like the drive in movie theater! I'm actually starting to beleive the newfound high mileage.
So she actually has 310 thousand miles.
I don't know what to even think about that. Just wow. AMC built one hell of a car. Let's see if I can make it to 500k!
