I drive a 4L TJ (post 97/98 with round headlights) wrangler without a snorkle. Bought it with a 2" OME lift and 29's, fitted 31's without any difficulties except the gearing was a little high (5th gear was used less)
Now, depending what you want to do with it....
Air intake is fairly high up in the engine bay, snorkels are easy to fit if required. elecs seem to be well protected from water and I have never had her die in the water. Another reccomendation is a kenlowe type fan if you are going to play in muddy water a lot as the air intake is inline with the fan splash, never caused any obvious issues, but I did used to have to wash out the filter houseing to get rid of the mud residue after playing.
Most parts are available over here from the like of Lighthouse Jeep, or if you are loaded then there are places that advertise in the glossy mags. Cheaper is to order from the likes of Quadratech and 4wd in the states (lots of other companies as well, often cheaper than them) and get the parts shipped over, this is almost always cheaper than buying over here so long as you remember the bits bought are for LHD vehicles, ie. for the lift I bought (now 3.5") I had to have a track bar bracket made to fit.
After 4years+ of playing, the only bits I have HAD to replace have been:
Battery (fitted an Optima Starter Yellow top)
Rear exhaust (slid back into a bank)
front Wheel Bearings
U/J's (they go, fitted Greasable ones, but in hindsight, would only fit greasable ones where you can get to them. I have to drop the transfer case cover and the rear prop to fully grease mine up now, when they go, they'll be replaced with non greasable "Spicer" ones.
VC Fan, replaced with a Kenlowe due to the clutch not engaging on the VC anymore. was cheaper to fit a kenlowe than buy a new VC Fan.
Clutch (was gritty from when I got it, but during the return from the Mac Challenge the release bearing gave up. replaced the whole clutch while it was apart)
I have a rear disk brake conversion, Wranglers (unless you go for the new ones) have drum rear brakes and they stop working within 50yds of mud :) (well, it felt like it)
The rest has been extras that I have wanted to fit, and there are a few of them !
TJs come with a Dana 44 Axle on the rear which is very strong and have a factory LSD fitted as standard.
a 2.5 will not save you a lot of MPG, but you will loose a lot of the power (especially if going to 31's on factory gearing) but some people swear by the 2.5 if you re-gear it.
There's loads of info you can get from the likes of:
www.rockznrutz.comwww.j33p.comwww.jeepclub.com (Good FAQ section on the different Wranglers)
EE
