Project Cherokee: IPF H4 / Magic-J Installation

IPF Magic-J afterglow
IPF Magic-J afterglow

After reading about headlight upgrades on the XJ List and on the Jeepsunlimited bulletin board , I decided that it was a modification that I was interested in. I have always felt that the stock XJ headlights were fairly dim, especially at night when raining. While reading the many threads on the JU bulletin board, many people discussed the benefits of doing an H4 upgrade.

While placing the order for my Old Man Emu lift kit with James of www.jeepersandcreepers.com, I asked him about what was needed to do the H4 / Magic-J upgrade and what kind of costs he could get me. He told me that you needed the lenses, the bulbs and the wiring loom, and gave me a great price on the items.

What I ordered: I ordered the IPF 820 H4 bulbs, the IPF M17S single blue glow Magic-J bulbs, and the IPF M002 high performance wiring harness.

IPF Equipment.

IPF Equipment.

Installation Prepwork: You will have to do a few things before performing the install. You will have to remove your factory headlights and battery. The other thing that I had to do was to remove my brushguard sections to my Ramsey grilleguard to get unrestricted access to the headlights. Once these steps were done, the install was pretty straight forward.

Installation: This was pretty straight forward. All I had to do is find a “central” location under the hood where I could mount 3 relays. I chose a spot on the passenger’s side firewall. This gave plenty of wire to run to the battery and the two headlights.

IPF Wiring Harness installed.

IPF Wiring Harness installed.

IPF Wiring Harness.

IPF Wiring Harness.

The next step to do is to run the wires to the headlights. I did a mock up just to make sure that the wires would reach. After that, it was finding the spot where the wires would lay. (ie. away from heat and moving parts.) I decided on behind the grille and near the top of the front fascia. (Better illustrated in the picture below)

IPF Harness install.

IPF Harness install.

In the picture above, there is some studs that come out from the front fascia that connect it to the grille. I just ran the wire loom right underneath those and ran zip ties around the loom and stud to hold them tight. This keeps the wires in place and away from the radiator. The first light connection (passenger side) has two connections, one plugs into the existing (factory) harness and the other is where the IPF Magic-J bulb plugs into. (See picture below)

Plug the harness in.

Plug the harness in.

The wire loom leading to the driver’s side travels in front of the front fascia. The connector will simply replace the factory one. You don’t have to do anything with the factory one, it will just be tucked behind the headlight opening. See picture below:

Plug the harness in.

Plug the harness in.

The last few steps are to mount the relays to the firewall and connect the power leads to the battery. I utilized the one nut from the hood hinge to hold down the fusible link and then drilled two new holes for the relays.

IPF harness installed.

IPF harness installed.

That’s it. You are now done. Now wait till dark and try them out. I saw an immediate difference in the amount of light that they give off and the pattern seems to be a little bit wider.

H4 lenses installed.

H4 lenses installed.

The other neat thing about these bulbs is that they glow after you shut off the lights. IPF uses a high pressure exotic gas to produce a brilliant white light and feature a phosphorescent ring which produces a luminous coloured glow when turned off.

Magic J afterglow.

Magic J afterglow.

 *Photo courtesy of Jeeps Unlimited.

And how do they work at night? Here is a photo courtesy of  www.jeepin.com that shows the comparison. I think the photo speaks for itself.

IPF Magic J comparison

IPF Magic J comparison

 *Courtesy of www.jeepin.com