I think the worse thing about this is I just did a complete tune up - coil, cap, rotor, plug, wires and exhaust manifold. Then, not sure why, I put a 96+ intake manifold and steering pulley assembly on it - and at this point I don't even remember what the reason was for that except it sounded like a good idea at the time. I sure hope all of that wasn't a waste of $$.

 

 

IIRC.,with the exception of the gauge/light sender moving from the rear of the head to the T-stat housing, (94-96?), heads and manifolds swap from 87 all the way to 99. (you do need to use the right manifold gasket for pre or post 90). 00 and 01 are different.
If your puter gets along with the sensors on your 96 manifold/TB, just guessing here, I bet it will be fine.

 

That would be awesome! There is only one sensor on the 96 manifold and it moved over form the 93. The only check engine light I have is the one I had before starting an it is for a fuel injector issue. I think it is from the #2 injector because the wires just pull out of the connector. I bought new connectors to solder in place.

So from what I an getting in this thread and another where cruiser54 has been posting the engine will be a direct swap (not worried about the transmission) and I can still use my intake/exhaust manifolds that I currently have and I don't even have to worry about swapping the head.

Things are slightly looking up. Now to make sure I can look at the bottom end of the donor engine then make the 3hr drive to pick it up. Guy has been nice enough to drop the price to $500 for engine & transmission so that will help a bit. One last question, how you you support it to transport it for a 3 hour ride?

 

You can always pull the new tune-up parts and swap them to the new engine - then like DFlintstone said - most likely the manifolds from your engine will be usable. In the end between selling off the parts you don't need and all that, you won't have wasted much extra money.

There is a reason some folks say jeep stands for Just Empty Every Pocket.
... and there's definitely a reason so many folks still drive these old XJs anyway.

 

Tuning up the replacement wouldn't be a bad thing anyway. And I agree, selling some parts off might get me a couple hundred back - which will be nice.

Hadn't heard that JEEP acronym before, I don't think I like it!!!

 

Well my dad bought a 94XJ new and drove it for 400k miles with zero major issues (engine/tranny/xfer all fully functional from the first day through the last), 1 clutch replacement (despite teaching 3 teenage boys to drive manual on it) and to this day he still says it was the best vehicle he ever owned. This is a guy who drove an 80's VW Rabbit well over 300k, a couple late 80's toyotas (none made it to 300k), a Sienna, a brand new rav4, a brand new 4runner and currently drives a '16 Tacoma and the Jeep XJ was still the most reliable out of all of them.

So it's possible to spend a ton of money on a Jeep (especially if you're building it for wheeling purposes), but it's by no means a question of reliability.

 

Got the replacement engine lined up and will have it home on Sunday. I have found one thing that might be an issue, the Jeep has 35" tires and a 6.5" lift. I have no idea if a regular engine hoist will go high enough to get the engine out. Leaves me two choices and I already have a feeling which way I will need to do this but thought I'd entertain both.
1) Remove front tires and put the front end on the ground, essentially dropping the front 10". Hopefully enough!
2) Unhook brake lines, pitman arm, shocks and control arms to roll the axle out and drop the engine out the bottom while Jeep is on 30" tall jack stands. Just not sure if the body side of the motor mounts are too difficult to remove.

I'm sure top side will be the choice I hear, maybe I can rent a cherry picker and lift it out with that and do the yard work in the same weekend! Yeah, ambitious.

 

I gather the inverted torx bolts top on the bell housing are a real *****....so be ready. It's recommended to replace them with something sane.

 

They are, but you can tilt the engine down and get access to them. I ended up having to drill one out on my 00 TJ and it was a pain, but I did it. If you don't give 2 ****'s about the motor mounts, tilt the tranny down a bunch and you'll have plenty of room.

 

If you can't get the engine high enough , just remove the front tires and set it as low as you can with out the rotors hitting the ground .

 

I personally don't mind the e12 bolts and I put them back in when I put my truck back together. I've done a lot with them at work as well though.

 

The real pain with the bolts is getting at them, so replacing them is by no means a magic trick - you still need the 2 feet of extensions and aught to have a 2nd pair of hands to help keep the socket on and support the extensions.

Really the main reason I replaced mine was so I didn't have to worry about being able to find my E12 socket if I ever have to do the clutch again!

 

Ironically, when I drilled out the boogered up E12 on my TJ and pulled the tranny back, I was able to spin the rest of the bolt out by hand.
I remembered this when I did the clutch on my XJ and made sure to loosen those suckers up before even thinking about loosening the main bolts on the bellhousing.

 

Thanks for the tips on 3 E12 bolts - there always has to be something to make it more of a pain. I do have plenty of extensions, probably 5' worth if needed and a daughter to help keep the socket in place when the time comes.
I will also probably replace them just so all are the same in case there is a next time and I will loosen them first and put them in last during the process.

I see that conveniently nobody lives close enough to come have some fun doing this r&r though. Guess I'll have all the fun by myself.

Thanks again for all the help!!