Hey guys,

Mentioned in my intro that i’m new to working on cars, let alone a complete teardown and rebuild. Trying my best to educate myself, learn the ups and downs. I have a 96 Cherokee 4x4 SE, gutted it completely I mean no dash no carpet no motor no trans no driveshafts no exhaust, etc. Got my straight 6 stroked to a 4.7, working on getting the motor set up and the trans cleaned up. Problem is I have no idea what’s in the engine bay besides the motor and its compliments, brake booster and ecu. Could use some advice or photos on what i’m missing in order to put this back together, engine bay specifically.


Gutted engine bay

Gutted interior

 

I'm really hoping you took lots of pictures while tearing it apart.

 

I think you have got yourself into a pickle. Here is my 2 cents:

Buy an XJ that is pretty nice with an old engine.
Remove the engine from new xj
Take hundreds of pictures at every step and put all the bolts in clearly labeled bags
Put your stroker in the new jeep

Then you have a nice jeep and a big pile of spare parts.

 

I highly recommend you get the Factory Service Manual for your model Jeep. For mine a 1990 it comes in two volumes. There are many very detailed illustrations, wire harness routing, connectors locations, components locations, etc...
You might find a local jeep and ask to examine or go find one at a wrecker to examine

But for 100% sure you NEED the Factory Service Manual. The Haynes manual is not adequate for this, although it has photos that will complement the Factory Manual. So get both, but for sure the Factory one, it is as thick as a big city phone book, it has every wire schematic for instance. the Haynes only a few of the schematics, but it has photos which the factory one lacks. The factory one has nice realistic line drawings, but no photos, but does have much more detail for every last tiny part. . . so get BOTH.

 

download the FSM AND factory Parts Manual

The Parts Manual is really helpful, I do not think you can get by without it

It has mammoth illustrations, and lists the fastener sizes

That alone will **** with your mind, as a '96 XJ has both Imperial and Metric in many parts of the vehicle

 

I screwed up. Definitely did not document my disassembly like I should have. I was deploying in June and had one month to tear this thing apart and boy did I do so. Looks like I have a lot of work cut out for me, and I definitely learned my lesson lol.

 

Might be the best route to go, I'll see what I can do otherwise but I know my wife will kill me for buying another one even if I explain to her its use lol. Deservedly so however. If I can get some extra money put away, I will probably do this. Thank you for your advice!

 

Will do so! I have the Haynes manual and I've gone through it quite a bit so far, I definitely felt it's missing some stuff so this is incredibly helpful to know. Will be buying one today.

 

Got it, will look into both of these ASAP. And absolutely, the Imperial and Metric combo was stressing me the hell out thinking about this rebuild. Thank you for your advice!

 

I just did an engine swap and it took longer than expected. I have some rough idle and backfiring issues that showed up so it’s still not 100% so driving the wife’s car. I am on thin ice… so my advice of just buy another jeep… my wife would not be happy if I just bought another. Worst case scenario it gave you something to do for a month to get your mind off deploying and will give you a very serious challenge for time some to come.