XJ 4wd conversion with Engine swap
 

Hey everyone. I will try to make this short and sweet but it is a long story.

I bought 3 Jeep XJs from a guy. My wife and I have wanted an off road rig for a while and couldn't pass this up. I bought the 3 XJs in my signature. The green 2000 has the best body as it is from Florida. I am from Maine so a good body is a must. The white Jeep is just a bonus parts rig and the blue one will be the donor XJ. I didn't want to register 2 XJs so I wanted to do the swap soon but the car I had lost the transmission. I couldn't find it either. Being down to one vehicle I had to put the green XJ on the road. I fixed it up so it ran and drove well and drove it all last summer. I robbed quite a bit of stuff off the blue jeep to make it this nice and I was going to do the 4wd conversion in the spring.

Well then tragedy struck. The 2000 green 2x4 XJ blew the motor on a really cold day. With over 250,000 miles, it was just a matter of time. I decided to throw the blue 98 on the road but it was having issues. It was running when I parked it, but now it looks like the fuel pump is dead. The stupid Haynes manual is garbage and none of the wiring colors are right but in short I ran a new power wire to the pump and it still didn't work. There is a lot of stuff I would have to do to this Jeep to get it going so I decided to speed up the 4wd conversion.

My question is, how hard will it be to change the whole drive line from the 98 to the 2000?

I have been doing some research here and found that the 4wd conversion should be fairly straight forward. The engine work should be fairly easy too. I will just have to get an aftermarket exhaust header, use the 2000 intake and sensors and switch the distributor with the coils. Does this sound about right? Will the transmission and transfer case plugs from the 98 work on the 2000? Am I going to have to change any harnesses from the 98?

Thanks in advance.

Is the engine out of the 1998 worth a transplant as is?

Sure is. Especially if I can drop the engine, tranny and transfer case out in a single unit.

Been working quite a bit on the Jeeps. In my opinion the only way to do one of these conversions is dropping the engine, transmission and transfer case through the bottom. . I have stripped the donor Jeep and set the empty carcass aside. The rear axle has been swapped, the front end, motor and transmission have been removed from the 2wd rig.

Yesterday I swapped some sensors on the engine including the oil pump drive and cam shaft position sensor. Hopefully I did that right. Do the holes in the body and reluctor wheel need to be lined up after it is inserted? The first couple of times after I jammed the shaft in, the tip of the reluctor wasn't lined up, almost like it was off a tooth. I found a video on youtube showing the hole needs to be lined up after it goes in the block, so that is how I timed it. I hope it works.

While finding top dead center I took the valve cover off to find the compression stroke. After timing the engine with the cam shaft position sensor I cleaned up the valve cover and replaced the gasket. I added a new thermostat and I think the motor, tranny and transfer case is ready to go back in.

While everything is out, I am going to add the JCR unibody tie in and steering box spacer for a future front bumper upgrade. The steering box is leaking anyway so it will be easy just to swap it out real quick.

That's pretty much it for now. Will update everyone later.

Replaced the timing chain set and water pump yesterday and got my JCR unibody tie in and steering box spacer. What a great kit. Made very well, but is missing lock washers. I installed that today and now I am ready to throw the drive train back in.
She is coming together.

Well crap....
​​​​https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...fd25202b3a.jpg2000 cherokee broken intake manifold
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​My feet are cold.

Got the drive train back in. While the engine is suspended without the front end in was a good time to do the rear main seal and oil pan gasket. Pretty simple stuff though I did cut the seal by accident. Just another trip to the parts store. No big deal. Everything looked good internally.