Spent part of the night after I got home from class tearing into the MJ some more. Label the wiring harness and plugs the best I could, then began to unplug and remove the harness. Getting everything disconnected so I can pull this 2.5 and AX4 out in one fell swoop. Once I have it out, the real work begins. I grab some pictures in the morning. Progress will be slow...

 

A little progress the past couple of days. The engine and drivetrain is pretty much ready to be yanked out. Spent a couple hours tonight modifying the front to accommodate the 4.0 radiator. Started with a Sharpie marker and a tape measure, and ended up with a lot of cut off scrap metal and a place to put the radiator. Only thing left to do for this part is to mock up and weld/bolt on some brackets at the bottom to hold the radiator in place. Once I get the engine out, I'm going to see what kind of modifications I need to do to the firewall (hoping I luck out there but we'll see).










Earlier in the day, I busted out the Super Clean and engine degreaser, and cleaned up the bellhousing and flywheel real good. Now they're mostly clean.



Next thing to clean thoroughly is the transmission... She's not bad, but I want it to shine.

 

You and motor swaps are becoming best friends haha. I'm excited to see how all this works out. I still need to come see that stroker. I really wanna do one but it will have to wait another year until I graduate from college

 

Yea, about those motor swaps...

I sort of wish I had just found an '87+ MJ with a 4.0/5 speed to begin with, but this is more fun right? It will be worth it hopefully when I get everything done.

A stroker for yours will be awesome. Your rig is sweet as is, but a beast engine will be the icing on the cake.

 

Yea, it's no fun if it's already built. Then you can't cuss, swear, and break ****.

A stroker would be awesome but I don't have the tools nor precise know-how to make the swap. I'm sure I could figure it out but it'd probably be at a big expense lol

 

Yea, all in all, mine cost closer to $3200... BUT, I did the '99+ intake mani and new header, throttle body, this and that... I basically didn't use anything off of my old engine other than the alternator. I wasn't going to do all that but the guy who built it used a HO head, so the Renix intake mani wouldn't have worked well, defeating the purpose of a stroker. If I did it again, I'd build it myself and probably just reuse a lot of what I could. I never want to spend that kind of money on this thing again lol.

 

Well I'd probably do the newer manifold, bored tb, and new header. But its little things like injectors, fpr, coil, cap/rotor, etc that I don't know what will be needed. Did you have to do any ecu work?

 

No, I'm using the stock ECU. You can get an adjustable MAP sensor fooler to fine tune it, but I didn't see the need. One of the advantages of the Renix system is it's simplicity and its ability to adapt on-the-fly. The only thing my Jeep has done from day one of the new engine is an unable idle when you start it up. Thought it had something to do with the IAC, but swapping that did nothing. Not a huge deal. After you get going down the road, it idles better at the stoplight and what not. My suspicion is the fuel pump may have to be upgraded at a later point. IIRC, the Renix FP puts out 39psi and the HO FP puts out 49psi. My Hesco FRP is preset to regulate at 44psi, which they consider ideal for 24lb/hr injectors. So I may be running a tad lean, but I have no way to really tell.

Edit: So, the early HO FP's are pretty much the same as far as pressure goes as the Renix, but '96 was the year of the returnless system and the pressure went up in that year. Unfortunately, those are not a direct swap for anything pre-'96.

 

Well then it looks like I'll be having the same issues when the time comes. Is it the wiring that changes or what? Could you just replace the fuel rail with a newer one so there is no return? Or is the pump entirely different in that you would need to modify much more than that?

 

I think the wiring is the same, however, if you use the whole fuel assembly from an HO, the fuel level sender will read backwards in a Renix, ie, the gauge will say empty when the tank is full and vice versa. As far as the wiring for the pump, that stays the same I believe. If you were to swap a '96+ fuel pump into a pre-'96, you would have to get the appropriate fuel rail and just use one of the steel hard lines running under the unibody. As far as the wiring goes and the backwards reading sender, I'm not entirely certain.

 

Well I'm a 92 so its all HO for me.

 

Got the engine and drivetrain out today and did a little cleaning in the engine bay. Super Clean (in the big purple bottle) is my newest all time favorite degreaser. It cleaned all the grease, oil and crude (and some paint) off of the axle and steering components. Ripping out the engine was a breeze. I had everything unhooked and disconnected from previous nights, so all I had to do today was remove the crossmember and pull the bolts out in the motor mounts and viola! Did it all by myself within 45 minutes. Now the real work begins...

 

I'm impressed of the work you've done so far. Id like to see how easy this wiring conversion goes.

 

Make sure you post lots pics of the engine swap and dash replacement lol I just bought an 86 Mj and I plan on doing both of these

 

Will do... Progress will be slow, though.