jeepjerry

Ive been working on my wagoneer lately and figured it might hold some interest here.

I got it from a friend that bought my old '80 full size cherokee chief last winter for pretty much free. It has a 258 6 cyl and t-176 4-speed manual. Its got a d44 up front and an AMC 20 out back. It sits on a 4" lift and 33" tires.

This is when i first got it. Not much changed up until a couple months ago.

ZachsXJ

thats a nice FSJ

jeepjerry

I pulled it into the garage early november to start working on it.

jeepjerry

I wanted to build a 4.6l stroker for it, but it wasnt in the budget so i decided to rebuild a '91 4.0 head and bolt it onto my low mileage 258 i picked up for it. I also ran a stock '94 camshaft since i plan to run a factory fuel injection setup out of my '92 parts cherokee. For now i used an offenhauser 4bbl intake with holley 390 cfm carb along with the factory 4.0 header. The distributor is a DUI HEI.







Coming together.

jeepjerry

Dropped the engine in shortly after and had it running in a few days. I had to cut out the downpipes the previous owner had in it that came from a dual outlet header. I then had to hook the cherokee downpipe into one of the flowmasters inlets, and then block one of its other inlets. It worked out well.

jeepjerry

After getting it running, i swapped the bent up front fenders with a good used one and a new one i had. I was able to get it moving under its own power too once i plumbed and wired in the electric fuel pump.

black_771

LOVE IT!! Trying to get the ol' lady to approve an acquisition of my own. She actually DOESN'T like the woody look. WTF?? She's unamerican.

jeepjerry

I then started on patching the rusty floorboards on the drivers side. The passenger side floors were solid for some reason, so i had no work to do there. I had the help of a formed replacement on the rear part of it, but everything else was fabbed up. The rust went pretty far into the rear door jamb and it was kind of a pain to reconstruct that.







After i got all the holes patched, the new panels seam sealed in and laid some paint on, i laid in the carpet kit that i got for free from another full size jeep buddy. Its the wrong color, but heck, it works. The seats are in good shape and out of a '88 grand wagoneer....still need to clean them up.

BajaCrawler

hows the power? now is that a 4.0l or a 4.2l with the 4.0l head? got lost there. if its the 4.0l engine I have the same trans out of a 85 wago and was gonna see if it'll go in a xj.

jeepjerry

Thats pretty much it for now. Ive just been fine tuning how it runs and putting the rest of the small interior peices together. Ive swapped that diamond plate guage cluster for an original since the heater controls are in it.

I have the patch panels for the rear quarters and the replacement drivers side rocker skin, so i will be starting on that soon. It takes a while to get my garage toasty enough to work in without a furnace.

jeepjerry

Its a 4.2l with a 4.0 head. It actually has really good power. Ive driven a few 258 powered full size jeeps and this has much more power than any of them. I figured it would run as strong as a stock 4.0, but have more torque since the 4.2 has a longer stroke.

Was the 85 a grand wagoneer or xj wagoneer? These had manual clutch linkage and all the xj's were hydraulic. It would bolt to the 4.0, but there is no provision for the crank sensor in the bellhousing.

jeepjerry

Yeah, its a legend!! I say go for it anyway. Once she rides in one, she will like it.

BajaCrawler

yeah its a grand wago trans, I knew they were manual and xj's were hydro. and that I would have to mod the bell housing for that. so it will just bolt right up and what clutch matches the input shaft spline. cause I know the peugot 5spd cherokees have a smaller input shaft than the ax15 5spd ones. I was gonna try and put it in a 94 4.0l HO 2dr. oh does it matter which flywheel i have?

jeepjerry

You'd want to use the 4.0 flywheel. The 4.2 one doesnt have your crank sensor windows. Both engines are balanced neutrally and the crank flanges/bolt patterns are the same. I think the clutch bolt patterns are the same too. You would just have to purchase a clutch kit for a 85 wagoneer.

You can make it work. These are pretty decent transmissions too, not as strong as the ax-15, but much better than the peagot.

projectmayhem

its nice work so far