SpruceJedi

When I moved back to snow country a few years ago I figured that my little front wheel drive car was not going to cut it any longer. I woke up one morning and had 16" of snow on the roof and I had had it. I have owned XJ's in the past and had always regretted getting rid of them. I started my quest to find another. I located a nice specimen in Southern Michigan and decided to purchase it. It was a 2000 Cherokee Sport with about 130,000 miles on it. It drove nice, was noisy, but its a Jeep. I drove it for a while without any trouble and then changed the oil on it. I noticed that it had extremely heavy weight oil in it and after putting normal weight oil in it I immediately had engine noise. Come to find out the previous owner had known of some engine noise and quieted it down with heavier oil. I didn't have a choice so I drove it. A few days later I found a piston skirt in my oil pan. A trip to the auto salvage, a motor swap later I was back on the road. I had not really had any trouble since until recently I did a head gasket at almost 200k. I was starting to get some rust and decided that I wasnt going to let this one rust out from under neath me and I began planning my modifications.

This is how she sits today... A sad pile of parts that was once a proud XJ.

(Its really not upside down in real life, I just can't figure out why my photo keeps doing that)

I have specced out my list of upgrades and have them below.
RC 4.5" X-Series kit with rear leaf springs
BFG KM2 32" tires with full sized spare
Black D Window Steel Wheels (unsure which ones yet)
JCR XJ Front Winch Bumper
JCR XJ Rear Standard Bumper
JCR Transfer Case Skid Plate
JCR Gas Tank Skid Plate
Warn VR10000 Winch
Riddler Diff Covers
Slip Yoke Eliminator
Tom Woods Drive-Shaft (Once I do some measuring)
All new ball joints, wheel bearings, U-Joints, etc...

I am in the market for a 98 or earlier engine for a rebuild and replace at some point.

Mr.goodtime

sounds like a plan, good luck

MTLXJ

Cleeeeaaan I love the color!

Flowpro

Here ya go.

Nice plans ya have in store.

SpruceJedi

There we go! Thanks!

SpruceJedi

Day 1 of the build. Major set back.

Found out that my coolant loss has indeed been the result of a cracked head. Crap. Looks like the motor rebuild has just been bumped up the list.

If anyone has a 98 or older motor laying around anywhere near Michigan, let me know!

SpruceJedi

Went to the local Junkyard today and checked out a couple motors. I bought a 94 XJ motor that the owner was able to start up and let me listen to and check everything out. Lots of miles on it, but it ran well and was just a roll over so it wasnt there as a result of mechanical failure. He is working on taking it out of the vehicle for me and I will pick it up next week sometime.

I contacted my local machine shop guy, made a plan to drop everything off for him to work on at some point. I have made the decision to turn this into a 4.5L stroker or possibly a 4.7L. I am currently in the process of locating an crank and connecting rods for this bad boy so if anyone has any ideas or has one kicking around in the way, let me know!

I cannot wait to get started on this, now that I have a plan and a functional motor I am ready to roll.

SpruceJedi

Phase 1 officially started this afternoon. I dragged home my new greasy old 1994 4.0L from the junkyard and immediately went to work. It has an appointment at the engine beauty shop next week so I have to have it ready for its ultimate makeover. So far so good. I didn't get the fuel injector electronic control rail, which would have been nice since my current one is cracked in half, but I'll take what I can get.

I can't figure out how to post an image from my iPhone. Any ideas?

SpruceJedi

I finally got underway with the motor tear down. I got confirmation that the motor I have will work, so I decided to continue. For having 240,000 miles on it I would say that I am impressed with the condition it is in. It is extremely dirty and has lots of carbon but that is to be expected. It goes to the machine shop on Monday.

The beast as it arrived.


This is the level of help that I have been receiving.


The block.


The guts.


We took her wheelin today for the first time, this is how we had lunch on the trail.

SpruceJedi

Christmas came today! I should be picking up my engine block from the machine shop on Friday. I think I have everything ordered. All I need is time and a lot of liquid wrench!

SpruceJedi

After a very long spring wildfire season here in Michigan I finally was able to get to work. I got all of my parts ordered and my machine work done. My Stroker is built and I finally got the old engine out and the new one in the truck.



I used Keith black forged aluminum pistons .030" over sized.

Prepping for removal.

Out with the old.

In with the new.

I got my brown dog motor mounts installed and it all went in really nicely. I highly recommend their mounts to anyone. Here is my new engine after it was all bolted in.

I also removed my steering box while I had a lot of room under the hood. I broke 2 bolts off in the steering box and the cast aluminum brace just crumbled in my hands. After a lot of aerokroil, swearing and the use of a pipe wrench we finally got the broken studs out of the steering box. I have a nice new JCR brace to be installed with some nice shiny grade 8's.

Flowpro

That sure looks purdy in there. I bet you can't wait to hear it run and take the Xj for a drive.

zodiac

Nice work man, looking good!

SpruceJedi

Yeah. When that Stroker was on the stand I was sort of anxious. Now that it's in the truck I am really anxious. I have a lot left to do befor I hi the key. But it won't be too awful long. I miss driving the old xj.

SpruceJedi

My JCR bumpers and spare tire carrier as I dropped them off to get bed-line coated. I am really impressed with the quality and cust. Service at JCR. I highly recommend them to everyone.