SO since everything else is all hacked up in my Jeep, I figured I might as well butcher my center console too.
I am a creature of habit, and my bad habit was throwing change, and anything else I could find into those stupid storage areas only to have the crap I threw in there rattle and drive me crazy. SO OUT THEY GO!

Starting at the front of the console I cut off that very forward storage tray to mount my CB radio. After I cut out the needed area, I reinforced the bottom part with a small strip of 1"x2" Aluminium L. I used the XJ Cherokee God's very own elixir to hold it to the plastic. You might might also know it as JB Weld?
Then just below the shifter boot I cut out that little change area for 4 Carling Contura IV switches.
I had had them made for one of my FSJ Waggies a while back, but changed the direction with the Waggy. So I need to have the guys over at OVTRATTW make me some new switch covers to denote what they actually do.
The top part of the switch is a red LED that comes on with my running lights, and the bottom part of the switch is a blue LED that comes on when you turn that switch on.

Then moving on to the AFT part of my console is what used to be the HVAC vents and ash tray.
I did not need either of them, so the ash tray got a Carling Contura switch to turn on the new LED lights that I mounted behind the HVAC grill there on the console. Next to the switch is a dual USB charging port for my phone or ???????
It's nice having lights back there as the area that normally would be under the seat is now a storage compartment.

The last thing is I Raptor lined the whole console with their 2K raptor liner. I also painted my lower dash piece with the Raptor liner too. Damn! That stuff is expensive, and does not cover that far. It took two cans for those two pieces at $40 per can!


Yeah the HVAC control got some custom LED love too.

 

Wow that came out great !! Those cans may be expensive but the results were worth it IMO.. And the switches are the perfect addition...You have to be happy with the results for sure...

 

So back in September I had bought a Smittybilt XRC front bumper to go with my crappy XRC rear bumper, and crappy Defender roof rack.
Yeah I suck! Why buy all that crap?

Anywhoo!

So I was going to go out to install it wayyyyyy back then, and I noticed my radiator was leaking. Seriously??
Then I went to start my Jeep, and the battery was dead.

So I had been planning to upgrade my cooling system to a 4.0 system, and I had been procrassternation-ing doing a timing chain too.
The alternator. Well that was unplanned, but since I was going to install a winch on my front bumper lets up the game to a high output Alt too.
Welp no better time than the present I rekon..................

Lets get this party started.



You know whats bad?? I have had all these parts for some time.





Man! I did not think it was that ugly beneath all the wires and vacuum hoses!
But look at that cute lil engine in there.
Looks like it should be in a go-kart, not a Jeep.

 

So as with ALL Jeep projects they snowball outta control super fast. This one was no exception.

I started cleaning up the engine bay, and also degreasing the engine before I took things apart.



Knew that I was going to have to move the power steering reservoir from the radiator support to somewhere else, this looks OK to me? Oh wait! Thats were the airbox goes.



OK next thing to buy will be a cowl intake setup. $$$

Then I saw this. How did it even run??? (OH WAIT IT"LL GET BETTER SOON!!)



So since I got everything all cleaned up, I thought to myself............... Hey let's do a Rustoleum rebuild on the engine!!
I also kinda thought that there might be an exhaust leak on the manifold to the head, so now was a good time to fix that as well.

Looks Fancy huh?

 

SO new parts started arriving a couple times a day. I got the new timing chain on the front of the engine, new distributor, new timing cover, radiator, new electric fan set up, cowel induction system.


Making sure everything goes together in the right way.



ALL was going great till.
I had to stick my finger in spark plug hole one whilst turning the engine to come up to TDC.
Hugh! Thats weird............................ Felt like no compression on cyl. 1.
OK lets turn it again............. you know these old AMC 4 cylinders are kinda funky??

NOPE!
There is no compression!

OK!
Well lets pull the head, and take a looksie.

CRIKEY!
Can you believe it was still running with all this?


#1 Cyl. (on the right) had a crack between the intake and exhaust vale, hence the reason the valves are white in color.
Cyl. 2 & 3 the head gasket failed between them.
Cyl. 4 had another huge crack in it, and again the color was the first sign of problems. But Cyl. 2 also had a nice crack as well.
Then when I looked at the pistons I saw the .050 on the top of it, so this poor little engine must have been rebuilt before??? Yah think??
50 overbore was just a little to much to even think about rebuilding this thing. Not to mention it had a really nice ridge.
Also the head gasket was a Blue Fel-pro, and I knew that Jeep did not use them at the factory

See! I told ya it was gonna get better!

So I started looking for a good used engine, but all the sources for those wanted just shy of a rebuilt engine.
OK!
I'll start looking for a rebuilt.
One problem............ Supply chain issues EVERYWHERE! Most rebuilders were like 90 days out maybe they said. Could be longer.

I finally found a company in FL that had good reviews, and build a 4 Cyl. stroker long block, and could ship in two weeks. (turned out to be three weeks. waiting on King bearings)


Ain't it cute!

 

Good work on EVERTHING! This is coming along very nicely.

 

DustyWagoneer,
Thanks for this great post! I'm gonna go on the side like you did here for the thermistor. Don't have any experience with AC putty at all. Could you recommend a brand name? Did it hold up pretty well? I was gonna JB weld it till I thought...what if I have to take it back off at some point!

Many thanks,
Andy

 

Well that got crazy fast lol. LMK if you need any guts from my 95 ohc. Not using any of the electronics (besides the light modules) I have a harness too. Good luck with the stroker!

 

The 97+ passenger side kick panel has a fuse block access door moulded into it. Not sure how much room you would have needed, but I would have tried to utilize that and put your aftermarket block behind it!

 

Man, you do nice work. I subscribed as I'm sure I will glean useful info once I start tearing into mine.

 

Thanks guys!

Yeah I looked into that, but what was done there had some pretty big wires in the flex-braid (10AWG, 12AWG, 14AWG all SLX), so This was a better idea in my opinion.

SO yeah I know I have not been really keeping up on this thread.......................... Well because I have been super busy trying to get this dogone thing on the road.
It has been really frustrating waiting on parts to come in too.

I guess I should back up a little bit here?
Before the engine got to me I decided to grind down the studs for the window trim along the front window so I could install a 1995 rubber trim there.
Of course why not repaint the whole roof, a pillars, and cowl too?
My roofs clear coat had all but scabbed off really bad, so it just made sense.


Grinding down the trim mounting studs




Hole for the Thor cowl induction. Way to small unfortunately I found out AFTER I had painted the Jeep.

Brushed on seam sealer.

 

SO I shot this using and old Binks gun, and it turned out OK for shooting it in my driveway under an orange canopy.
Unfortunately my gun started leaking when it was on to much of an angle, and I got a few drips on the top of the roof.
I also got a couple sags in the clear coat, but all of that can be wet sanded out. It does look a whole lot better however.



ooohhhh SHINNEY!

 

So after all that stuff it was time to get the lil engine on the stand.
Get it all prepped to go in it's new home.



So it was sitting next to my AMC 360, and I was looking at the two of them there.



I started to think............... Well the 4 banger is of AMC design?
And that AMC metallic blue engine sure looks purdy there.

Hey!
I have an extra can of that engine enamel sitting in the paint cabinet!

So it was time to start cleaning, wirebrushing, masking, and finally painting.


I used a Movie set, concert lighting product called BLACK WRAP on the top of the head to mask the rockers. It is like a super heavy duty aluminum foil to put over lighting fixtures.

new timing cover with the crank snout covered.

I actually took out the seal that came with the cover, and installed a new Fel-Pro seal. SO I took the old one and put an old spraybomb cap inside of it to mask the crank.

Before I painted I put a double layer of tape around the edge where the timing cover goes to keep paint off the timing set.

 

So you can see it masked off the new seal pretty well.






I like it!

 

What kind of paint did you use on the engine? I think I'm gonna have to find something to use it on!