I was hesitant to create a build thread of my own seeing how many other 99s are already on here, and how different could mine really be? But I decided to go ahead so that I could use this like a time capsule as this will be a long term project.

First, a little background but I’ll keep it brief. This is my 9th Jeep, and all were “builds” of some sort. One does simply not buy a stock Jeep and keep it stock… But this is my first XJ.
I picked this one up in Toledo and pulled it home with my 2016 Grand Cherokee hemi-powered Overland. My wife also has a Jeep, a 2015 JKU Rubicon 6 speed. (Yeah she’s cool)

The unnamed XJ threw a rod with the seller so I got it for $1000. Pretty decent body, and it has an AX15 already swapped in. (And some homemade upgrades) Not a bad price from what I could find in Ohio recently. I didn’t want to buy from outside the state just to keep the title transfer easy.



The seller and his family loved this Jeep and owned it for many years. There were lots of homemade upgrades performed from them; some cool, some not, but they will all be coming off since they don’t really fit my end-design.

Typical rust on wheel arch

Here’s the worst of the cancer, will require a new rocker to get welded in.

Passenger rocker looks 10x better than driver side.

Not too rough here, but not a single panel is without dent.. lol

Homemade roof rack is coming off..but appears pretty sturdy.

Even the color will be changed. Leaning towards Jeep’s Light Khaki Metallic. (Paint code: JC/AJC/PJC)

I’m looking to keep the lift as short as possible as I’ve been a fan of LCG-type of vehicles for years. I don’t have any concerns of body trimming and I want to run X-Max fenders from Notch Customs.

There will be many phases of this unnamed build, but it will start with an engine swap.

 

I found this 1994 4.0L to replace the Unnamed 99’s fragmented engine. Listed on CL under Indianapolis for only $450 and appearing to be mostly complete I couldn’t pass it up. So I contacted the seller and made arrangements. We agreed on $330 and he would also help load it onto my trailer.

The only issue with this motor is that I never had a chance to hear it run and the seller bought it for his own project but wasn’t able to make it work for him. His Cherokee has coil-on-plugs and this as a ‘94, is a distributor setup. For my ‘99 this is perfect. Unfortunately he was a 3 hour drive one-way from me, so my wife and I rented a trailer and made a whole day out of it. At least it wasn’t raining lol.

Up on a stand with accessories removed, the engine looks pretty good considering it’s age. Even better it has oil in it that was free of contamination. We are also able to turn it by hand. I could even hear it trying to push air! Without knowing it’s history we still decided to do a full tear down and rebuild since it’s already out.

The freeze plugs in the rear of the block look a lot newer than the ones on the side…not sure if that would be expected or is some work had been done at some point.

All together at this point I have $1330 in this project.

 

My oldest son who is 14 has been wanting to help on this build, so I was excited to teach him as we took this on.



With the oil drained and valve cover off we removed the rocker arms and pushrods, being careful to keep the in the same order while in storage. Each pushrod was examined for blockages and bending. Each rocker arm was examined for cracks and gouges. So far everything is looking good.

No signs of damage or advanced wear on the head and the gaskets were still intact.



We didn’t see any signs of a warped or cracked head and the gasket was still in good shape. The cylinder walls are pretty slick so a good honing will be needed to restore cross-hatching. That will ensure the oil will coat the cylinder walls preventing premature wear and ensuring longevity.

Oil pan off, again the gasket looking good. Also lucked out without having to fight any broken bolts or finding any surprises.


A high volume oil pump from Melling will be sourced.

Timing chain and sprockets exposed, there is a little slack in the timing chain. Considering this engine supposedly had around 147k miles it may be expected for a little stretching. A new set from Cloyes will be installed during reassembly.

Note: during head removal, we found two bolts in the same area that were saturated in oil in the threads. If anyone here has seen this before, is it a sign of any issues?

Lastly, I found a machine shop in Beavercreek, OH to do the hot tanking and inspection of the block. I’m planning on disassembly, cleaning and inspection of the head myself so if anyone has any pointers, hook a friend up!

 

After some consideration and a couple of suggestions from other members (thanks guys) I am going to attempt to restore the factory 15” aluminum wheels. I really don’t have an issue with black steelies, but the rims on Unnamed 99 are rusting before my eyes and also need restored. Once I have these aluminums restored I’m going to switch the tires over and find a shop to sandblast the steelies. Then I’ll clean those up with VHT wheel paint and sell them.

Hard to see in this pic, but there is corrosion and major scuffs all over these wheels. One wheel has really bad curb rash.

My first step was to have the bald tires removed and then wash them. After that I dried them and used Mother’s metal polish generously all over with a Mother’s speed ball. Some of the light corrosion came off but the deep corrosion and scratches are still there. Some deeper restoration methods will be needed.

Once I get these off and sandblasted, they’ll clean up nicely for sale for someone else to use.

So from research I did briefly online, seems the best method to restore deep gouges may be to sand them down and then buffing and polishing to restore shine. I picked up this 4in buffing kit with various grits to try and clean up these deep gouges.

 

This morning I had time to remove the timing set from the donor engine. Pretty straight forward, but YouTube will be my best friend for the coming months.



I should have know this prior to beginning, but it is crucial to have the timing marks lined up on the sprockets. I had to rotate the crank by hand to get them aligned. Also, inside the cam sprocket, (the larger one) there is a pin which is spring loaded. Careful not to lose them!

Once the timing marks were aligned everything was pulled off with my hands needing only moderate pressure. It appears so far that all of the parts I have removed were OEM parts, which was refreshing.

 

The freeze plugs in my original engine looked the same. Just out of the weather I guess. I was surprised they looked that good to.

 

wow you’re not kidding. That lower freeze plug looks new!

Have you started the rebuild? I’m curious about brass vs steel freeze plugs and if it matters which

 

There was nothing really wrong with my stock engine. It had 115k on it. I stripped it to a long block and gave it someone who was a little less fortunate than me. After a lot of research and conversations with Chad Golen, I went with a Golen 4.6. They do use brass freeze plugs, Cloyes single roller, and a standard volume melling oil pump.

 

Looks like a fun project!

 

There is a really good series on YouTube with a guy who walks you step-by-step through the entire engine Teardown and rebuild. His YouTube name is “JeepSolid”, and I’d highly recommend watching his series if you are thinking about tackling a project like this.

Anyway, I got a little further into the donor engine Teardown for project Unnamed 99.

I picked up this ridge reamer from Autozone for just over $20.

Easy to use and JeepSolid explains it very well so I won’t repeat his steps. The instructions are also inside the box lol.

This dark ring of carbon and gunk is what we are removing.

With the ridge reamer in place and cylinder walls lubed, I’m ready to remove the carbon ridge along the top of the cylinder walls. This is to lessen the chance of damage to the piston, rings, and cylinder. It should also help the cleaning stage at the machine shop go easier and more thoroughly.

Carbide blade is just below the carbon ridge in the cylinder wall.

An important step…make sure you label the rods before you remove them. I used a simple and cheap punch kit from Harbor Freight labeling each rod for which cylinder it came from. The markings are also along the side nearest the camshaft to avoid confusion.

No picture to go along with it but the lifters and camshaft are also removed at this point.

 

Looking forward to watching your process. I will likely end up rebuilding or replacing the engine in my parts 96. I haven't had any luck finding used 4.0s and a rebuild seems pricey, we'll see what happens. Thanks for sharing JeepSolid!

 

Time well spent!
My younger brother and sister and I, spent time in the garage with our father.
The three of us all miss those times now, but we have retained so much wisdom, and memories from it.

 

thanks, that’s the goal!

 

This afternoon my son and I finished removing the last of things in preparing the block for the machine shop.

Probably not too many 14 year olds know about removing core plugs lol



The block is still a little dirty and oily but it’s almost ready to go.

 

Been a while since I posted but I have made some decent progress while the weather cooperates.


Ready to go
The old blown engine is finally ready to come out after labeling all connectors and removing all easily accessible accessories. Found more loose exhaust components which explains why the previous owner complained of an exhaust leak…and two large holes in the exhaust manifold at the collector. Actually, the whole exhaust is trash and I’ll be starting from scratch when I go to install phase.


Out with the old…
If you look close in the driver side front of the engine block you can see a massive hole where it detonated. And the black soot all over the rear driver side of the block is where the exhaust manifold was leaking badly from the collector.

Next we’ll be prepping the Jeep for a new engine and restoring wires and connectors, etc…