You have a point I just might do that. Thinking of getting another XJ from a friend of mine till I can get mine built exactly how I want it.

 

Chevy v8 most supported swap...http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-a...w=1466&bih=784

 

Reading up to this point I have not seen anything about gearing. Could that be why he's underpowered?

 

i don't understand the "underpowered" talk either.

either your 4.0 is toast or you're geared wrong. my 100% stock cherokee is faster to 40 or 50 than my lightly modded civic si was. no shortage of power/torque from a well maintained 4.0

 

Yea if he's geared wrong then the V6 swap is gonna make it into even more of a slug.
I've driven v6 stock Dakota's long distances and they are not any better than a stock XJ. Actually worse. This makes no sense to me.

 

3.55 gears on 235/75/15s cant even skip the tires on it

 

Very possible the motor has been toast for a while

 

That sucks they are quite peppy around town

 

have you checked compression?

 

Not yet auto parts store wont let my rent one they only sell them

 

lol this thread. So instead of fixing your tired engine you want to replace it with an obscure crappy one that will never compare?

Wouldn't a compression gauge be cheaper than an unprecedented engine swap? Wouldn't you need to test compression on the new engine anyway....?

derp

 

for what it's worth, all you would actually be doing different from anyone else is the engine swap.

Dakota's have the AX15 like an XJ, only with a different bellhousing. Pretty sure they both use the same NP231, if not, just use an XJ 23 spline 231. Use a ax15 crossmember and ax15 driveshafts.

Build engine mounts, decipher radiator hoses, and wire it up. look up a wiring diagram for your XJ and for the donor vehicle. Luckily the dodge wiring is similar to the XJ wiring with the computer being under the hood, so all you will really have to splice is some power/ground wires and gauge wires.

Really shouldn't be that bad. I almost did a 318 swap in my first XJ with a dakota donor but it got sold out from under me.

 

I know that an "adapter mount" can be had to fit the SBC into an XJ (Advance Adapters,) you may want to see if you can find information on wedging the LA239 in the same place, I'd probably start looking through Novak.

The LA239ci V6 is essentially the Dodge LA V8 less two cylinders (same situation as the Buick V6-231 vice the Buick V8-350,) but the LA-block isn't as common a swap, so there may be trouble making it happen.

I wouldn't come right out and say "forget it" - but the fact that you're asking tells me two things:
1) You don't know how to do the job.
2) You want to learn.

As I said, I'd start by pillaging around Novak's site (www.novak-adapt.com, I think?) and see what they've got to say about it. Bring the transmission over (the bellhousing patterns are markedly different,) and it may be easier to bring over the transfer case - especially if it's the NP231D (which has a wider drive chain than the NP231J!)

 

I cleaned up the crap, keep it simple and to the original question please.