First Stroker build, a long time coming

[amcinstaller]

looks like ball joint grease

[hot_rod_hooligans]

No clue what grade oil they were running, only that it needed changed a long time ago.

[hot_rod_hooligans]

Getting close to the time to start buying the rest of the valve train, Mopar valve springs and retainers, but not sure what valves and locks to go with, any recommendations?

[Mopud]

Just subscribed to your thread mate, looks like your build up is coming along well.

I'm interested to see how yours comes together, you went down a similar build path to me except i went with the comp 68- 231-4 camshaft and went 40 thou overbore. I had initially planned the 232 and 60 thou overbore but circumstance forced my hand to go the former. Good luck with your build, sorry i can't advise on valve choice.

[SilverXJ]

Mopar V8 Magnum valves are a touch larger, but can be had in swirl polished SS for like $7 each.

[way2evil]

would the Mopar V8 Magnum valves fit the mopar locks in the jeep head ?

[SilverXJ]

Depends on which locks. If they are the later 3 rod bead locks then no. If they are the single square lock then yes.

[hot_rod_hooligans]

Well I'm revisiting the idea of Propane, heres why:

The MJ I picked up a little over a month ago ended up needing a lot more mechanical work than I thought. This in combination with my original plans to do an AW4 swap, 4wd conversion, and 8.8 swap(for disc brakes, I HATE working on drums), was quickly leading to an entire drivetrain swap, and a lot of electrical work. After seeing the incredibly clean MJ Zone Offroad built for the Ultimate Adventure, it gave me a lot of inspiration, and my mind started pumping out possibilities, and a few new ideas I hadn't seen before.

The big reason I was leaning to E85 was because I planed on building a TJ, Everything was going to be set up for OBD2 and had a lot of stuff integrated into the ECU that I would have to convert. To run E85 I could use what was already there and program around it.

I am not going to run the Renix engine system, too many things that I don't like about it, and not much aftermarket support for a lot of the parts. It crossed my mind that I can take this opportunity to simplify everything and run a carburated style set up. This would allow me to remove a lot of the existing wiring, instead of add to or rewire, and make tuning it a lot easier. Even allow me to do the engine brake in and tuning, before it goes into the Jeep.

[hot_rod_hooligans]

So I think I've found the intake manifold, Clifford Performance makes a 2/4 barrel carburated intake manifold for the 4.0L that I guess started out for the 258ci/4.2L guys that would swap the 4.0L head onto the 4.2L block for better performance/air flow, but didn't want to convert to EFI. This will allow me to eliminate all of the fuel injection stuff, without having to switch over to a 258 head, so I can run a carburated intake for the propane injection. I should also be able to run the 00+ exhaust manifold without much issue, but I can't get them to confirm, since they designed it around the 91-95 7120 casting, besides the I think the guy I talked to was a salesman, not a tech like I asked for. I hate that because very rarely do sales guys know what the hell the are even selling.

I have decided to go ahead and run the WJ block in the MJ. The problem with doing so is I refuse to put this motor in any vehicle without the Brown Dog Super Bracket/ M.O.R.E. Bombproof style block brackets that utilize several unused bolt bosses in the side of the block, in addition to the stock 3 bosses that the motor mounts bolt to. Like so:

Unfortunately since this block never went in the XJ or MJ, nether company makes brackets to fit this engine into this chassis. I've talked to somebody at M.O.R.E. about a year and a half ago about doing this with my XJ and the block that I got the head off of, I think It could be made to work, but not all of the bolts would line up, so I wouldn't get the full strength of them. So I'm going to make my own.

Wednesday I dropped off the rods and pistons at my machinists to talk about the build plans for a little bit. He's going to call his buddy down at Comp Cams to find out if propane acts differently than gas and such(like different lift, duration). I'm hoping my cam I already have will work perfect, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Classes start up the 22nd, so I'll probably be updating a lot more often now.

Oh, and since it's going into a real AMC product, I've decided to paint it a color that pays homage to it's roots. Eastwood makes it, AMC Blue Metallic:

[hot_rod_hooligans]

Well the High Performance Engines class I signed up for in spring has been canceled for the semester, as well as another class I was supposed to take, and I just found out about a half an hour ago. Too late for me to sign up for any classes to fill the gaps in my schedule, and for me to e considered a full time student, effectively cutting my "income" from my GI Bill in half. would have been nice to have been notified about that, rather than finding out wen I checked my schedule to see what class I have tomorrow night(I don't have class now, by the way).



No engine build untill ateast January now. Guess that gives me some more time to collect parts.

[sal660]

Are you sure about pistons?
the pistons shown in the photos is Keith Black/KB Pistons 945 !! while in your list is 944 .
what compression ratio you will end with?