first stroker, need advice. very soon....

[jeepxj3]

Jones uses the wide lobes.

[nicpaige]

any chance jones cams has the wide lobe blanks? the wide lobe is swaying me to the 29ac old style. help me out here, why wouldn't you do it? the mopar cams spec out just fine on what i want, plus the wider lobe, my old style cam is on 256k miles. the old design works well, and from what i understand all i have to do is get the pin/spring/bolt/ and dimpled timing cover, then put it on the 2002 block. Any help/advice here would be appreciated.

I just got one from them a month ago. Took awhile for him to get the blank in but he may have a couple in stock now.

[biscuit]

here is what I have come up with on this stroker. machinists at the ready.

2002 WJ threw a rod so it is the block to be used
3.095 Bore
3.895 stroke (long snout 258 crank)
5.875 Rods (258 rods)
62cc chambers -russ pottenger P&P with ls valves on an 0331 Tupy head.
28cc 2229 pistons, again thanks russ
.0 deck with .043 victor gasket
99+ intake boring out inlet to 62mm match porting to head thanks again russ
stock manifold for cam break in, header later.
62mm bored TB
24# ford injectors (help me out on this one...)
stock cam if it checks out.
help me out on the lifters.
plan to groove the lifter bores to help on the cam silverxj??
balanced rotating assembly

the above machine work calculates to

SCR 8.73 DCR 7.57 DCR@ 515' 7.47 quench .043

this is to be a daily driver and 87 octane is desired. i am over budget, but i knew that was going to happen. illinois has smog, the check the odbII for thrown codes. for now the drivetrain will be all stock.

please give me some input. regarding the cam, jones seems it would be an extra $300. ?? other aftermarkets non custom ground would put me into a pre 99 cam setup. if the stock cam works, it seems that it wouldn't be that much of a loss in the build to use it. am i right??

my machinist was/is behind, now he is ready, i guess it was a good thing. I had some time to think/discuss this build.

[Cheromaniac]

With a combination of 4.0L block, 258 crank, 258 rods, and 2229 pistons, you'd have a deck clearance of ~0.050" so you'd need to shave that amount from the block to bring it down to zero. You would thus need to install 0.050" shorter pushrods (9.575") to correct the lifter preload.
With a 3.905" bore and stroke of 3.895", displacement comes in at 4587cc.
You could build a slightly higher CR into the engine and still run 87 octane given that the quench will be tight. I suggest you go for a 22cc piston dish and an SCR of 9.22:1. The engine will make a bit more power and deliver slightly better gas mileage.
The stock cam would work great in a daily driver and deliver abundant low rev grunt. Power will fall off from ~4400rpm upwards but that won't matter if you rarely take the engine that high.
Grooving the lifter bores isn't necessary. Just buy a set of good quality lifters. I've had Crown Automotive lifters in my engine for the last 46k miles.

[jeepxj3]

The stock cam can barely feed a stock 4.0L engine let alone an engine 15% larger.
Why build a stroker engine, only to choke it off with a stock cam?

Jones can grind you a cam with - 204*/208*@0.050" 1.6:1-0.472"/0.478"
vs.
your stock cam with - 188/[email protected]" 1.6:1-0.408"/0.414"

[Cheromaniac]

The stock cam can barely feed a stock 4.0L engine let alone an engine 15% larger.

True but it depends on what characteristics you're looking for in your stroker.

Why build a stroker engine, only to choke it off with a stock cam?

Two reasons: more low rev torque and lower build cost. If you're not bothered about higher rpm performance, you'd save a lot of money by reusing the stock cam and valve springs.
That said the wider lobes of the Jones cams, plus the ability to use them in a '99+ block without resorting to using an earlier style timing set, does make them look very tempting for a higher performance build.

[biscuit]

dino, my quench would be .043 on a zero deck with the victor gasket. are you suggesting a tighter quench? negative deck?

[Russ Pottenger]

Ideally you want to shoot for .035 to .045 piston to head. the closer to .035 the better.
That's assuming everything is correct. Square deck, and piston to cylinder wall clearance isn't excessive.


Russ

[Cheromaniac]

dino, my quench would be .043 on a zero deck with the victor gasket. are you suggesting a tighter quench? negative deck?

You could go with a tighter quench as Russ suggested but I'd recommend that you buy a pushrod checker so you can check for the proper length before ordering pushrods. They'll definitely need to be shorter than stock.
Zero deck with a 0.043" quench would still be fine anyway. Most importantly, make sure your machinist achieves a square deck so there'll be minimal variation between cylinders.