Jeep Strokers

I haven't checked to see if the holes line up on mine yet(just read of this a few weeks ago), but did cut the tabs and know at TDC, the rotor is ~1/4" past #1. On a side note--you were using that fram just to keep the dust out until you installed it, right(or because it was orange)?

gradon wrote:I haven't checked to see if the holes line up on mine yet(just read of this a few weeks ago), but did cut the tabs and know at TDC, the rotor is ~1/4" past #1. On a side note--you were using that fram just to keep the dust out until you installed it, right(or because it was orange)?

Good point.

seanyb505 wrote:Reused old balancer. The way I had been finding TDC involved taking off the valve cover, getting underneath the Jeep turning the crank, getting out and looking to see what was going on with the valves, getting back under, and so forth. The starter died last night (hopefully) so I need to take care of that first.

And how is this gonna put you right at TDC without making sure the piston is all the way up?

fishyjeep wrote:And how is this gonna put you right at TDC without making sure the piston is all the way up?

The first time I did it I checked with wire to see that the piston was up. Im going to assume (probly not a good idea) that its still on. Fram cause it was orange lol. I have since gone to Mopar filter.

Using your methods I don't think you have actually found TDC.

Its running I know that. Im sure its possible for it to run and not be at TDC, so what method should I use? I dont think Im going to have the room to shove a chisel in there and break the ears off, so Ill probly be taking the whole thing out this weekend.

It was the starter btw. Its fixed and running again.

Like I said earlier:
1) Remove the electric fan (two bolts, pull up, drop and rotate, although your mileage may vary on the drop and rotate bit).
2) Remove #1 spark plug (or remove all which will make it much easier to turn over by hand)
3) put wrench on the crank bolt and put your arm where the electric fan was
4) put finger in #1 spark plug hole
5) Crank engine (clock wise) until you feel pressure on your finder, or hear air escaping past your finger. You are now on the compression stroke.
6) Watch for mark on balancer as you are turning the crank to line up with the 0 marker on the timing cover. (mark is like an indentation on the balancer, on the engine side of the belt)
7) Once at the 0 mark you are at TDC
8) Stab distributor in block
9) put crap back together.
10) WIN!

If you go by 0 the first time, go counter clock wise a few degrees, then turn back and go clock wise.

I'm just not understanding why you have to do it underneath and why you have been using a wire on the piston when you can see the marks on the timing cover? Does your balancer not have a mark? Timing cover missing the marks (I have seen one or two like that)?

Chris

Being underneath skips the electric fan removal. When I was finding it the first time I just took the valve cover off to see the valve events. Watch for the exhaust to open, then close, then the intake open, then close. Aka compression stroke. (All on #1 cylinder of course) Then rotate until the notch on the balancer gets to 0 on the timing cover. The wire in the cylinder was to make sure that piston wasnt coming up still after TDC. Taking the vavle cover off is easy but time consuming, and I can actually see instead of feel the compression stroke.

Updates: Refilled gas last time with 87 octane and it ran just fine, also gained 19% in gas mileage! It went from about 14.75 mpg to 17.71 mpg by switching to 87 octane and changing the oil at 50 miles on the tank. Range was 292 so it went about 240 miles on fresh oil. Oil used was 4 quarts Brad Penn Break-in oil, 2 quarts Shell ND 30wt, and a bottle of Comp cam break-in oil. When I had to fix the oil filter adapter gasket I lost about 2 quarts of Brad Penn through pouring it back into bottles, hence the Shell oil, but with the Comp additive it should be ok. I have yet to cut the ears off the dizz, but I will take a whack at it later today. I thought that was a huge source of poor gas mileage, but with the latest increase Im not sure how much at fault the dizz iz. Im hoping with it installed more correctly Ill see another increase in mileage and power. We shall see.

Cut the ears off the distributor while it was in the block today. I didnt notice a huge increase in power, and we shall see if there is any increase in gas mileage. It was only off about a quarter inch.

I put some Brad-Penn 10w30 Racing oil in it. Im starting to really open it up around town and man is it fun! Have to be careful in the wet with the new torque though. If you start off in second and give it some gas it will spin straight to 50mph. I particularly like thinking, I want to be ahead of that car, and then I am. No waiting here. Gas mileage is still around 16 mpg, I think it would be closer to 17-18 if I had the original 3.07 gears back on.

Took it across Florida last weekend and got 17.15mpg with a headwind! Havent checked what the return trip was with only a crosswind, but it should be better.

Updated parts/source/price list (now posted in correct format!):

I cant emphasize enough how important it is to follow this thread on the preferred way to add images to your posts:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=112

Thanks for understanding.

Well after a long time we've got some significant updates. At around 5k miles I was losing all oil pressure at hot idle. In April of 2010 I took the engine out to rebuild it and have it running by the time I got married on 8/21/10. I still had no idea what caused the pressure loss so I had to be on the look out for that as well. Fast forward to April 2011 (Hooray! I'm married!) and I'll be moving to Simpsonville, SC at the end of Aug 2011. It needs to be at least in one piece to move to minimize losing parts. So work started up again. It turned out I had some badly worn cam bearings.


The cam is straight, and I will be using the SCAT 4.2 crank this time around. I could now use standard size bearings and not the crazy .040 over sized bearings. New lifters are being used as well. I can't say that the "cam saver" lifters worked or failed, but I'd like to keep oil pressure around on the new engine. All new gaskets, and I managed to get my hands on two MLS head gaskets. It turns out they are included in some upper engine gasket sets and I didn't need to buy the individual one. This wont be the last 4.x I build, so I'm keeping it for now. I didnt want to risk myself screwing the engine up the first time and time was short so I had the machine shop assemble the long block. I'm doing it this time to cut costs and so I can double check things myself. I can't wait to fire it up again. Some pics of (admittedly slow)progress so far:
Crank in:

Pistons in:


For now the plan is to get it together, start it and then pack the house. Since it has the worst mileage out of our vehicles, it has been volunteered to be towed to SC, where it will be registered and insured. There's no point of driving it around down in Florida then.

Silverxj had cam bearing problems. Check out his build thread. You might want to check your cam end play.