New 4.6L stroker build

[amcinstaller]

number 3 is totally understandable. however, were all wishing you best of luck plus more!

[SilverXJ]

God damn what a pain that was.
Got to storage around 9:30am. Pressure checked the cooling system, bleed the fuel rail, topped off the oil, primed the engine again, installed the coil, jumpered the fan relay, connected the battery. Going smooth so far.

Get in, turn the key. Crank crank crank nothing... odd.. usually starts on the first try... maybe still some air in the fuel rail... crank crank crank... nothing... check the grounds and check the sensor plugs... try again... nothing. Move the air temp sensor back to the intake manifold check some more grounds, check the PCM plugs, check the fuel injector plugs. Try again.. it starts rough.. smooths out, then get it up to 2000 RPM. 30 seconds later it starts to miss. Crap something seriously wrong. Pull efan, pull the coil rail, pull spark plug number 1... nice... black with carbon... find TDC and check cam sensor index... looks fine, just where i had it before. Go to start it again and notice that the engine light is on.. pull the codes. P0351, P0352, P0353. Didn't bring the Thinkpad, but I have the FSM on my Palm. Pull it up. Ignition Coil #1, 2, and 3: "Peak primary circuit current not achieved with maximum dwell time". Ok.. dead coil rail. I did accidently kick it a few times. Pull the spare out and drop it in. Crank crank crank... starts again. Same thing... rough idle, smooths out, bring it up to 2000 RPM and a few seconds later it starts to miss. Shut it down.

This whole time I am thinking about the cam break-in instructions saying to get it started as soon as possible.. blew that out the door. Also thinking about that cam lube just being wiped off. I'm pretty exasperated by now. So I need to do some research. Leave storage and head to work..computers there and so is my multimeter. Google the codes it and get a few hits. Naxja, JeepForum and others. Looks like its either the cam sensor synch, but I checked that, CPS, which was less that two years old and hasn't seen more than 5000 miles, or the cam sensor. All it worked before. Grab the multimeter and head back to the apartment to get my ThinkPad, find my spare CPS, find the other spare sensors, and grab the spare PCM (yes I have enough spare electronics to swap out everything on the engine). Head back to storage. Swap out the CPS, and Cam sensor. checking index again.

Lets try to start it again.... and it finally starts. Bring it up to 2000 and vary RPM for 30 minutes. Sounds like there is a little tick.. perhaps air or dirt in a lifter... will have to watch that. Its now 3pm and I'm starving so I have go have lunch while it cools down.

Finish lunch and go back to storage. Change the oil filter, top up the oil, and check things over. Decided that for shits and giggles to put the old cam sensor back in... and it starts.

Some how the CPS died from sitting for a month or two.. real damn nice. But it didn't display the typical symptoms of a dead cps. Oh well.. its running. The exhaust leak came back again so I need to tighten the bolts at the header to down pipe again. I then went back to work and made a mess taking apart the filter. A few little metallic looking items, but nothing like before.. maybe 10 little pieces altogether? . Looks like the bearings are living!

Oil pressure at hot idle is 40psi, at 2000+ RPM it maxes at 60. This is using 30wt Brad Penn break in oil. I'll drive it a bit, probably change th oil and see how it goes from there. I don't like it at 40PSI hot idle though.

Aside from that it hasn't learned its idle. Come to a stop and it drops then slowly comes back to 700 rpm.

Left to do: fix that damn exhaust leak, watch oil pressure, watch idle, listen for odd sounds, check cam bearing on next oil change and drive the piss out of it.

I'm exhausted.

[dwg86]

40 psi hot at idle sounds like a nice tight new engine to me...and 60 psi running down the road? I don't think you could ask for better.

[SilverXJ]

I just hope I didn't damage the cam with the cranking to find the start problem.

[amcinstaller]

sounds like things are off to a good start, fingers crossed!!!

[lafrad]

The oil pressure is just about perfect. with the Std 30 wt, pressures WILL run rather high.

When you swap back over to the 5w-30 or 10w-30 that you are going to run normally, your pressures will get back into the "sweet spot" and you won't have to worry about the cam gear at all

[Bodo]

so far so good!

[SilverXJ]

Drove it for work today as one of their trucks were out for repair. 100* stop and go, temp never went over 210* and oil pressure was steady at idle 40 psi.

I'm going to let cool down a bit then make an attempt to fix that exhaust leak.

[SilverXJ]

I'm trying to decide if I want to do a 3 hour drive this weekend, 6 hour round trip. That would mean doing the same trip next weekend. Plus the weekend after that I need to do a 6 hour drive and the weekend after that one do the 6 hour drive back. I don't know. I would take the ZJ, but that knocking has gotten worse... could be lose flex plate bolts or a cracked flex plate. What do you think?

[4.whoa]

Glad to see your xj's back up I can understand the hesitation to take it on such a long trip so soon. Since its running now and you're shop space is available,you could pull the cover on the zj and check the converter bolts. when i pulled mine they were. The bolts even had slits cut in them

[lafrad]

Get yourself a couple bottles of cam break in stuff and enough to change the oil a bunch. Sounds like a perfect time to finish the cam break in, get the rings seated, and enjoy the new motor!

You got lots of pressure and its summertime. 10W-40 for *any* brand and a bottle of break-in additive is NO PROBLEM in the warmer temps... especially if it only has to warm up once. just stay offa cruise and keep the rpms variable!

[amcinstaller]

my 92 xj had nonconsistant knocking, sounded like a cracked flexplate, but was just loose. "just be like every flat rate hack and throw an impact on it!" <--- not my words, read that on an old post that popped in my head. either here or naxja. hows it feel driving the stroker now?

[SilverXJ]

I think I checked the flex plate bolts on it once and they were all tight, but I can't remember. Seems to go away above 1500 rpm. I wrote it off to be piston slap, but back then it wasn't as loud. Now that it has gotten louder I investigated it further. Sounds like it is coming from the bell housing. I'll check those.. wish it had a lift though. Its not like the XJ.. working under it is a breeze.. the ZJ is just a little tight.

I tightened the bolts on the header to down pipe, which were very loose and the exhaust noise seems to have gone down a bit, but I think there is still a leak. I'll have to look some more. Possibly cracked header? But when the head was off I did a through examination of the header and found no crack.

The stoker feels nice. Nice to have some power again. The cam doesn't have as much low RPM torque as the 68-231 I had, but It has a lot more higher end power. The valve train is also quiet. I need to change the fuel trim a bit as it gets rich, around 11.6:1, under WOT.

I also installed a WJ brake booster and master cylinder that I had modified to fit. I heard that it gave better braking over the stock stuff. When I installed the large front brake kit the pedal got a bit firm. Not hard, just firmed up. Didn't bother me but I wanted to see what the WJ booster and MC offered. The WJ and XJ MC has the same bore size, so I was a bit skeptical. Well, it didn't increasing braking power any. What it did do was make the pedal feel less stiff, more normal. Less foot effort. I wouldn't do it again. Too much effort for a perceived gain, as I had to take a XJ booster rod, and have it welded on to the WJ booster rod. That was too change the angle and the length of the rod. I also made some aluminum spacers to push it further from the fire wall as the WJ's booster isn't as thick.

If I ever sell it I pity the fool that buys it. It has parts from a 98 XJ, 97 XJ, 97 ZJ, 04 WJ, Ford Falcon, and eventually some parts from a euro XJ. Not to mention a bunch of custom stuff.. lol

[basscat]

Glad to hear she's running. Concern over not starting on the first crank was one of the reasons I decided to go with the roller setup. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

"If I ever sell it I pity the fool that buys it. It has parts from a 98 XJ, 97 XJ, 97 ZJ, 04 WJ, Ford Falcon, and eventually some parts from a euro XJ. Not to mention a bunch of custom stuff.. lol" Word of advice, you might want to write down all of your mods in case you still own it and come down with a case of CRS.

[SilverXJ]

Glad to hear she's running. Concern over not starting on the first crank was one of the reasons I decided to go with the roller setup. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Of all the stroker experiences I have had this is the first time I have not had it start on the first try. Stupid CPS. However, it is something different some maybe that means something.. lol. Anyhow I have heard of people saving troubles starting before and some people even recommend cranking the engine over several times to bring up the oil pressure prior. All with out a cam failure.

Word of advice, you might want to write down all of your mods in case you still own it and come down with a case of CRS.

Lol.. I keep documentation of one form or another of what I do. Email receipts or notes. Also, I have found that sometimes the easiest method is search your posts on forum. Such as about an hour ago when I needed the part number for the plugs I am running.

87 miles with out any problems... lol.. oil pressure is steady at 40psi at hot idle. Engine is running strong. It has finally learned its idle. Took all of 3 days, and I don't understand why. The exhaust leak still eludes me. The header to down pipe bolts were loose each time I checked them. This time I marked them with a sharpie to see if they were backing off. Going to check it out a little bit more after I change my rear brakes after work tomorrow. I'm beginning to think there is a crack in the header that I am missing or some other problem with the down pipe to header seal.

Loving finally driving it.

The ZJ doesn't have any problem on the flex plate. I did find that the crank can be backed off and then rotated forward 6^ before it engages the timing chain. Maybe that is where the noise is coming from... lose timing chain.