Jeep Strokers

finally got my junk together. it was sort of a quick build due to me cracking a piston, so the jeep was out of commission for good, and was taking up space in my driveway in my "usual" spot up by the house and garage. I also didn't want to miss wheeling season. a little background: the Jeep is a '99 cherokee (0630 head, with distributor, before they moved to the new head) AW4, 231, Detroit locked Dana35, 4.10's, 31's on a 4.5" lift. it is not a daily driver. i got it with 27,000 miles, and commuted with it for years, bringing it up to 143,150 before cracking #2, which split the bore, leaking all of the coolant into the crankcase, while doing 75 on the interstate..... still ran too. not very well, but she ran. anyway, it is more of a trail vehicle, grocery getter, and parking garage vehicle. for work i have to get into a parking garage, and my daily driver is a Dodge Ram 2500 Turbo Diesel quad cab long bed....

anyway, i wanted to build something with low end torque, not a screamer, that would run on pump gas. this is what i ended up with.

block and head (0630) out of a '98 wrangler
12 weight crank, .010 undersized, 732 casting, nose cut by machine shop
258 short rods, weight matched
Sealed Power 802CP +0.030 pistons
speed pro molly rings
king bearings
rotating assembly balanced
machine shop dipped, bored (.030 over) honed, decked .020, painted, cam bearings, assembled bottom end.
they also did a 3 angle valve job, and cut the guides for GM performance beehive springs.
mopar performance high volume oil pump, and matching massaged oil pan.
CompCams #68-231-4 206/214 cam
Crower CamSavers lifters, 66031X3-12
Cloyes true double roller timing chain, installed straight up
mopar performance .043 head gasket, P-4259242
stock (but new) pushrods, rockers, pivot sets, bridges, and bolts
Ford Motor Sports 24# injectors, # F1TE-D5A
adapter wiring harnesses for injector connectors
63mm throttle body

still waiting on a header in the mail (backorder) so the factory exhaust with cracked header went back on.

oil pan, valve cover and distributor are pretty much the only thing from the '99 that went back in.

once i had a longblock, it got 3 coats of "Race Hemi Orange" which is good for at least 10 extra HP.

math on the head and compression and whatnot is:
(Speed Pro ZH825CP30 (same as 802CP30's) pistons with 4.2 crank and rods, 231 cam, .020 off the top -> 0.0176 from deck)
(9.58:1 SCR, 8.38:1 DCR, 0.0606 quench)
it got a full tank of 93 octane on top of a quarter tank of regular for break in, and haven't run out yet, so don't know how it is going to run on 89 or 87 yet. since it is not a daily driver, putting in a higher octane really won't bother me much anyway.

oil was added to an open valvetrain, i used delo400 10w-40, with a bottle of comp break in additive, a bottle of zddplus and a Bosch oil filter for break in.
primed the oil pump with an open valve cover to check for oil out of every pushrod. had to rotate the engine to make sure oil was getting to 2 lifters that were in motion. once i was sure oil was getting up top everywhere, valve cover was installed, oil pump was primed for 2 minutes @40 PSI, distributor re-installed using the "toothpick" method, but i used an easy-out on a tap handle, really took the slop out. new cap and rotor. hooked it all up, cranked, and hoped for the best.

with fire extinguisher at the ready, she was turned over, and fired on the first crank, maybe 5-10 seconds in. a little rough idle and racket at first, but she smoothed out real nice. little tweaker screwdriver (one with serrations on the blade to keep from vibrating out) under the throttle body stop to bring the idle up to 2000RPM for 20 minutes.

longest 20 minutes of my life.....

after cam break-in, she got an immediate oil change. another 6 quarts of Delo400 10w-40 and a quart of cam break in lube (as directed), and new Bosh oil filter.

test drive had to wait until after dinner (never ate so fast in my life) and what a hoot to drive. i always thought the 4.0 was a peppy little motor, and the 4.6 version is fantastic. a quick drive let me know something was up, high idle, 1500RPM. when i restart, it would settle around 750, where it should be. any time you hit the throttle, it would race again. a quick check with a volt meter showed the TPS at 1.15Volts at idle, and should have been under .95v. one TPS and i was on my way.

going to change the oil again around 500 miles, and will be running mobil1 10W-30 EP once the initial break is is done.

been driving like an ass, seating the rings, and trying to keep the RPM under 4000 for a while

before you ask, i have a Dana 44 in the garage that is getting fitted with ABS and ZJ disk brakes. this has been moved up the list as i can burn out both rear wheels when the pavement is wet... this 35 is NOT going to last long...

Gee thanks .. now the excitement level to build my own has just risen another notch!!

How much did you get the valvesprings for?

What ones did you use? for some reason they aren't showing up in my field of vision.

Muad'Dib wrote:Gee thanks .. now the excitement level to build my own has just risen another notch!!

you will not regret all the hours of lost sleep....

i can't wait to get a "real" exhaust on it, i am sure it is going to make a world of difference.

lafrad wrote:How much did you get the valvesprings for?

What ones did you use? for some reason they aren't showing up in my field of vision.

sorry, my machinist spec'd them, and were rolled up in the $$$ machine shop bill, but they were based on the lift specs from Comp for the cam.
the springs Comp specifies are for the 4.2 head, and don't work with the 4.0 locks/retainer gizmos. spring rate and lift matches specs. guides were cut to set correct install height. not going to question his work: http://www.eddiesvalvegrinding.com/

invoice just had them listed as "Valvesprings"

can someone fix my thread title. i can't spell

Congrats!

tomcat wrote:

lafrad wrote:How much did you get the valvesprings for?

What ones did you use? for some reason they aren't showing up in my field of vision.

sorry, my machinist spec'd them, and were rolled up in the $$$ machine shop bill, but they were based on the lift specs from Comp for the cam.
the springs Comp specifies are for the 4.2 head, and don't work with the 4.0 locks/retainer gizmos. spring rate and lift matches specs. guides were cut to set correct install height. not going to question his work: http://www.eddiesvalvegrinding.com/

invoice just had them listed as "Valvesprings"

I'm not questioning.. I wanna know! I'm not happy with the fact that the mopar performance springs have gone off the map!

Mopar springs are out of the picture?

Dean

I haven't been able to find them (in stock) for less than $15 a spring.

I may just be unlucky.

Got mine from Summit, no problems. They just won't price match the $6.99 price that everyone throws around.

update on what works, what didn't.

went wheeling this past weekend, and on an extreme extended downhill section, my check guages light went on, took a look, and oil pressure was at 0

i couldn't shut it down, as i was on a downhill, and it was keeping my brakes happy, and providing compression braking, so the only approach was to get down the section to leveler ground as soon as possible. the other reason i wasn't entirely concerned was that with the high volume oil pump, all the oil was hopefully up top, and still making it's way down.

as soon as the angle decreased, oil pressure came back up, the pan only ran dry for a couple of seconds (my suspension wasn't to happy with the quick descent though)

going to have to get my hands on a regular pump, or find a way to increase volume. high volume pump was chosen because of the cam saver lifters, thought it would counteract the added "leak" caused by those lifters.

Adding a external oil filter will increase the volume of oil quite a bit.
John

I wouldn't wory about losing oil pressure for a few seconds with no load on the engine. If you plan to do this kind of wheeling, maybe you should add a Accusump http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/produc ... oduct=1240
This will matain oil pressure for short periods if you starve the pump. It can also supply oil pressure before the engine starts. It normally has a valve wired to the ignition, so when you turn the key the oil pressure stored from the last time the engine was running is pushed through the bearings.

You would need a remote oil filter adapter on your block you would then go through a check valve and tee the accusump in just prior to the remote filter. The return line from the filter would go back to the block adapter.

Not a bad idea for any vehicle.

I've ran camsavers and I am now running grooved lifter bores without the cam savers. I have always used a standard volume pump. I have never had problems with oil pressure. I think the general consensus on the high volume is that they are not needed and are a waste of horsepower and extra strain on the cam gear and distributor gear.