Today I. . .

[gradon]

drove down to Richmond and picked up an '80 258 from a cj5. The tranny was already off and so was the front clip, so easy access. Anyhow, it only took 45min to take it apart(head, bellhousing, clutch, flywheel, misc wires) and cost $40 in gas and $70 for the block. Two of us carried the block about 80' to my XJ. The '80 258 is the last year of the 12-wt crank. I don't know what condition it'll be in since a qt or two of water came out the drain plug first followed by normal looking oil, but hopefully it'll be good enough as a core for the 4.9. Believe it or not, there was no snow around the Jeep and it was 30* and sunny. The guy's email address is amc360jeep@hot and I saw why when there were a dozen or more different amcs and jeeps--3 J-10s, 2-3 CJ5s, 2 SJs, 2 XJs, a CJ7, and a YJ--scattered around the yard. He told me he has a friend with a sand drag cj5 with a 400hp 258 w/ ho head that is 13:1 SCR and runs on alcohol(no dish?). He told me that the guy had cracked the main caps due to the powerful downstroke. He resolved it with some billet caps(apparently cost a total of $900 w/ the machine work involved)and a beefy girdle that 505 sells.