4.2ish WJ mini stroker

[92tank]

Its easier to pull the manifolds and then hook up the hoist, take some weight off the motor mounts and remove them. The brakets come off the block and give you enuff room to set the engine down on the front diff and it gives you enuff room to get the top two bolts out then its free to come out.

[Knoxes]

Ok, thanks. I kind of derived that from some posts, but it wasn't exactly clear. So I assume that you have to loosen some part of the transmission mounts as well, right?

[SilverXJ]

You should be able to get to the top two bell housing bolts from the rear. What I do is jack the engine up a bit, remove the engine mount bushings then set it back down on the mounts. This gives me more room to get a long extension in (3') from the rear. Its a pain, but doable. Also, they are external torx bolts, IIRC E12. I don't know about on the WJ, but on the XJ there are also two bolts between the larger side bolts and top bolts, with the heads facing front.

I would leave the manifolds attached to the engine as its a pain to get to all those bolts while it is still in the bay, install the engine with they already mounted as well.

[racing89]

You can also remove head(with manifolds) 1st. Then ALL is better to get at, including the top bell housing bolts,motor mounts, crank sensor, acc. brackets,etc...

[Knoxes]

It's out!



Didn't quite get to mounting it on the stand yet - didn't have the right length bolts. All in, I probably have about 16-18 hours of real work on this. Ready to move on to the breakdown (literally and, of course figuratively).



Interesting to find this shiny freeze plug behind the flywheel. It looks brand new. But I've had this car for 7 years, I think - and 100K of the 125K on it. I know that I didn't do that.

Also think that I probably bent the first pushrod with that lift lever. I should probably replace all of them anyway, right?

Finally,



More for the background than anything else.

[Knoxes]

OK, after taking a 2 week break, we got back at it on Saturday. Got the motor on the stand and started to break it down. Finally pulled out the air tools, which makes things so much easier. These are the first two cylinders,



the next two,



and the last two:



So I think everything looks pretty good. The valves look ok, too, I think.







I did this with my gorilla forearms:



Drove Pop's new ride:



And then finally made a big mistake and dumped the motor on to the floor, where it stays for now:



We were lucky that neither of us were hurt when it fell over. The front leg of that stand has a caster that wasn't installed properly. So we were trying to pry the leg up enough to get the caster tightened down. It just flipped over very quickly and hit the deck. Hopefully it didn't hurt anything internal. The crank, cam and pistons are still in there. I guess I won't know for sure until it goes to the machine shop.

[SilverXJ]

Do want! 5.3L V12?

We were lucky that neither of us were hurt when it fell over. The front leg of that stand has a caster that wasn't installed properly. So we were trying to pry the leg up enough to get the caster tightened down. It just flipped over very quickly and hit the deck. Hopefully it didn't hurt anything internal. The crank, cam and pistons are still in there. I guess I won't know for sure until it goes to the machine shop.

If you are going to be using the stand much after this get a different one. A bar in the front with two wheels is a lot more stable than the T style. I had that happen once with one. The front wheel caught a rock and over it went. T stands for topple.

[Knoxes]

No, that's a series II, which had the 4.2?, I think. twin overhead cams, triple sidedraft SU's, etc. I don't think they rolled out the V12 until the series 3, where they effed up the body. The series I is the most desireable of the bunch, but they're very pricey. Series 2 is a good compromise - it had a better engine and much improved transmission, but maintained most of the styling of the Series I. This one is a really nice ride - much more refined than the XK that can be seen in my earlier pics. The XK is my favorite. It's a challenge to drive, but that car is just plain sweet.

And yes, investing in a better stand.

Thoughts on potential damage? I think it hit the concrete on the block - it shouldn't have been a direct hit to the crank, but that's possible.

[Knoxes]

Finally got back down there to finish up the breakdown. It's completely apart now and ready for the machine shop. As far as I can tell, everything looks like it's in good shape. The only thing I've found so far that could have caused the poor performance was the intake.



These look pretty gummed up, I think.

Anyway, got to one machine shop, which was less than impressive. The owner seemed primarily concerned with the cam lift. Not sure where he was going with that. He also couldn't understand why I'd need to dish the pistons. And he said his turn-around time was "several weeks", which in machine shop lingo probably means 2014. So, still looking for a machine shop.

Also at the point where I really need to make a commitment to a recipe and move forward with that. But I don't really have a good handle on the maths, so I can see a problem explaining to the machine shops what I have in mind. I understand the basics, but really need to better understand how to find the right CR, DCR and quench, and how those are going to affect the driveablity.

[Knoxes]

Dropped the block, head, 232 crank, pistons, rods and valves at the machine shop yesterday.

Completely confused on the next step (ordering pistons). It *looks* like the 2229 is the way to go, but I'm not sure how much decking will take off the block. If any more than 0.010 is taken off, it drops the quench below that 0.040 threshold.

[Knoxes]

Pistons are here - 2229's. Now I'm looking for someone to dish them.

I need to order rings - not sure which to get...

[SilverXJ]

Oleshot on here does dishing as does strokedjeep.com

On rings Sealed Power or Hastings... but you shouldn't have any issue with any name brand rings. I would recommend a moly top ring though.

[Knoxes]

Ok, after all of the looks I've been getting at the machine shops, not to mention the skepticism from KB pistons, Hesco and the engine builder that KB sent me to, I'm really rethinking this dishing business. Nobody likes this idea. Had a great conversation with Shafiroff Race Engines (KB suggested calling them). He really thought it was a much better idea to get a thicker head gasket (Cometic) or open up the head chamber. The Cometic is hella expensive - almost prohibitivly so. But an extra 5cc's in the head brings the SCR down to 8.97 from 9.47 and the DCR down to 8.11 from 8.57. I wonder how hard it will be to get 5-6 more cc's out of that head.

[Knoxes]

Stopped by the machine shop this morning and they're saying there's no way they could get 5cc's out of the head.

This is getting much more difficult than I had hoped.

[Muad'Dib]

Why was it a "much better idea" to not dish the pistons?

We have all been dishing pistons to achieved the Desired DCR and haven't had any problems doing so. Curious as to what might have taken place during the conversation.

You definitely don't want to go with a thicker HG as this adds quench and that's no good for us.