Jeep Strokers

I am currently in the process of collecting parts for a simple 4.5 stroker for an 02 tj. I got the jeep from a buddy who had all the machine work done to clean everything up but ran out of money and reused his old cam which ended up having a bad lobe. It only has about 50 miles on the engine since rebuild. Between his engine and my collected parts I have a 258 crank, 4.0 and 4.2 rods, new 1122r camshaft and lifters, 7120 head and tupy head.
My plan was to do a short rod with stock pistons. If i used the calculator right this should get me a 9.96 scr and 9.16 dcr at 1000ft which is average for this area in ga. From what I've read this is on the high side and not 87 friendly. Since I am doing this build on a very tight budget I'm trying to get input on my options. From what I can tell I have three. Run 91, have it bored over and do a long rod with ic944, or get custom pistons and run appropriate rods. I'm leaning away from boring it simply because I am new to the area and don't know what shops i can trust. Am I missing any options? Which option would be best? I wont be using it as a daily driver and wont be doing anything extreme with it. Also which head would be better and would that affect piston choice?

Another option I just realized I forgot would be to dish out my stock pistons. If the stock can take a 30 dish I could get down to a 7.76 at 1000ft. Can stock pistons handle a 30 dish? How does this option compare? I'm not even sure where I would take pistons to be dished, I can't find any information about it on google besides what a dished piston is.

The stock pistons don't have enough meat to deepen the dish that far.
Unless the donor block has recently been rebored, I would advise against reusing the stock pistons. Get a set of custom pistons from Russ Pottenger and have them mounted onto your 4.0L rods.
You could build a 4.6L modified poor man's stroker with the following specs:

Jeep 4.2L 3.895" stroke crank
Jeep 4.0L 6.125" rods
Custom forged +0.020" bore pistons, compression height 1.380", dish volume 23cc
9.6:1 CR
Elgin 1122R camshaft
Stock 57cc cylinder head
Mopar/Victor 0.043" head gasket
0.043" quench height
Bosch 0280155703 injectors for '96-'04 engines,

Hi Mike,

As you have probably figured out utilizing the stock unmodified piston and short 258 rod combination combined with a horrible quench is a less than desirable set up.

As Dino mentioned there are some other alternatives to consider.
Wealth of good information on Dino’s site. You’ll definitely want to check it out.

In the meantime you’re welcome to shoot me an email or call and I’d be happy to forward you some information on my custom piston combo’s and related components.

Thanks,
Russ Pottenger
Bishop-Buehl Racing Engines
531 N. Lyall Avenue
West Covina, California 91790
Work (626) 967-1000
Cell (626) 673-2203
Email: [email protected]

Sent you an email russ