Infectious Off-Road.com

I picked up an 87 YJ in Taft that had a toasted motor. Other than that, it was in decent shape and had a 2-piece hardtop and sliding upper doors. After selling the hardtop and upper doors, I'll have gotten enough cash out of parts to pay for the engine and the total purchase price of the Jeep itself.

It also had new 31" BFG's on it, which will be sold. The rims were black steelies that transferred over to the 35's I put on it.

Originally, I had planned to throw another 4.2L in it and just sell the whole thing for like 2500 bucks, netting me a couple grand in profits.

I found an engine in San Diego, thanks to Travis (Redxj5150) and that will go in the Jeep. I'm going to pick up some 4" springs used for the lift, and pull the body lift off, or cut it down to 1-1.5". (Body lifts look like shit, but they sure make reaching the bellhousing bolts easy)

I did some trading with EJ21 and got back the Ford 8.8 that I sold him with the last YJ I towed home. It has 3.73 gears and the Trac Lok rear diff. Gears and lockers are scheduled for a later date. Running, driving and tagged are first priorities.

So far, this is my progress:
--Engine disconnected, ready to come out when I get home with the new one
--Grill off to make the swap easier
--35" Toyo's that I bought from Curt on the rims it came with. ($350 total, mounted and balanced)
--Fender flare chop similar to what is done on JK's.....looks better I think and gave 1" clearance
--Soft half doors from EJ21
--Hard top prepped, painted, and sale pending
--31x10.50R15's off, cleaned up and now for sale
--Carpet, paint, rollbar pads and interior are in great shape on this old beast
--Swing down tailgate conversion using Harbor Freight hinges, latches and self tapping screws ($12 total, and I like a fold-down tailgate)


Not sure what I'm going to do with this one once its road worthy......but hopefully wheel it a few times at least.

Here's a couple pics of "Old Yellar"

dang i could have used that top

Top is still for sale. PM me if ur interested. It's very nice.

[quote="Zak.Taylor"]Top is still for sale. PM me if ur interested. It's very nice.[/quote]


u just said top was sold .... some people may be looking for yj tops ....

It's sale pending. The kid that gave me a deposit is having trouble finding upper doors and wants to back out, I told him if it sells, I'll refund his deposit

[quote="Zak.Taylor"]It's sale pending. The kid that gave me a deposit is having trouble finding upper doors and wants to back out, I told him if it sells, I'll refund his deposit[/quote]


send me pic 6617037354

I'm headed to SAn Diego tomorrow to pick up the engine. With any luck, I'll have it running Monday. Turns out, it has 3.08 gears....that'll go perfectly with 110 stock HP and 35's. Right??? Lol

Trade ya some 33s for the 35s just cause im nice like that

It's official....Old Yellar i's getting a v8/auto swap from a 93 grand Cherokee. I brought the ZJ home last night and am in the process of getting the engine compartment stripped down so I can pull the engine and trans.

Instead of building the 4.2 into a reliable, injected engine, we'll add a few HP, some torque, and auto. At this point, I have 1000 dollars in both jeeps after considering what I've sold from them. Hoping to get back to almost-free after selling take-off parts and parting out the ZJ.

Wish me luck on the swap!

Made decent progress today.....

Got the ZJ stripped of necessary parts and hauled off.

Engine, Trans are in the YJ....just hanging from the hoist and resting on jack stands until the Advance Adapters motor mounts come in.

Fuel tank is dropped in preparation for the Fuel Injection rated line and external pump (jeep was carb'd before, so no in-tank pump)

Belly pan, engine, trans, fuel tank, skid plate and more are pressure washed
Retaining the muffler and tailpipe from the 4.2L (it was in good shape)
Using the stock manifolds, y-pipe and cat from the 5.2L
Cut off 4.2L motor mounts (I'm committed to this swap now)

Hoping to get the motor mounts bolted up, and engine bearing its own weight by next weekend, if the mounts come in time. Ordered the FSM for the ZJ and looking for one for the YJ so I can start the electrical blending one the engine is in place, fuel lines are plumbed, tranny cooler is plumbed and shifters are mounted.

I'm going to re-use the shifter from the ZJ, with the cable
I'm going to use the YJ t-case shifter, it looks like it'll bolt up to the auto trans (if not, i'll drill a hole in the plate to match one in the trans and use the other two that go on with the t-case)

Have a Ford 8.8 with 3.73 gears and LSD as well as a D30 coming with 3.73's as well. I think that will work until I get it running and reliable, then I'll look into lockers and gears.

I'm giving myself 30 days to have this thing drivable. I think it's a reasonable deadline. Wish me luck.

So far, I'm in this build 1200 dollars, including buying both Jeeps, after counting the parts I've sold off from the Jeep when I bought it. I'm hoping Old Yellar will be a budget rocketship.

Thoughts, suggestions and lessons learned are greatly appreciated, as I've never done an engine swap before.

Thanks,
Zak

Looking good Zak! Can't wait to check it out tomorrow. Hope to start stripping mine this week.

Well on your way. The service manual will help boatloads. Did you see that link I left you in the minichat? The concept will be the same as far as what you need to relay. You just need to figure out what colors they are.

I'm going to have to check it out. I got off the mini chat early. Any chance you can send me the link? I ordered motor mounts, am going to plumb fuel this week and electrical will be next.

http://www.goindesign.com/ebay/SA1000.pdf

Don't go giving away that crank and rods to AJ...

I dont want the crank and rods. I have 2 sets of them already lol.. so dont worry travis...

well let me have one of them then I'll have Zak's so I'll have 2 sets. I wanna start building engines again.

Nope im keeping them.

Travis, if you want the crank and rods, you can have them. The block and head i's good too.

what was wrong with the 4.2 anyway? besides weak and pitiful.

Guy said it had a bad bearing, took it apart. The last 4.2 I had ran well with the motocraft carb and HEI distro. Felt as strong as my 4.0L tj

I personally like the 4.2s. threw one in my jeep at first before i got the pos "new motor" and i had more power, quicker throttle response than i did with the stock motor

I think a 4.2L block, 4.0L head and tbi setup might be a great combo for power, torque, reliability, simplicity and affordabilty.....but I still want the v8 and accompanying badges

did you put your 4.0L head on it? HO throttle body? I've been looking at different cam profiles trying to decide. I noticed that many of the ones that Comp cams produce that have a good enough duration for a stroker often say not for injection engines. I don't believe that crap.

I had my intake manifold on it. it was a complete 4.2L long block.

I run the 4.2l block, 4.0head, tbi, with hei ignition I like it a ton.. When I was on 35” tires with 4.10 gears I did a direct comparison to an 05rubi with the 4.0... Was no contest for my engine to blow him away, both jeeps had same gears tires and 3speed trans, only difference was engine for the powertrain, was badass... Now with extra weight bigger axles and heavy tire and wheel combo I feel my engine is lacking

I can keep up with traffic on city streets easily but past 60mph I am wanting a v8, I dont think a stroker will make up the difference in topend power

The 5.2 combo zach is putting in will last that jeep a long time and never leave the owner looking for more