terrawombat

Anything is easy if you have the right equipment! I intend on doing the same as you, but I'm not certain if I will use POR-15 or a cheaper alternative such as Valspar Tractor & Implement Primer & Enamel. I've heard some very positive things about that stuff being as tough as nails and the price is right, too - about $9.99/gallon for the primer and $29.99/gallon for the enamel compared to $145/gallon for POR-15.

Slow and steady wins the race! I've got my work cut out for me - as do you - and I don't anticipate being anywhere near completion until the end of next year. I should have a running, driving MJ within 3-4 months, though. It all depends on how crazy I get with the painting and undercoating since the mechanical portion of the project should go by pretty smoothly.

You and I will be going through a similar buildup in the coming months. I picked up a 1999 XJ Classic w/4.0, AW4, NP231, and 8.25. I intend to transplant as much as I possibly can into the MJ. I'm currently in the process of taking the MJ down to the bare shell to prep the body for paint, paint, and more paint!

You know he's talking about Greenland, right? Only named so to encourage Vikings to settle there during the Medieval Warming Period? Whoops - misread that! Yea, I can believe it was that cold in Greenland, then ;)

Those crazy Canadians are talking in Celsius so it's not quite as bad as it sounds, but -40 Celsius is also -40 Fahrenheit...so that's cold! Can't say I believe that -72 figure considering the coldest temperature ever recorded in New Zealand was -22 degrees Celsius... One thing I'll never understand about this weather are the people that truly enjoy it. I can easily tolerate it if I have enough layers, but do I like it? HELL NO! When the cold weather rolls around, I'm basically stuck inside of my heated home. Ironically, the two sports I'm actively involved in (ice hockey and skiing) require it to be cold. I am weird though and I'm sure my room mates hate it, but I am not a fan of air conditioning. I love being out in 100 degree weather, 100% humidity. I'll even sleep in it too - doesn't bother me one bit, but working on a farm all my life, I was forced into being accustomed to it! I'd rather live in an area like Florida where it's warm all year round and if I'll take a vacation up north to get in my skiing fix.

DOH! I knew I forgot something :)

If the guy has it working in his '95 Wrangler and is going to sell you the transmission plus the bellhousing, it'll be a direct bolt in. You'll need to find a transfer case with the 23-spline input shaft, though.

Here are some shots of the donor. Sorry for the poor pictures...it's really hard to get good angles in my shop.

I will likely be CNC'ing a plate and seal welding it over the hole when I do my conversion.

Ahh, I imagine my truck will look similar to that in a few months! In the process of stripping it down to the shell, where I can do the engine bay, interior, and underbody painting myself. I haven't decided if I'll be doing the exterior painting or if I'll leave that to the pros. I've got my own paint booth and some of the necessary equipment, but I've never been able to really perfect my bodywork skills. I just hope this project isn't TOO much of an undertaking where I begin to lose interest down the line and wind up with an unfinished project. Normally I hit a point where I can't justify dumping any more money into a project, but because my donor was free, I'll likely be more inclined to finishing the job.

Cool! I look forward to seeing that thread. Did you transplant just the engine or the interior too?

I've begun the tear down of the MJ and pulled off some of the damaged panels on the XJ. I was thinking of somehow repairing the bent frame on the XJ so that I could use it while I prep the MJ for the transformation. I have a feeling that the MJ prep work is going to take a long time since I want to repaint and undercoat the entire truck. Most of the damage on the XJ is on the front passenger frame rail. It looks like it was pushed in and down. I was thinking of getting a set of tow hooks that mount to the frame rail and attaching a large chain around a tree and, well, having some fun with it. I wonder if the sudden change in speed would set off my airbags?

Well, I've essentially done that when I put up my paint booth. It's about 16' wide by 32' long and 10' high. It's enclosed with heavy duty plastic on the walls and ceiling and has a concrete floor. The plastic is a GREAT insulator...barely lets any heat out! I just need to clear it out (I've got a lot of random crap in there) and make sure I can fit both of the trucks inside. I also want to find something a little more cost effective than propane. I like the wood stove idea because my only upfront cost will be the actual stove and the flue ducting as I have piles of wood to burn. I'll have to crunch some numbers and figure out the best course of action to take.

Unfortunately, it is not insulated and the cost to do such a thing would be huge. I converted an old dairy barn into a shop and the total square footage is on the order of 2,000+. I did convert a section of it to a paint booth and used some very thick plastic to cover the ceiling and draped it down for walls. I've heated that before with a propane heater and it worked well. There are quite a few paths for the heat to escape, so I'd have to fix that first. I was leaning towards getting a wood burning stove as I have a massive amount of wood to burn...

Subscribing to this thread as I'll be beginning a very similar build in the very near future! Thanks for the info thus far and keep the pictures coming! I'm sure I'll have some very specific questions when I start tearing into the MJ and donor XJ.

Thanks for the replies, fellas. shelby - I've taken a brief look at your build-up...maybe the first couple of pages or so. Your project build will be very helpful as I go through mine so I thank you in advance! First things first, I need to find a way to heat my shop because winter has come early this year!

So my friend got into a little fender bender with her 1999 Jeep Cherokee Classic. Messed up the passenger fender, bumper, and grill. Looks to even be a little bit of frame damage as the passenger motor mount looks pushed back a bit. The truck has a 4.0L, AW4, NP231, and 8.25 with about 130K miles on it and runs great. I've driven it before she got into the accident and it seemed solid - ran well, shifted well, and since it was female owned, the interior is in real good shape and smells nice too! Best part about the truck is her Dad just dropped it off at my shop and signed over the title to me...for...well...not that much at all ;) I've also got an '88 MJ and it's tired...really tired. I'd say it saw a good few thousand miles with gas mixing in the crankcase oil. The end results is a leakdown test showing me that the rings are the cause for my low compression and I'm not too surprised...gasoline-induced oil isn't the greatest lubricant. Couple the tired engine with the fact the truck has the oh-so-famous BA-10/5 transmission and a transfer case that sounds like it's full of marbles and my situation isn't looking much better. To add insult to injury, the truck also has a D35 in the back. Now, I was thinking to myself. I've got a '99 XJ with a bit of frame damage and a couple of banged up body parts, but a great drivetrain and a nice interior. Why not do a full transplant? I'm talking engine, transmission, transfer case, rear axle, front axle, dashboard, gauge cluster, wiring harness, seats, carpet (trimmed, of course), center console, doors...basically anything I can take from the XJ to donate to the MJ. Sure, there will be some snags along the way...the two Jeeps are 11 years apart...something had to have changed somewhere along the lines so that this won't be a total bolt-on operation, but we'll cross those bridges when we get there. Also, when I strip down the MJ, I can finally do all of the undercoating and painting I've wanted to do on it. Am I crazy? Is this possible? Am I just setting myself up for failure? I guess time will tell...

It's a CJ-8 Scrambler chassis with an Alaskan Postal Service world cab. See http://home.roadrunner.com/~jscherb/scrambler/ for his build on that project. The craziest thing about that truck is his asking price: $7,500 without the world cab. For as much work as he did to the body and engine of that car, that price is a STEAL!

You'll want to put some higher temp paint on. I used paint intended for charcoal grills. It was pretty cheap and has a very high temperature rating. Picked it up at Home Depot and brushed it on - nice matte black finish and it has held up pretty well so far. Ideally, I would have liked to use some high temperature paint with resistance to rock chips, but now we're talking more $$

Ah, I wasn't aware there was physical damage to the engine from an accident. If that was in the thread, I must have overlooked it. So, did your sons '99 4.0L engine have a distributor or coilpacks? I'm curious because I've heard that the '99 WJs got the coilpacks, but they weren't introduced until '00 for the XJ and TJ...was just wondering. I also had to deal with a know-it-all junkyard owner when I was searching for a motor for my '01 XJ. I wanted an older engine from the '97 to '99 years because those came with the older style cylinder heads (the cylinder heads in '00 and '01 are notorious for cracking) and when I told him that, he said his 'special' computer program says it won't work. I told him I was well aware of the fact it won't be a direct drop-in replacement and that I was more than capable of making the necessary changes to make it fit. He threatened to void any warranty because I was going to be doing significant modifications to the engine. I told him he was out of his mind and that the only thing I needed to do was make an exhaust adapter plate to mate the older head to the newer style exhaust manifold. He finally took my word for it that it was going to work and sold me the engine - which turned out to have a blown head gasket, but that's a whole other story...I'll save that for another day.

The '05 Wrangler engine will work without a doubt in my mind. The Wrangler block is identical to your original '99 Cherokee block - with the exception of the rear main seal. A very small redesign, but doesn't even matter for your purposes unless in the future you decide that you want to replace the rear main seal...just need to make sure you get one for a '00+ 4.0L engine. Yes. some of the accessories are different - the Wrangler mounts some things in different spots. The cooling fan is attached directly to the water pump instead of it being off to the side like the Cherokee. The JY owners fancy smancy computer program (it's probably the Hollander software, which I personally don't care much for) isn't technically wrong...the Wrangler engine won't be a direct bolt-in replacement, but you CAN use every accessory, mounting bracket, bolt, nut, etc from your original Cherokee engine to make it work on the Wrangler engine - all of the mounting points are all present on the '05 Wrangler block. I have an '01 Wrangler and an '01 Cherokee block sitting side-by-side right now and, yes, while the accessories mount in different places, the blocks are identical. Edit: Just realized it is a WJ. I don't think it should make any difference, though. The blocks are identical...just use all of the original '99 components on the '05 block and you should be good to go as far as electrical connectors and whatnot. Question: Did the original 4.0L engine from your sons WJ have a distributor or coilpacks for the ignition? If it has coilpacks, the reason for the water in your oil was most likely due to a cracked cylinder head. A replacement of the head gasket wouldn't have fixed that - a completely new cylinder head would have.

Good thing you did - I put one of these "sticker" type gaskets on my '01 XJ when I rebuilt the cylinder head and didn't use RTV. Guess what? It leaks...but it's a very slow drip. I'm going to replace it next time I change the oil or do a major repair to the engine, whichever comes first.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/ct ... 71052.html There are subtle differences between the two trucks - rims, rollbar, bench/buckets, interior panels are a different color, steering wheel. They very well could be two different trucks that happen to be the same exterior color.

That guy is apparently selling his bed....if this ad is real: http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/pts/1453527051.html

My question pertained to the Snap-On diagnostics tool. I know the Chrysler DRB II tool will work with the Renix-era Jeeps (with the appropriate adapter), but the Snap-On tool just makes a blanket statement that it can do Jeeps up to 2001, going all the way back to 1980. There were a lot of on-board diagnostic changes throughout those years, so I'd want someone to give me verbal clarification that it works with their Renix-era Jeep :) I've been seeing them pop up used all over the place between $200-$400 with a ton of cartridges, cables, and a case. I'm also aware of the (un)reliability of the Chrysler DRB II tool. One guy on my Mitsubishi forums said he went through three of them on e-bay before he got one that worked...about $700 down the tubes he said.