derf

Aside from having a daily driver and a 1 ton pickup for utility/towing duty: My 1987 MJ built up as a rock crawler on tons and 40s+. Another MJ with a more moderate build (33's to 35's). Heavily customized Jeep M677 (four door FC-170) on a 1 ton chassis with a Cummins 6BT and a gooseneck hitch 1970's GMC motorhome (think EM-50 from the movie Stripes), converted to an upgraded GM 6.5 diesel. Bandit Trans Am (1977-1978) Magnum PI Ferrari 308 GTS GMC Syclone GMC Typhoon 1965 Corvette with the Rochester mechanical fuel injection and disc brakes (only year that combination was possible) 1967 Corvette convertible with 427 and side pipes 1970 GTO Judge Early to mid 60's Impala SS with the 409 (or W block 427 if I can find one). 1987 Buick Grand National GNX 1950's Willy's Pickup with a swapped in Flathead Ford V8 1961 Ferrari 250GT California Porsche 914 (just for the novelty of it) Tri-Five Chevy Nomad wagon 1996 Dark Cherry Red Chevy Impala SS Early 1970's GM station wagon like an Olds Vista Cruiser with a Cummins R2.8 diesel and overdrive automatic Edit: Forgot the 1996 Impala Edit 2: Forgot the road trip wagon

If you can't find an actual 327, it's pretty easy to make one out of a 350 block. It's the same 4.00" bore just with a shorter stroke crank (3.25" vs 3.48"). With the right pistons and rods, everything else should bolt right up. The only question is main journal diameters but I bet that it's just a matter of buying the right crank. It's a Chevy after all so I'm sure there are several options. The nice part of that is that all of the go fast goodies (heads, intakes, exhaust, cams, etc) all bolt right up.

Unless you go with a computer controlled 350, then the 4L60E (electronic version of the 700R4) that came with it would be best.

I can't see the mountains from my house. We got some snow yesterday though.

Yup. It's under "Muncie SM465" halfway down the list. The Aisin AX15 is up at the top. The lack of overdrive in the SM465 means you want tall (numerically lower) gears in your axles so that you aren't chucking pistons out through the hood at highway speed. Going up to even 31's lets you step to a shorter (higher number) gear easily. The AX15 has overdrive and lets you step up to shorter gears. You can run them side by side and see which one you like. Options for gears in the stock D30 and D35/D44/8.25 are: 3.07/3.08, 3.54/3.55, 3.73, 4.09/4.10/4.11, 4.56, and some shorter (higher number) gears but that's way more than what you'd run with such small tires. There were some factory 3.31 Dana 30 axles but they're basically impossible to find and no one makes aftermarket gears in that ratio. You can get 3.31s with the Dana 44 and maybe the others.

I'd go with 3.07s or even 2.73 for tires that small.

Depends on exactly which engine and what size tires.

Making slow steady progress. I kept the wainscoting around for a template on the stairs.

I was going to say something along those lines.

Yeah, best option is to line it up in the truck with weight on it. Tack the perches and then take it out to finish weld.

It also came with the NP208 in some trucks depending on the year. They were pretty much all passenger drop. It was replaced by the NV4500 in 1992 when the K30 started the new body style as the K3500. That was when they switched to IFS and driver drop.

Behind a Chevy 350, you don't need an adapter kit. Just OEM parts since it was a GM transmission behind the small and big block Chevy V8. The only thing you need to do once the engine is in is to make sure the shifter fits, as well as fabbing up something for the transmission mount (if it doesn't happen to land in the right place already).

It would work well. A little more custom work and not as many options in the aftermarket but it's a good option. Also, you'd want to change your axle gears to compensate for not having overdrive.

The AX15 is hard to beat. It's strong and durable. It's easy to swap. There's a ton of aftermarket parts to support the swap.

Yup. Everyone talks about how valuable your classic Jeep is until you put a price on it. Then they vanish like a fart in the wind.

Fire! Fire!

Yeah, people have been over doing lights for as far back as I can remember. I can remember seeing a K5 Blazer with a roof rack and at least 20 lights. And that's back before LEDs so when he had them all on he was drawing well over 100A with just the lights but didn't have an alternator that could keep up. And for the Old School look, if you aren't going with chrome wagon wheels, some white steelies would fit right in with your white letter tires.

I was able to get the drywall in this evening.

Yeah, previous owner covered up a lot with wainscoting.

Measure a couple of times, figure out you're using the wrong assumption, measure again, then cut...

Measure once, cut twice.

Yep. Early attempts at coil suspension left a lot to be desired. Modern coil setups (including the XJ/MJ) are hard to beat. All of the problems have been ironed out and it's easy to build it right. When you get death wobble (which I have gotten with leaf springs too) it's not hard to fix.

Yeah, for a less intense use case, the front Dana 50 isn't a bad axle to go with a matching sterling rear. I'm going with a 60 and rear 80 but that's because I'm going to run 40's or bigger...

It's a reasonable discussion. I ran a 2dr JK on 35's with a trussed and gusseted Dana 30 for years. Took some hard trails. It held up just fine. It all depends on how heavy your right foot is.

The SJ (Wagoneer/Grand Wagoneer/Cherokee/J10/J20) had a front Dana 44 starting in the early 1970's (D30 before that) It is passenger side drop through 1979. In 1980 it switched over to driver drop and ran through 1991. All low pinion. All leaf spring under axle. The narrow track version is about as wide as an XJ front axle. The wide track is something like 4-6" wider and was available in some but not all of the full size Cherokees (74-83) and the only axle width in the J10/J20. The J20 has the heavy duty version of the Dana 44 with thicker axle tubes and so forth. The rear axle in the 1/2 ton SJ was a Dana 44 through 1979. All had differentials offset to the passenger side regardless of transfer case (D20 or Quadratrac). The Quadratrac had an offset rear output. The Dana 20 had a centered output but the rear axle was still offset to allow the driveshaft to clear the gas tank. In 1980, they changed the gas tank and went to all center output transfer cases. They also replaced the D44 with an AMC20 with a centered differential. This axle has bigger and/or thicker axle tubes than the CJ, as well as 1 piece shafts so it's just as strong as a Dana 44. This axle ran through most of 1986 when they changed over to a centered Dana 44 towards the end of the model year. They kept the Dana 44 through 1991. The J20 used a full floating Dana 60. The 1/2 tons used 6 bolt Chevy pattern (6 on 5.5") and the J20 used the standard 8 lug (8 on 6.5). The narrow track rear is maybe 2" narrower than the matching front axle.