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4.3L swap :-)


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So I find out that my Uncle has finally given up all hope of fixing

his early 90s S-10. It took a mild sideways hit to the front corner,

just enough to destroy the suspension on that side and tweak the

frame. He asked me if I could part it out for him. Apparently 2wd +

100k miles = not a whole lot. My research has shown that whole trucks

that *haven't* been hit but otherwise don't run right for some reason

or another go for $300 or less, high mileage engines don't exceed

$200. I haven't seen the truck for a couple years now so I don't

remember exactly what condition everything is in, so I gotta go check

it out and help my cousin revive the poor thing before I make any

final decisions. But if everything checks out, I think I can convince

my dad to buy it so I can put the driveline in my 86 MJ (technically

speaking it's *his* MJ since he bought it off me so I had a down

payment for the Dakota). The swap won't happen till after the Dakota

is sold and that 351M is sold and the 88 MJ is fixed again, but

someday. The 86 is a 4x4, but that particular feature hasn't been

used since I bought it 5 years ago (3 years ago I stole the shifter

from it for use in the 88). The 180k+ mile 2.8L is most definitely on

it's last legs and I was thinking of a 3.4L until this came up. The

86 is missing the dash, the wire harness was removed by the previous

owner because of a wire fire, and overall there's barely anything I

need to remove to make way for the 4.3L stuff. And I'm talking about

swapping in ALL of the stuff. Dash included if I can. That should

make my life easier since I don't have to splice two harnesses

together or two drivetrains together.

So far I've determined that I'll need to solve these issues:

-Radiator. The old one is, well, old. I'll be trying a new stock

Jeep one before I try a custom one.

-Motor mounts. Advance adapters wants $170 for theirs. =:-o I don't

think so. I'll be attempting to fab my own before I fork over that

much loot.

-tranny mount and crossmember. Shouldn't be too hard to fab something up.

-exhaust manifold. AA says to use 78 MonteCarlo parts but I've read

that an Astro manifold works too.

-rear drive shaft. As long as a 4x4/longbed rear shaft is, taking the

t-case out of the picture means I need an even loooonger one.

-Wiring. I'm hoping to use the steering column and dash from the s-10

because I think fabbing it into the truck would be easier than

splicing all those wires. Of course, the fact that I don't have any

wires to splice *in* to makes the decision easier.

Hmmm, anything else? Basically at this stage I'm looking for the

questions that I should be asking, so if you can think of them, let me

have 'em. Anyone know of a good writeup for swapping a 4.3 into the

MJ/XJ?

Jeep on!

--Pete

 

P.S. I love this stage of a project! Where absolutely *anything* is

possible 'cause not a cent has gone into it. :-)

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I found the one I bet you're thinking of just a few minutes ago. Dropping that engine into a 4wd truck sounds pretty expensive. I'm betting I can do this pretty darn cheap since it'll just be 2wd and I don't really care what the end result looks like. There's a ton of time between now and when I finally have time to do it so there's a chance I may find another decent bodied MJ to do this to. All I need is a reasonably rust free MJ with like a blown engine or something for dirt cheap. Oh, and near enough that I can go fetch it. :D

Jeep on!

--Pete

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  • 10 years later...
  On 9/28/2015 at 9:17 PM, Pete M said:

I no longer have the MJ it was going into either. :(

 

(nor the room to store it, the time to build it, or the cash to transport it, etc, etc) :( :( :(

That sounds like a country music song. At least your dog didn't die

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