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Drivetrain Suggestions Please


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A carbureted smallblock is a waste of time and money, I'll agree with you there.

 

"Smallblock swaps are plagued with cooling issues" is still an ignorant statement. That's like saying 4.0l's are plagued with cooling issues. I too, have seen and talked to people with V8s in XJs and MJs. None of them had cooling issues. In fact two of three said header/exhaust routing was the biggest issue.

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I think I will go with the carbureted 3.4 swap. I hate the look of the TBI and looks are half the fun of building a truck/car. I found someone who did the setup that I listed above and they are getting 14 seconds or so on the 1320. I'd be happy with that since I am using it as a wheeler and not a dragster. What transmission would you guys recommend as a swap from my crappy piece of crap tranny? I hardly got up the smallest hill with it. I don't care if it is automatic or manual I have no preferences. I will be doing a dana 44 swap on the front and back and will be regearing them. What gearing do you guys recommend for the daily driver/weekend warrior type truck? I drive upwards of 90 miles a day alot of it is highway so i need gearing that will not destroy my fuel economy. and should i swap my TC?

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I will be doing a dana 44 swap on the front and back and will be regearing them. What gearing do you guys recommend for the daily driver/weekend warrior type truck? I drive upwards of 90 miles a day alot of it is highway so i need gearing that will not destroy my fuel economy. and should i swap my TC?

 

what size tires?

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They made a 700R4 version for the 60 degree engines too although they are a little more rare and I'm not 100 % sure they made a 4wd version. I had a 1986 2wd GMC S-15 Jimmy that had a 700 in it. Both versions have the same internals, just the cases are different to match the different engines.

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Not sure what's in that puppy but the Roadmasters 3800 supercharged engines were marginal at best, takes a good amount of time and money to get anything out of them and, from what I've seen, they don't like to stay running that way.

 

Just a little offtopic on this one...The 350 is not hard to cool in an MJ and is not expensive either. I have less than $200 into my entire cooling system, and that includes a brand new 3 core radiator. The '86 is even easier yet since it runs a Wrangler style radiator instead of the regular Cherokee style, you can slap a radiator from something like a Wagoneer in place (I chose to go the Cherokee route because I was stubborn and wanted a recessed winch).

 

I personally prefer fuel injection also. From my carb'd 350 to fuel injected (TPI) 350, with everything the same except the intake up (carb had an Edelbrock intake while TPI is all stock), I could easily feel atleast a 50hp gain and gained ~2mpg on top of that (up to ~17mpg). Fuel injection is harder to tune and is a bit more complex but is also easier to diagnose if you have a scanner.

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