Just Curious

[Comanchejess]

I might be a *little bit* insane, but I'm wondering if any of you guys have ever seen anyone do or have done a few things... I have some ideas for my girl if I start getting some money rolling in again

 

1. Has anyone ever changed from the stock throttle body to a 2 bbl carb? I want to do this for reliability and being able to easily swap it out, also seems cheaper than replacing the actual throttle body.

 

2. Has anyone ever TIG welded their own intake? I have a *fairly* cheap source of steel, am a decent TIG welder, and again, am looking to swap the throttle body for a carb.

 

3. Is it possible to delete sensors, even as far up to the cpu? if I could have it all be mechanical and a lot less electrical with the nonsense wiring and such, id like that

 

and my most ridiculous question in this thread... 

4. Has anyone ever successfully swapped the auto trans for a 4 or 5 speed? Is it feasible without literally dropping thousands of dollars? Anything you learned from doing this? This is also a reliability thing, as well as I just think it would be a way more fun truck to drive...

 

these are all hypothetical situations that Ive been thinking about and may or may not look more into sometime in the future. it depends on how froggy I start feeling I guess, because id really just like it to be in good enough shape to be a daily again, on a commute of about 1hr/1:15hrs

[jdog]

Some more info about your vehicle would be a good start.

[Pete M]

there is a bunch of transmission-swapping info int he link in my signature  

[derf]

1.  Yes.  People ditch fuel injection for carburetors.  It ends up not saving them any money and it doesn't make the vehicle any more reliable than a properly maintained fuel injection system.  You end up losing horsepower and fuel mileage.  And then you get all of the "fun" of cold starts and trying to get it to behave until it warms up.  In many people's opinion, carburetors are a huge step down in all respects.

 

2.  Yes.  People TIG weld intakes.  It's not terribly common but it does happen.  If you can TIG aluminum, you can basically do anything you want in that arena.  Aftermarket intakes and/or adapters, if they are available for your engine, are a good option as well.

 

3.  If you keep fuel injection, you can't delete sensors or the CPU.  Fuel injection needs those to run.  If you go with a carburetor, you'll probably want to delete most of the sensors and the CPU.

 

4.  If you start with a compatible donor that has the manual transmission you want, the swap is pretty straightforward.  It's usually easier and more cost effective just to sell the automatic equipped vehicle and buy a manual transmission vehicle to replace it though.  But if you can't find a manual equipped MJ, you can probably find a manual equipped XJ donor.  From there it's not hard to swap the drivetrain over.  It starts getting really expensive if you want to install something that wouldn't have come from the factory. (i.e. Chevy transmission in Jeep, Ford transmission in Chevy, etc.)  But an XJ to MJ swap is pretty much a bolt in operation.

[Eagle]

8 hours ago, Comanchejess said:

I might be a *little bit* insane, but I'm wondering if any of you guys have ever seen anyone do or have done a few things... I have some ideas for my girl if I start getting some money rolling in again

 

1. Has anyone ever changed from the stock throttle body to a 2 bbl carb? I want to do this for reliability and being able to easily swap it out, also seems cheaper than replacing the actual throttle body.

 

 

1. I have thought about a carb, but I would go for a small 4-barrel (or a progressive 2-barrel, with a primary and secondary). The reason is simple -- simplicity. With EFI, if you lose any of a number of things, the vehicle is dead. I've driven an old pickup truck home with a small can of gasoline suspended from the hood, dripping by gravity into the carburetor. Try that with EFI.

 

Quote

2. Has anyone ever TIG welded their own intake? I have a *fairly* cheap source of steel, am a decent TIG welder, and again, am looking to swap the throttle body for a carb.

 

2. Nope. Don't even want to think about it.

 

Quote

3. Is it possible to delete sensors, even as far up to the cpu? if I could have it all be mechanical and a lot less electrical with the nonsense wiring and such, id like that

 

3. Sure. Find an AMC car with a 232 or 258 c.i.d. I6 engine and grab the distributor and coil.

 

Quote

4. Has anyone ever successfully swapped the auto trans for a 4 or 5 speed? Is it feasible without literally dropping thousands of dollars? Anything you learned from doing this? This is also a reliability thing, as well as I just think it would be a way more fun truck to drive...

 

4. I haven't done it, but it's an easy bolt-in swap. Shouldn't cost much at all. I'm sure someone here has done it.

[Comanchejess]

On 8/11/2020 at 4:44 AM, Comanchejess said:

I might be a *little bit* insane, but I'm wondering if any of you guys have ever seen anyone do or have done a few things... I have some ideas for my girl if I start getting some money rolling in again

 

1. Has anyone ever changed from the stock throttle body to a 2 bbl carb? I want to do this for reliability and being able to easily swap it out, also seems cheaper than replacing the actual throttle body.

 

2. Has anyone ever TIG welded their own intake? I have a *fairly* cheap source of steel, am a decent TIG welder, and again, am looking to swap the throttle body for a carb.

 

3. Is it possible to delete sensors, even as far up to the cpu? if I could have it all be mechanical and a lot less electrical with the nonsense wiring and such, id like that

 

and my most ridiculous question in this thread... 

4. Has anyone ever successfully swapped the auto trans for a 4 or 5 speed? Is it feasible without literally dropping thousands of dollars? Anything you learned from doing this? This is also a reliability thing, as well as I just think it would be a way more fun truck to drive...

 

these are all hypothetical situations that Ive been thinking about and may or may not look more into sometime in the future. it depends on how froggy I start feeling I guess, because id really just like it to be in good enough shape to be a daily again, on a commute of about 1hr/1:15hrs

I'm back and full of nonsense again. I've bought a donor engine and transmission, which I just got back from being bored, honed, decked, magnafuxed, new cam bearings and frost plugs.. The works. I've decided to try to tackle the carb swap, and I am looking for my distributor right now. If anyone has done this with a brand new stand alone setup; how did it work? Was it a pain to build, any tips, and any links to specific stand alone distributors/ignition setups would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

[ghetdjc320]

Check out a Holley sniper system. Easy carb install but with efi reliability. And by the way, yes, many have fabbed a sheet metal intake manifold. Look at newcomer racing. 
 

A sniper or fitech efi with either a hyperspark or good hei (like one from DUI) is a simple and reliable combo. 

[Jeep Driver]

Contact Golen to see if they sell their intake separately. 

 

[ghetdjc320]

6 hours ago, Jeep Driver said:

Contact Golen to see if they sell their intake separately. 

 

That’s a Clifford intake manifold on that thing. Offenbauser and Clifford are still making 4.0/258 intakes. 
 

https://cliffordperformance.net/store/ols/products/47-4520wh-clifford-40-intake-manifold

 

I am 100% not recommending Clifford by the way. Horrible CS and marginal products

[Jeep Driver]

1 hour ago, ghetdjc320 said:

That’s a Clifford intake manifold on that thing. Offenbauser and Clifford are still making 4.0/258 intakes. 
 

https://cliffordperformance.net/store/ols/products/47-4520wh-clifford-40-intake-manifold

 

I am 100% not recommending Clifford by the way. Horrible CS and marginal products

That was a half-hearted attempt on my part to tell the OP to -look around-.

 

I've seen custom intakes, YT vids......etc........

I won't' bother to look that hard and post up. 

 

The late intake, cut and welded......new plenum for carb/Sniper is going to be his best bet to accomplish what he wants. 

And I agree 1000% that getting rid of the stock trash....ECU, ignition, MPI, is the smart move. 

 

As to Clifford or other-

Power is made at the head......yeah, I know, many variables, however- Power is made at the head. 

The 4.0 head is grossly inefficient. Some time back I was looking at flow number CobraMarty and others were touting. 300 intake and something like 180 exhaust. Efficiency worked out to 60-63%........just horrible. 

And then look at the flow efficiency numbers of the Edelbrock head, worse than the stock head. 

To this day- I've yet to see any discussion of exhaust valve timing or exhaust scavenging. Or any serious discussion on porting for that matter. 

Bored throttle bodies and CAIs and all the usual nonsense you find on the Jeep sites......but......you cannot stuff it in if you cannot get it out, this is where everyone fails.  

 

Anyway, I say that to say...........whatever he does it's really not going to matter. 

[Jeep Driver]

 

[ghetdjc320]

Newcomer seems like they are doing a good job. Russ Pottenger is also highly regarded for superb work. 

505 performance, Hesco and Clifford all had/have potential but are now at the bottom of the barrel IMO.

 

In regards to squeezing out performance though, a fully tuned and dyno’d stand alone efi like a Holley HP or Dominator setup is king. Stock efi does not come close unless remapped by a pro. A sniper style setup is a very nice all around performer and is relatively cheap and reliable. Carbs are nice as well but being able to fine tune timing control without having to mess with an assortment of springs and adjustments is a nice bonus. Some carbs can also be finicky off-road with fuel sloshing around in the bowls though some do remarkable well. 
 

I’d love to see someone make a flow-through head for a 4.0 though. It would be major R&D especially for an out of production engine but it would be nice. The 4.0 jeep world is still well over 50% cheapskates though so I doubt it will ever happen. 

[Jeep Driver]

4 hours ago, ghetdjc320 said:

major R&D especially

Skip to 4:30

 

As I said, power is made at the head. 

 

Ford 300

 

 

[ghetdjc320]

32 minutes ago, Jeep Driver said:

Skip to 4:30

 

As I said, power is made at the head. 

 

Ford 300

 

 

That’s what we need for the 4.0. Hands down, there would be no better N/A power adder. Surely someone of means wants to make the Jeep 4.0 M3 engine.

[kryptronic]

23 hours ago, Jeep Driver said:

To this day- I've yet to see any discussion of exhaust valve timing or exhaust scavenging. Or any serious discussion on porting for that matter. 

Bored throttle bodies and CAIs and all the usual nonsense you find on the Jeep sites......but......

 

This is so very true.  All discussion revolves around opening up exhaust, hotter spark and more air and fuel.  I've never seen a 4.0L properly tuned for performance via top end modifications.  I'm sure it's been done, but I haven't seen it.  Instead of properly porting the head and dealing with valve timings, it seems the answer for more power is on the bottom end by stroking the 4.0L to 4.6L or bigger. 

 

If a run-of-the-mill stroker can produce a 40% bump in HP over stock (~285HP), a properly ported and tuned head on a stroked bottom end could feasibly approach modern LS numbers (~375HP).  Nobody does it because the Jeep community in general is cheap, and they get what they can with junkyard swaps and bolt-ons.  Jeepers looking for that kind of performance usually put a junkyard-sourced LS in there because it's cheaper than rebuilding the 4.0L properly - with or without doing head work.